Hi all - I'm in the process of finding a breeder and buying a puppy. The breeder I got my current lab from is no longer breeding so I need to find a new breeder! I did manage to find one that looks excellent. She has some of my lab's extended family which is why I picked her. She does all of the health clearances on her dogs (hips, elbows, eyes, eic, ...)there is 1 more but I cant recall it right now. Her dogs are shown in conformation. The father of this proposed litter has been to the Westminster Dog show. What has surprised me the most is the cost of the puppy. My current lab cost me $850 12 years ago. This new puppy is going to be $1800! I wasnt expecting it to be that much. I was thinking more along the lines of $1200-$1500. So has the price of a good lab really gone up almost 100% in 12 years? I'm probably going to go with this breeder no matter what. She just seemed top notch and her dogs were lovely. I'm wondering if having the sire be at Westminster is adding to the price of this pooch? I guess my heart is already set so the price isnt going to deter me. I just have to ask her about any sort of health guarantee. I forgot to ask her that when I visited.
Re: Getting a new puppy Hi Cubby, and welcome to the forum. Are you not in Britain? I saw the dollar signs. The price of a pup will vary in Britain I suppose from about 500 - 1,000 pounds. I expect you could even pay more. I don't know how this compares with where you are, bearing in mind exchange rates. Good luck with your pup. When are you getting him/her?
Re: Getting a new puppy Cubby, I also paid $1800 for Cooper. I live on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, USA. Some breeders were even charging $2000 up in New Hampshire but I was able to find a local breeder that was highly recommended. Good luck! They are such wonderful dogs!
Re: Getting a new puppy Jane, nope, not in Britain. Are most people on this site? I just joined today, so maybe my profile says Britain and it is wrong? I'm in Burlington, VT. Yvonne, The last breeder got my current dog from was also in VT like me. This new potential breeder is in NH and asking $1800. higher than I was hoping, but sounds like this is the going rate now! I was surprised that its doubled in 12 years. Or maybe my $850 lab 12 years ago was a bargain? He didn't seem it at the time!
Re: Getting a new puppy In in Australia, but the Aussie dollar is not too much different to the American. 15 years ago I paid $600 for a well bred lab and more recently $1400 for another one (and he was 'pre-loved' as we got him at 9 months). So, I think that prices are just much higher now
Re: Getting a new puppy £600 for our Dexter .....and almost the same for his flight over to Dubai ;D worth every penny because of course now he is priceless
Re: Getting a new puppy Actually Cubby, there's people from all over the world on the forum; it's great! Probably most of us are in Britain though and we're awfully nice :
Re: Getting a new puppy Hi Cubby! Yes, most people here are from the UK, the person who runs the Labrador site, Pippa, is from the UK, so I guess that's why. Lots of international members now though, and growing all the time it seems. I paid £650 for Charlie - about $1100.
Re: Getting a new puppy Hey and welcome to the forum! I'm from Austria and my boy Odin cost us 1300€ 1,5 years ago. I got now clue how the price was some years ago since hes our first lab but i think the price was ok. Better to spend a few extra € and get a dog with a small chance of hip, ellbow etc problems. And btw 1300€ divided through hopefully at least 15 years is 86,6666666€ a year for the best friend i ever had.
Re: Getting a new puppy Hello from Molly and me. We live in the UK. I'm about 10 miles from Oxford and 50 from London. I bought Molly last November for £600. She does not have a Pedigree. Her parents are pedigree dogs, but as she was the 5th litter could not be registered with the Kennel Club. I just wanted a pet, so the Pedigree wasn't an issue.
Re: Getting a new puppy Well the other lab sites I posted too in the past few months have had hardly any replies! This one is much better! Thanks everyone. I guess $1800 is an expensive lab, but sounds like that is the norm now for a lab where the breeder is very ethical and doing all the right tests and showing her dogs. So I will pay it! The mother dog is supposed to be getting bred this week and the breeder said it takes about 25 days and then the vet can do a test (blood test I assume?) to see if the mom is actually pregnant. Then its just 5 more weeks until the puppies are born. So I am estimating a due date of around 8/16 and that would put me into early October for picking up my pup. Not ideal weather-wise but my kids and I are pretty excited. I would prefer to get a puppy in the spring so I didnt have to be outside in cold weather for house training. The breeder does microchip the puppy and we will be able to visit the puppies before they can come home at 8 weeks.
