Puppy pricing

[beaglehandler]

Just my two cents but I feel there are to many pups for sale. If you look on this or other boards it seems to me the same people just bred this dog or that dog and will have or do have pups for sale. I feel that the market is flooded with pups alot of the time and I wonder how many of these pups make it. I am in the process of selecting a stud dog for one of my females and have also been working out deals with people that own the same bloodlines. I will give them one of my pups and they will give one of theirs. Yes, I will sale any that are left over but hoping that will not occur. What if more people did this? Would it enhance the breed or hurt it? I feel it would only help better the breed. It involves alot more work and effort, but next time you are in the field look at the work and effort your dogs put out.

[Dave H]

my sentiments exactly only mI give every pup a chance to develop before they would be sold. I am not looking to make $$$ I just want to know that the cross has to offer not just having a bitch in heat and thinking $$$$$$

[Farwest]

Blackdirt, If you are still beagling in another 20 years and have shown any consistancy in your breeding over this time, you might be able to get $1200 for your hounds too.

[Bev]

Frankly, I don't see why anyone would buy a puppy, and pedigrees don't chase rabbits....

I respectfully disagree. Pedigrees DO chase rabbits. They also backtrack them, cold trail them and run deer. Some pedigrees run a rabbit quickly, some run them slowly. You just have to learn which ones do and which ones don't. After enough trial and error, I started looking to see what was behind the dogs I thought ran well, and began buying dogs from those pedigrees. I also looked to see what was behind what I considered junk dogs and avoided those pedigrees at all costs.

Some old-time breeders feel like a puppy is 90% of what it's going to be at birth. The ten percent left over is the opportunity you give it to develop.

[Mark T]

Take a look at the prices of other breeds. Ever check out a registered English Bulldog? try $1200-$2500!! For what! My wife had one, he laid around the house and slept. How bout a German Shepard, or a Rottweiler? A well bred beagle, will give their heart and soul everytime you take them out, Rain or shine and give you countless hours of enjoyment. Is $200-$300 too much? Now lets look at other hobbies? I own part of a major snowmobile trail here, so lets use that as an example. New sled cost about $8000. Now you need a trailer, truck to tow it, gas in the truck AND sled. Gas on the trail is about $2.50 a gal. Registration and insurance for the sled, plus the clothes!! Add it up! And the sled could break down!! That is just one example. How bout fishing, add the cost of a boat and tackle... You get what you pay for. If you buy from a reputable breeder the odds are in your favor to have a great hunting partner for many years. These little dogs are well worth every penny if you seek out the kind/style you are looking for. Mark Trudell

[TomMN]

Hunting beagle pups are the lowest priced of any purebred dog. Show beagle pups sell for much more and usualy have limited registration. It costs well over $100 to ship a pup by air. Dog haulers typicaly charge $300 to deliver one to your door. I have driven all over the country after pups and to get females bred, gas and motels usualy add up to more than the cost of the pup. I have a $400 dog box. We buy dog food by the pallet. I could have bought a new pickup loaded with everything for what we spent on building our kennel. I won't even tell you how much we have invested in the farm we bought and I'm no farmer. I'm working on leasing some land for running grounds. Running hounds is what I live for. I don't have 4 wheelers or snowmobiles or a big screen TV. My truck is 10 years old. I want to have the best beagles I can get and I will spend what ever it takes to get them. There have been 2 or 3 hounds over the years that have been worth more to me than any amount of money. The price of a pup is the cheapest part of this hobby. If I could not afford to buy a $300 pup I would give it up.

[goes1]

I don't remember if I posted this in the past or not but here is how price my pups or how many litters per year we'll have.

I take into calculation of how much feed they will eat this year and approx. how much that will cost.
Then I add 2 vet visits per dog.
Then I add a misc fee for kennel supplies (straw, bowls, cleaners,etc.)
Then I add a few trial entries
Some gas money for meeting up with buddies from all over
And here's the magic number I add.
A gift for the Mrs.

Last year it ended up between $1400-1500.

So instead of loosing money I do what I can to break even plus get a pup I want and make the Mrs happy with a little suprise.

Now if I wanted a Sire from someone else I would have to pay a stud fee and transportation costs plus additional vet bill. So this could easily reach $2000 or more.

I am not in the beagle business but I do treat it like one. It's a fair compromise between the Mrs and myself (as long as I keep the kennel clean )

Goes

[Chris]

No way a person can PROPERLY raise and sell a pup for 150.00 and not lose money.My time is valuable to me and I expect to be paid for it .If you want a good pup 300.00 is cheap so don't swallow.

I agree - except for maybe the 'swallow' part.

Do breeders ever give a year guarantee that if a puppy doesn't produce in a year they'll take it back??

