I have just seen an advert for a cross bred puppy 7 weeks old, £20 to insure good home.

I dont think £20 will insure a good home, in fact i think people would buy it on a whim, and then when they get fed up throw it away, after all it didnt cost much in the first place.

maybe a typo? i just don't get that, if people can't live up to the responsibility of a dog a) why get one? and B) if you can't cope why not take it to a rescue?

I don't see anythign wrong with charging £20 for a cross breed puppy. I don't think that charging more for a puppy will ensure it gets a better home? I've had dogs for nothing, and they've been treated the same as a dog that cost £800. It's not the price that guarantees the dog won't be dumoed the first time it chews something imo.

I wouldn't pay more than £50 for any crossbreed. They could hardly charge 100's for an unknown. I'd say better that than try to slap some new cutesy crossbreed name on it and charge more. As for inappropriate people buying dogs that seems to occur at all prices.

I wouldn't have a corss-breed at any price, I just don't think there is any need for them to ever be bred. If people stopped buying them, people would stop breeding them. While browsing online earlier, I saw an ad for a Malamute stud dog, saying, 'responsible breeder with good reputation. Cross-breeds accepted' surely that's a contradiction in itself?

However, there is evidence from reasearch which says in the majority of cases, people view a dog with more importance if they have paid for it, especially if large amounts, which is surely one of the reasons people charge the prices for their puppies?

>I wouldn't have a corss-breed at any price, I just don't think there is any need for them to ever be bred.<

Ah but accidents do happen. My neighbour has a lovely boy who is a lab X ESS. The farmer who owned the lab had planned on having a litter with the right lab stud. A nearby ESS who managed to get in the house/kennel had his own ideas. He advertised them as what they were, nice pups from a accidental mating. £50 He is much loved and well looked after by a family that couldn't afford a dog that cost £500 :)

I would never reward someone who had bred a cross intentionally. (the cutesy name type I was referring to above)

But I don't think there is ever any excuse for accidents happening. If you have an entire bitch, you have a responsibility to make sure she doesn't get accidentally pregnant, and if she is accidentally mated, then there are still ways to stop the pregnancy continuing.

I also don't believe that people can't afford £500 for a dog, but can afford to look after it. Keeping a medium to large breed dog costs at least £50 a month, so surely if someone can afford that, they can afford to save up for 10 months if they really want a dog?

I have heard a lot of people commenting that they would never pay £500/600 for a dog, as they don't think a dog is ever worth that much. Just as well really....

>Keeping a medium to large breed dog costs at least £50 a month

It costs me roughly that to keep three medium-to-large dogs.

Four here unless we have unexpected Vet treatment.

I agree with Jeangenie, I have 2 newfs and a greyhound that dwarves the newfs in height and for their basic care (food - not insurance) it costs me about £50 or less a month. All three I would class as a giant breed.

Keeping a medium to large breed dog costs at least £50 a month

Its cost me just a little more than that to feed 4 giant breeds! :D :D

I don't know how!

Our Golden eats a 15KG bag of food at £30 in just under a month, her insurance is just under £15 a month, then there are treats, bones , toys and extras, plus vet visits that don't come under her insurance, worming, frontlining etc.

I get my Arden Grange at the breeder prices (about £21) or wholesale offer price through a friend (£17 at present) and one bag lasts my four 20 days. 

Wormer I buy by the half litre at £40 enough for 25 doses.  I use 1 bottle of front-line every three months.

I don't insure and this year has been my worst for Vets fees.  Has worked out at £1200 (Spaying, £150 and Mastitis out of hours £200 would not have been covered by Insurance anyway nor another £150 which would be excess) over the last year, including spaying.  (Insuring 4 would be at least £600 for young dogs and two of mine are Veterans and would have cost even more in Insurance).

Most years Vets fees would be under £200 a year which includes eye tests, pet passports and boosters (only every 3 years for the adults for most things often less.

Of course as you say there are the toys the bedding, treats etc etc, but those are not essentials.

I suppose it all depends on what you are feeding. My 3 are fed on differant foods as I have found foods that suit each dog.

1 newfoundland - autarky 15 kg lasts a month £10.50
1 newfoundland - 15kg biscuit mixer £6.99 a month, Raw food to add to mixer £12 ish a month plus chicken wings at about £8 a month and veg
Greyhound is fed on specific breed food as recommended by the rescue at £7 a month

Ok the insurance is about £50 a month for my newfs but as 1 has never needed vet treatment other than boosters and the other has but only 3 times in her 4 1/2 years is this really classed as an essential?

Toys? old towels - one newf loves to suck on it and falls asleep, cardboard tubes from toilet rolls and kitchen roll inners (their favourite), tuggers, balls on ropes and old teddys have lasted ages as they tend not to rip them up.

Flea treatment - £45 for three treatments and to be honest they have never had fleas but I freaked out when I got bit by mosquitoes this year so bought some and still have 2 treatments left (realised before I dosed everyone up that is was mossies:rolleyes:)

Treats - bag of gravy bones about £4 a month.