Re: Getting a new puppy I went through this a few months ago and found prices varied by quite a bit. I saw prices as high as $2000.00 and as low as $500.00 . I found a litter of chocolates that I nearly bought one from, they were 550. This from a guy out in the middle of the countryside. The price seemed to me to depend on "claims to fame". 2000.00 breeders had show titles, hunting titles, been doing it 40 years, on and on. The 550 litter were two house pets and I think trained to hunt by the owners. So.. to me, it seemed really what you want the dog for. I am certain the 550 litter would make wonderful house pet and companion. Likely trainable to hunt as well. A show dog? Maybe not. My white lab was 1200.00 . A few dollars for sure, but no regrets. Where ever we go with her everyone comments on what a wonderful dog she is. There were a bunch of breeders in the Hudson valley I looked into, also I think one in connecticut. Hudson valley as I recall was 2000.00. Good luck whatever you decide.
Re: Getting a new puppy In Germany you can expect to pay between 1200 and 1500 euros for a well-bred labrador. More for a top-notch one. Any puppies (of any breed) being sold for under 1000 euros are almost certainly puppy farm products, poor little creatures. So the amount you are being asked to pay for your puppy doesn't sound too much over the odds. It is far, far better to pay more to a breeder you like and trust, and know that your puppy has all the head starts that a full health check of the parents can confer. In addition, your puppy will have been brought into the world in a caring, warm, loving atmosphere, and the parents will be properly looked after and have a good life.
Re: Getting a new puppy I got Molly in late November and it has worked very well. We didn't have a very severe winter, so that probably helped. I got a lot of training done inside and in the garden. By Spring we were able to go out and leave her for longer periods. There are advantages and disadvantages to just about every date in the calendar Hope you and the kids get much joy from your pup. Come back and show us pics etc. as you have already discovered we are an active and friendly forum.
Re: Getting a new puppy I'm very surprised at the price of pups I paid £250 for mine two years ago, which was about £50-£100 below market value for pups. I would expect pups to be higher from proven showbred lines or Field trial champion lines.
Re: Getting a new puppy [quote author=kateincornwall link=topic=6519.msg87228#msg87228 date=1402494662] I wont say what I paid for Sam , but to me, he is priceless [/quote] Well said Kate.
Re: Getting a new puppy We bought Murphy for £250.00 in March this year. We didn't buy him from a breader, we bought him from a couple who had bought him from the breader on the Friday and by the Sunday she had seemingly found out she was pregnant and wanted the puppy gone ASAP so we got him for a knock down price. Their loss is our gain is all I can say. He is a gorgeous puppy, everyone comments how handsome he is. His mums line was all black and his dad's line was all chocolate so he is a beautiful black lab but with a tinge of chocolate in the sunlight. He is KC registered but I don't know if there was any champions down his line. We have his 5 generation pedigree certificate and some of the generations have red writing. Does anyone know what this means? Karen xx
Re: Getting a new puppy [quote author=karen reid link=topic=6519.msg87245#msg87245 date=1402501991] We bought Murphy for £250.00 in March this year. We didn't buy him from a breader, we bought him from a couple who had bought him from the breader on the Friday and by the Sunday she had seemingly found out she was pregnant and wanted the puppy gone ASAP so we got him for a knock down price. Their loss is our gain is all I can say. He is a gorgeous puppy, everyone comments how handsome he is. His mums line was all black and his dad's line was all chocolate so he is a beautiful black lab but with a tinge of chocolate in the sunlight. He is KC registered but I don't know if there was any champions down his line. We have his 5 generation pedigree certificate and some of the generations have red writing. Does anyone know what this means? Karen xx [/quote] Karen, the red writing usually means FTC , which is Field Trial Champion .
