On one of your sites that advertise puppies I found some weird prices that I really couldn't understand. I saw a Labrador Retriever&Golden Retriever Cross selling for 425GBP and few posts up there was a KC reg Labrador retriever for 400GBP :rolleyes:. I'm not sure if anyone finds anything strange about that, but I sure can't figure it out. There was another thing that had me wondering.....someone selling a non registered Chihuahua for 1200GBP and again few posts down  lovely Great Dane pups for 500GBP ..... why I find this strange is because there's no way you'll get a Great Dane for less than 1000Euro in my country. Specially because they have such big litters and there's a lot of expenses with them compared to a small Chi :rolleyes:.
So seriously, enlighten me....... who sets the prices??

Nobody :(

We have a saying - 'A fool and his money are soon parted' :(

Daisy

I guess the saying makes sense :rolleyes: ......

:(

How's Ljubljana ? Have you been having a bad winter ? I love it there - we have friends in the city :)

Daisy

LOL, it's great thanks!! It was sunny all day and my Billy (the Chi) loved it....... cold though. It was around -6'C!!

We're hoping to come over later this year - but we usually come when the weather is better :)

Daisy

Ljubljana
Oh WOW. I went there with a mate in 2004. Never heard of it before I went and never heard of it since I got back!!!!
But what a lovely town/city although wasnt impressed with the tripe LOL
But OH the deep fried cheese. I have never ever seen it since and it was to die for.
It was a wonderful weekend :)
Lea :) :)

LOL lea I actually had to check what tripe means..... I hate it as well!! :rolleyes:
Yeah, you don't hear much about us as we're such a tiny country (only 2 million of us :rolleyes:) and most people feel too comfortable to move out...... kind of boring I know, but that's the way it is. You'd hardly see slovenians in UK (unless they're tourists, journalists or some students that want to experience something else for a while ;))......... glad you had a nice time!

Looking at all the adverts there's one more thing I've been wanting to as for a while now. I understand we have slightly different rules as you guys register your dogs with KC and we register with FCI. So the question is.... many times i see people saying that they have a non reg. puppy for sale because the dog will only be sold as a pet, not for showing. Does that mean that you can actually register your puppies (in the same litter) separately and some will be registered while some of them won't? Because we have to register the whole litter..... it either all of them get papers or none of them. Now if some of them are sold as pets only they still get the same FCI pedigree, but with a contract (made by breeder himself - providing it's a good breeder and cares) that states the dog can't be used for breeding.

I hope my question made any sense.......

Don't worry, your question is perfectly sensible! :) Over here we're allowed (grrr! ;)) to register as many pups in a litter as we choose. Many people automatically register the whole litter, mismarks and all; others only register 'show potential' pups from the litter.

There isn't that much more expense in a big litter to a small only a small proportional amount BUT if you have more puppies your overheads can be regained from the first few pups and the money made from the puppies over and above the expense/cost threshold.   litters with few puppies should be actually more expensive as they have less puppies to divide the expenses over.  ( based on a litter with normal litter rearing expenses, excluding show costs etc etc )

Who sets the prices well that another story.. put it this way if people pay crazy prices then breeders ( well some) will continue to charge them. I have a breed with an average of 4 puppies, who can be prone to c-sections also but the average puppy price is £500..   With no above average costs it takes 2-3 puppies to cover expenses.

Whilst my opinion may not be shared with everyone I think the prices some puppies cost being bought for family pets  ( above say £600 especially those from litters of 4- 5 plus) is not justified.     I have had 15 puppies over 5 litters ( average 3 puppies per litter) , stud fee with every litter, one c-section. never made any money but didnt expect to but think I broke even overall or near enough. I also kept a puppy everytime which was the whole reason for having them. I do however spend several thousand pounds each year showing.

This itself to me should reinforce why puppy buyers should only buy from reputable show/working breeders. Puppies are as good as the same price but you get a whole lot more in my opinion in terms of real investment.

Ooh, I quite agree with you. :) My breed has an average of 8 puppies in a litter, with double figures very common. Yet still people - even supposedly 'reputable' breeders - will charge inflated prices of over £500 for their puppies.

Yip Jeangenie and all that happens by people doing this with the prices is encourage the Puppy farmers in my opinion.  That isn't helping the breed as far as I can see. :rolleyes:

OH in a ideal world Eh ;-)

Thanks all! I understand now that FCI and KC have different rules. So basically you can also buy an unregistered puppy from a reputable breeder, it simply means it's not a show quality pup and sold only as a pet. I do however see people that sell unregistered puppies and say the only reason the are not registered is because one of the parents isn't reg. either (unfortunately it happens over here as well ). In our case (in continental Europe) it ALWAYS means you should go away from that litter as fast as possible, while in your case (under KC rules) you have to find the reason why a certain puppy isn't registered. It might as well be from a very good litter, but just pet quality. Thanks again, that explains a lot .

When I was asking about the prices, I hope you didn't get the idea that I'm not prepared to pay the price for a good quality. I strongly believe that if you decide to buy a dog of a good quality, you should research first and then invest. In fact as I can see the average puppy price turns out to be even cheaper in UK (not including Chihuahua prices ;)), as these days you hardly get a pup of any breed for less than 1000Euro. Unfortunately not many breeders feel confident enough to separate pet from show quality so all of them are sold under the same prices..... what happens then is that some people feel that's too expensive and go to some "backyard" breeder that sells unregistered pups for half the price and everybody's happy :rolleyes:. The guy makes money and the buyer feels like he had a really good deal...... unfortunately he pays the price later when the dog turns out ill, suffering from some hereditary disease....... when will the madness stop!!??

I register all of my pups, be them mismarks or whatever!  I can say this now as for the first time in 13 years of owning my breed my last litter produced two brown tri's a big no no in the breed :d

Progeny of these two boys not allowed.  People have signed paperwork which states that they cannot be bred from or shown.  They get their pedigree, KC registration etc. just the same as everyone else.  They are still a great example of the breed just the wrong colour.  I also charged less for my two mismarks not inflated rates because of their "rarity" !

I also charged less for my two mismarks not inflated rates because of their "rarity" !

LOL exactly but how often do some people try the opposite ;-)

Most reputable breeders do register all the puppies in a litter, certainly in my breed no-one would do otherwise as it is part of the breed clubs code of ethics. 

Breeders can put endorsements on their puppies so that they cannot have their offspring registered unless the breeder chooses to remove this at a later date.  Some breeders choose to keep the papers for a mismarked or non standard pup to stop the embarrasment of it being shown.  A breeder cannot prevenmt a dog being bred from with or without papers unless it is neutered of course, so I don't see the reasoning behind witholding papers when endorsing registration does the same job.

Most unregistered pups are thus because they can't be registered, because bitch was too young or old, or had too many litters, or parents were endorsed progeny not for registration etc, or of course they are not really purebred.