Just wondering what people charged when selling a puppy to a friend? Do you  still ask the normal selling price or do you let friends have them cheaper?
I personally let puppies go to people I know for less, often only 1/2 the price I ask for ordinary puppy buyers. But I have just decided to have a puppy from a friend and she is asking me for the full asking price which surprised me somewhat. I did sell her the father of the puppies several years ago and as I didn't know her then I asked the full price but since then we have become good friends, I have given her no end of help and advice and put several puppy buyers her way. I just assumed that she would let me have the puppy at a lower price in return for the help etc especially as she is having a hard time selling the pups and they are getting older.
She didn't have any particularly high expenses for the litter. No c-section, no stud fee as she owned the dog. Am I being unreasonable thinking I should have had some sort of price reduction or am I being too soft letting people I know have a discount on my pups?

The price is the price regardless of who the buyer is.

I set a price I believe to be fair (taking into account my costs etc) and in line with what other breeders are charging, as in my numerically small breed we tend toward a consensus as we network when homing puppies/passing on potential puppy buyers.

In fact in my current litter which involved overseas travel to the stud means my own puppy has cost me nearly double what the pups were sold for, as that is how much out of pocket I was on the litter ;) 

Your friend may have got off lightly re expenses this time, but another time it couls be lots of expense and no puppies or problems whelping and rearing, t'ts swings and roundabouts.  If you were to get a pup elsewhere you would pay full price.  As for help and advice that I may give that is free to all who ask as far as I am concerned.

Agree with Brainless.  We give our advice freely, and happy to do so.  We set a fair price on our pups.  Puppies are not less valuable because they may be sold to a freind.

Its seems you feel you should be 'paid' for your help, and sending puppy buyers to her, and in this respect, expect a reduction on price?  Thats just not how it works... All breeders do this to help others, we expect nothing in return but in fact we get so much more.  The price of a puppy should never be brought into the mix. 

The cost of the puppy is exactly the same.  We bought a puppy a few years ago from a very good friend, same price as anyone else.  We sold a puppy from our last litter to a good friend, same price as anyone else.  I wouldn't dream of getting a "discount" just because someone was a friend, and am positive that any of our friends wouldn't expect to pay less either.

I would expect to pay full price for a puppy from a friend - and indeed have just done so!

I prefer, even with the very best of friends, to keep it on a more formal basis and buy my puppy free and clear of any feelings of obligation over money.  I certainly wouldn't expect them to just give me a few hundred pounds so to expect a 'discount' on a puppy is unreasonable in my view - they each cost the same to raise. 

In certain circumstances I might hope a friend to be a bit flexible about payment terms just in case I needed to spread the purchase cost - but even then I'd ask to start paying earlier rather than after the pup had come home.  I did have a bit of a panic, long before the bitch was even in whelp, when my husband had to take extended sick leave after an operation.  We thought he might have to go onto half pay which would have caused us a big problem with money.  In the end I just started selling things we didn't need to ease the cash flow and my husband sold a vintage watch (such a nice man :) ). 

... our pup's middle name should be eBay !!

Thanks for all your views. It wasn't that I wanted the puppy cheap but as I always let my puppies go cheaper to friends I thought that was the norm. It seems I am the one who is too soft and perhaps being taken for a ride by people. I will stick to my guns and ask for the full asking price in future.

I wouldn't expect any form of discount for a puppy from a friend, I would expect to pay the 'going' rate for one, the same as anyone else, unless i'd put in a lot of time and effort into helping raise the litter myself. But no on the face of things I would be handing over the cost of what everyone else is due to pay, even if my friend asked for less, she would be given the asking price...I don't like favours, it can lead to problems in the future..

I'm like you lilvowen,

If a pup is even going to a previous puppy owner and I'm over the moon with how the pup has turned out I automatically will offer them the new pup for the same price they paid for the original, none of them expect that and they are always over the moon, in some cases that has been a loss of £150, one year I had 3 like that, but it's the home that is the most important thing for me and I appreciate how they value me as a breeder and friend. I never offer the new price until collection, so I guess if I had huge vet bills and only 3 pups I would think again as rearing a litter is hard work.

Most of my breeder acquaintances think I'm mad, but that is just me, and I do know they would not extend the same courtesy to me, but that is just how I work.