Yes, it exists. http://milleroutdoors.com/beagles/puppy_guarantee.htm

I've never minded paying a fair price for something, so long as the producer is willing to stand behind their product - that's why I offer a year's guarantee on a pup. When I buy things, I buy quality, and hopefully, if I do my homework, it'll last - I bought a watch 7 or 8 years ago for $150, and I've still got it. It's not even one of those fancy gold ones - just a regular green, nylon band and a plain looking face. I'm extremely pleased with it, and like it very much. In fact, I don't think I'd take $300 for it now. Kind of crazy, but it has performed for me and I've grown attached to it. I'm not ashamed to admit that, when it finally dies, I'll be sad to see it go, and I'll have my work cut out properly replacing it. Sure, I could have bought a watch that I'd have been fairly happy with (a watch only keeps time, right - how tough is that?), but I've gone the $20 watch route before and had to re-buy the watch multiple times. How many $20 watches and aggravating trips back and forth to the store would I have to make before I wasn't ahead any more? Hey, wait a minute, this is starting to sound like a metaphor for Beagle pups.

Price is determined by : Supply and Demand.

Over the years I raise a litter or two time to time for my own use. I've always kept females mostly and sell the males or excess females I cannot use.If they are in demand or a proven cross I charge accordingly .Don't wanna pay that then I'll start myself and them get my price. I've paid the price for what I wanted in life be it cars or dogs or land.I was raised on and have beleived in what I like to call the Red Fern Work Ethic my whole life.

That sounds reasonable to me. There will always be those, though, that will scoff at the price of something, but if the product is desirable there will be many others who will see it as a value. If nobody thinks something's valuable, then it doesn't get sold. Supply and demand - simple as that.

Just my two cents but I feel there are to many pups for sale.

You could be very correct. Sure, there will be those that are convinced that $150 is too much for a Beagle pup, but I suspect that's because they've been conditioned to think that a Beagle pup can only be worth '$x' - funny, though, how some of the same people will run flop down $1,200 for a shitzu for their wife. Perceived value is an amazing thing. If they witnessed the actual work that correctly raising (and the emphasis is on correctly: socializing, lost sleep, thoroughly testing parents, etc.) a litter of pups is, I suspect they'd reconsider how far down the list of dog value that the Beagle is.

Pedigrees DO chase rabbits. They also backtrack them, cold trail them and run deer. Some pedigrees run a rabbit quickly, some run them slowly. You just have to learn which ones do and which ones don't. After enough trial and error, I started looking to see what was behind the dogs I thought ran well, and began buying dogs from those pedigrees. I also looked to see what was behind what I considered junk dogs and avoided those pedigrees at all costs.

I agree. With the amazing amount of work that raising a pup from 8 weeks old to being started is, how could anyone justify going the cheap route? I just can't see it. Getting them to handle, multiple trips to the woods to let them explore and chew sticks, then finally start, etc. Man, it's fun, but it's also a lot of work. I don't think I'd be as excited about doing it with the pups I keep if I weren't confident that the best 'pre-birth' work possible had been done to ensure that those dozens of hours of puppy work weren't flushed down the toilet. Geez, I really can't see how a breeder wouldn't guarantee a pup for a year. If someone thinks enough of them to trust their pre-puppy-birth work, to invest that kind of time in a pup, how could the breeder not say "well, if it doesn't turn out to your liking, I'll give you a new pup, or your money back, whichever you prefer" From 8 weeks, a pup is a big commitment for a puppy purchaser - how can we not stand behind it? As breeders, how can we not be held accountable to our pre-birth decisions? Is it that much of a crapshoot? Man, I sure hope not.

Some old-time breeders feel like a puppy is 90% of what it's going to be at birth. The ten percent left over is the opportunity you give it to develop.

I understand why they'd say that. They understand the pre-birth work involved in turning out a good, well-rounded pup. Things like thoroughly hunting the dogs in the pedigree hard to find out their strenghts/weeknesses, are the parents able to be handled, do they have a tendency to stay clean or run trash, etc.

I've got a question for all of you who downplay the value of a good Beagle pup. If those same 'old-time breeders' that Bev mentioned were starting out again, who do you suppose they'd buy a pup from? Someone who thinks that the Beagle breed is so "dime-a-dozen" cheap that a well-raised pup's value max's out at $150, or someone who spends a huge amount of time testing/hunting their dogs and puts the extra time in, and who thinks enough of their work to stand behind it come hell or high water? I suspect they'd do their homework and not jump into anything, because they'd know that their upcoming investment of time and money, after they buy the pup, would dwarf the actual puppy price.