We all do what makes us happy, but no, I wouldn't expect it in return. :-)

I think as a basic rule that pups cost the same whoever you sell them to and I wouldn't expect to buy or sell a pup for less simply because of who it was going to.  There are exceptions - I have given a pup to someone who lost one they had from me though a tragic accident. I am just letting a friend have a pup at the cost of the stud fee because we've agreed that I'll have a pup back by by dog - if she can't fulfill that obligation then she'll have to pay the difference, but I'm sure it'll work out ok.  She helps me with deliveries/driving and I help her so we don't feel obliged to each other, we just help each other out.  If I were to have sold the pup to someone else then I'd have got full price, so why should I sell for less?  If I felt the circumstances were such that I should, then I would.  Or I could have 4 pups going to friends and I'd have nothing to help me pay the £320 bill I've just had for 2 hip scores :-(  I 'make' no money, so I'd lose money if I gave the pups away, even if at reduced price.  Now if I'd had a pup of someone at less price I'd have an agreement to reciprocate.  Do they know you let them have the pup at less money?  They may have thought it was the full price?

I'm obviously the odd one out here. If it is a close friend, I never charge a penny. If it is a good friend, I charge about half the going price. Doesn't matter how much expenses I have had and how much money I have lost because friends are friends and that means a lot. Same with kittens. Apart from anything else it means the pup is going to a home where I will get more frequent updates than from most other buyers, and I know I will get the see it as often as I like. I can offhand think of 5 pups I have given to friends for nothing.

I forgot about 'those' pups lol.. yes, I have given pups to friends... and not charged a penny.. forgot about it as last one would be 4 years ago now.  and we joke that she has paid more than the asking price in Thornton's Strawberry pigs over the years lol... (I can't get them here :-) 

I was thinking of pups to friends for showing.. (It's strange how we also become tunnel visioned) 

Just from a non-breeder point of view, I would be worried about the future. If you fall out (Sorry to be so negative) then it could give rise to "Well.. I want my pup back" or "I want the rest of the money from the pup" etc etc.

Overall I think personally I would always keep it professional, unless it was a family member or friend of the family and then I would not feel right charging them.

> I'm obviously the odd one out here. If it is a close friend, I never charge a penny.

I was the same when I bred cats. A close friend & friend of the family wanted one of my kittens, so I let her have one for the price of the vaccinations. It was a joy to have contact with the kitten throughout her long life (18 years!).

and isnt he worth EVERY e Bayed penny!!

You could have called him L. Pawn Star!!! :-)

I agree with you Marianne, I charge full price to everyone else and give them away to suitable close friends.
Method in my madness though, they health screen the one I give them and I do mine...we breed from the best.

This only works because they are close friends and we dont fall out.

>and isnt he worth EVERY e Bayed penny!!

Yes bless him - he helped de clutter the house before his arrival and since then has added half a ton of sticks, 5lbs of mud, 1lb of fox/cow/sheep poo, 2 beds, 2 crates, 3 collars, 2 leads, umpteen miles in petrol, £'s of show entry costs....   the list goes on   ...and on

BUT

a whole lotta love and so worth it :)

I'm obviously the odd one out here. If it is a close friend, I never charge a penny

I must admit, I really could not charge a family member and haven't, but I have a really strict vetting criteria, (as I know you will) because unfortunately there is that  other problem of when you have pups you do get friends and family thinking awww.... you have pups, and because they are family or a close friend they think they can just have one, which is why I put a stop to that straight away, the very first people to show an interest when I began preparing to step into the breeding circle were my hubby's........... parents.

Well, there was no way they were ever getting their hands on a pup of mine as much as I love them, I made it very clear this was something serious, not like giving out sweets, I saw what they did to their other dog, he was so overweight, today they would probably be prosecuted, I got out my vetting questions and told them this is what I would only accept, they failed on a good 50%, they never asked again, one of my brothers has had a pup of mine and a cousin who is suitable will have a pup from a litter I am rearing this year.

But otherwise people know not to ask, so in some respects it is best if your not strong willed to not offer reductions or free pups as you could be inundated with family and friends holding their hands out.

I must admit, I really could not charge a family member and haven't, but I have a really strict vetting criteria, (as I know you will) because unfortunately there is that  other problem of when you have pups you do get friends and family thinking awww....

Family get told no! ;) Friends, well I really only have doggy friends (that I trust) so no problem there -but I take your point as it is a very valid one indeed.

I think it is entirely personal and totally up to the breeder to choose whether to discount or offer free a puppy to a friend. I don't think it should be expected though and eveyone is different. I do believe that it is 100% the breeders  choice though and nothing to do with anyone else :-)

I fully agree Valerie which is one reason for why I would never tell anyone WHICH of my pups have gone to new homes without any money changing hands -that's between me and the new owners only.

> It seems I am the one who is too soft and perhaps being taken for a ride by people. I will stick to my guns and ask for the full asking price in future.

Am I the only person finding that statement slightly cynical?

If you give - you should give freely.  And not consider it being taken for a ride. 

Sorry, I don't feel that you give to receive.

dogs a babe you forgot to say since his arrival he has also added some very nice prize cards for you to collect !...bless him