[KanesIrish]

Puppy prices went up for beagles around the mid 90's. I can name four beaglers, off the top of my head, that charge way too much for pups to be sold to fellow beaglers and use "beagling" more like a business then a hobby (or as my mother likes to call it, a lifestyle).

The fact of the matter is, yes, beagles are cheap. We all know that we probably put way more time into our hounds then any other owners of breeds out there. I know personally that in the average week I'm running hounds for at least 35 hours. That doesn't count cleaning kennels, feeding dogs, driving back and forth to the club, hunting trips, or sucking down wobbely pops Saturday nights during a trial weekend. But you know what ladies and gentlemen it is something you love to do. We are here to better the breed, not only for what we have in our kennel, but what everybody has in their kennel.

Last year I had pups up for sale out of two more then proven field champions for $225...I could have gotten $500 for them...but I was more interested in bettering the breed. And I'll tell you what if I know somebody is going to really appreciate a pup and give it a good chance to make a name for itself, I don't know if we would charge them at all.

I know one thing...if a guy at our club didn't sell my father a pup for a hundred dollar bill 24 years ago, just because the guy knew my father would put all his free time into it...I'd probably be making plans to see the Pats win the Super Bowl this weekend.

[bullboy]

i don't see a problem with 250 to 300 dollars when there selling them in the city for 600 to 800 or there sell a puggle[BEAGLE; PUG MIX ] for 600 plus look at the price on any other pup out there and the beagles are some of the lowest and i think the reason is we put them there

[tommyg]

To answer your question Chris,I been around alot of the old timers like my uncles and dad and grandad that wouldn't pay the prices you pay today,back then a hunter didn't buy field champions to hunt with because they were mostly brace hounds,they were very popular when I first got started rabbit hunting. If you know your hounds like I'd hope you do you know that there is alot of talk about how field champs can't jump and run there own rabbit in every registery. I don't buy a pup based on a trial record I like to see the parents run if possible and some pups from previous litters that are running. I a pup is out of exceptional parents and they garrentee me that the pup will be as good or better if I do my part then I'd pay the big price.

[Ricko]

I think that a pedigree only offers some statistical probability that a puppy will hunt. I also believe that it is also a selling tool. Weighted too heavily as a selling point on the puppy. After all, a puppy at this point has only proven that it can eat and mess newspaper! Now if you do your research as Bev says, then you should be able to tell me that the breeding of your bitch, for say, the last three litters, has been to the same stud.
This shows the forethought that went into the breeding, and the consistency shows the satisfaction of the results. You should also be able to give me a name of the purchaser of each puppy in each of those three liters so that I can follow-up with a phone call to determine if the forethought that you put into your breeding resulted in a high percentage of good dogs. Which then would raise the statistical outcome of the pedigree and also give credit to your breeding.
Then again, if every breeding were to a different stud, I'd have to wonder if this isn't a chase for the "Holy Grail" of bloodlines, as a result of a dissatisfaction of a previous litter performance or a search to cover a fault(s)?
As far as costs and a guarantee, your asking me to raise an animal from the time it leaves you, up until it's a year old. I've put more food into it, more worming, and miles on a truck to run it, starting pen costs, and time than you did from the time it was born until the time I took over its care. Why shouldn't I expect a guarantee for that first year? I think the only compromise to not having a written guarantee would be equal to having all the points above met. Handing over $300 cash to obtain a puppy, a "thank you" and a "good luck" with none of the above, now that's hard to swallow! These are just MY thoughts as a consumer, looking for a good dog or two.

[crewchf]

Is there any stats that show how many beagles are sold as pets only?? Ours started out that way but we're in the woods mostly now not to mention we're looking into another female pup. God this is addictive isn't it?? Gotta Love Them Beagles!!! Oh ya almost forgot, we paid $300 for each pup..

Rich Piacentine

[blackdirt beagles]

Blackdirt, If you are still beagling in another 20 years and have shown any consistancy in your breeding over this time, you might be able to get $1200 for your hounds too.

hey farwest - maybe in twenty years if you do any kind of breeding at all, you'll be able to get $100 for your pups . as far as consistancy, the line i breed is one of the few "well known" lines that actually are consistant and not watered down or have 3 or 4 "strains" of the line like a certain bigname guy from your home country . id much rather have a kennel full of consistant dogs verses 2 or 3 "superstud dogs" and a bunch of average brood females. and these comments were directed towards no one in particular, so if you feel guilty, then im sorry.

[Bev]

I shouldn't even bring this up, but I'm going to. If we come to the conclusion that a well-bred beagle puppy is indeed worth $200-$300 ea., what is a decent price for a seasoned, gunbroke, trashbroke hound that handles like a dream? Sometimes I look thru the Trading Post forum and I see dogs fitting that description advertised for $450... Does this sound reasonable to most?