For Beattie and Harry:
Frozen mince - about £8 a month
A sack of mixer - ditto
A sack of complete - about £15

Piglet's special food for his medical condition:
About £20 a month

A box of Bonios - £3?

That's £54

Bones are free, worming costs £8 a quarter, so that's another £2.50 ish per month.

No insurance, because in the past 5 years I've only had 2 bills (totalling £300) that would have been covered by insurance anyway.

Piglet - still one of the best names I have come across on this board.:)

I don't know how!

Our Golden eats a 15KG bag of food at £30 in just under a month, her insurance is just under £15 a month, then there are treats, bones , toys and extras, plus vet visits that don't come under her insurance, worming, frontlining etc.

Well you need to shop around then :D 15kg food for £30??!! i feed all mine on a excellent diet of raw stinky tripe and mixer for less, wormers and frontline arent a monthly cost i dont think mine have ever been frontlined its not cost effective to us garlic works better in their food...

I have 4 dogs they dont have bones maybe the occasional treat, toys come soley from the charity shop in way of teddies so you see it pays to shop around... :D

I don't need to shop around at all. She has a decent brand of complete food, which she thrives on. We can afford it, so why would I change it?

She is wormed and frontlined every three months. I am not sure how much it works out as, but it is still a montly cost if you break it down. probably about £10 a month, I would guess.

My girl likes her bones, she likes her treats (bonios or some steak) and she likes getting new toys/balls. We can afford to keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed, so why would we change things?

Well bully for you and your dog then, we are not all so well off and money is Not what allows for 'a perfect lifestyle'.

Karen :rolleyes:

>We can afford to keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed, so why would we change things?

No need to - but neither is there any need for it to cost you as much as it does. That's your choice, not necessity.

I don't think you should change things if you are your dog are happy and you certainly sound like you are.:)

What other posters have demonstrated is that you can indeed keep mor than one medium, large or giant breed like myself for less than £50 a month without the dog suffering any negative affects from food, health care or leisure etc. The important thing is finding a balance that is right for you and your dog.

As long as your dog is happy and well cared for and you are happy then it doesn't matter whether you spend £50 or £3000 a month to achieve this.

Obviously you only have the one dog, many of us have a few and cant be as pompus in our approach as you can :rolleyes: i certainly dont scrimp on quality time with my dogs ok they may get 2nd hand toys from a charity shop but lets face it if you are buying a tugger from pets at home for £6 that will be destroyed in a matter of minutes the same time it takes to destroy a 50p teddy from the oxfam whose the idiot for buying it?

:D :D

She never destroys any of her toys, she doesn't destroy anything. I just like buying her new ones. She's also not allowed to 'tug' as we hope to work her properly (picking up)  next season. :-) The 'style in which she has become accustomed' bit was meant tongue in cheek.

We are not well off at all, but we can afford to keep her like we do because we go without other things so we can have her. We don't smoke or drink much really, and hardly go out.

It actually never really occured to me that we weren't keeping her as cheaply as we could (aside from the 'extras). We wouldn't go without insurance as our friend had never had a vet bill for his 4 year old bitch until she went over a cliff on a walk and broke her pelvis. That resulted in a £6000 bill. We wouldn't be able to afford a bill like that. We were reccomended the complete food she is on by her breeder and have stuck to it as it suits her. I have considered raw feeding, but it wouldn't be practical if she has to go to her breeder, and I'm not entirely sure it would be easier or cheaper.

I do think anything other than a complete diet is risky territory for a lot of 'ameteur' owners. They simply aren't knowledgable enough to creat a balanced diet.

Sorry, edited ot add, if we did have another dog, which we intend next year, we'd still keep them in the same way. (much to the dismay of my fiance! :-))

I've never had a perfect dog so i'm sorry i dont understand your situation i can only generalise with the majority, mine chew play ect as dogs do but i have a giant breed that can do more damage in 2seconds than yours could do in 20mins which is why sweeping statements dont match as we dont all have the same breed...

if you dont find garlic is a suitable alternative for frontline thats fine if you dont find cheap teddies from oxfam effective thats fine also but dont knock people that do...

Those of you that are able to keep your dog's monthly cost(s) low seem to have had the good fortune of having healthy dogs/dogs with easily treated health issues. When you buy a dog you have no idea what health issues are going to develop so to buy a dog thinking you only need to throw aside 15 or 20 quid a month to look after it would be plain stupid. Ideally people would buy a dog in the knowledge that they should expect the, rather expensive, unexpected - of course people don't do that which is why so many end up dumped in rescues because they didn't realise a dog could end up costing them so much.

I only have the one dog and since I recently stopped raw feeding (approx. £25 a month) due to allergies the monthly food cost has almost doubled and at the moment I'm spending £45 a month on food easily. I also have to Frontline him every month due to a flea bite allergy. He has immunotherapy injections (insurance pays for those) at the vets every month (at least a 25 minute drive each way, so petrol costs). Monthly insurance cost has risen to an horrendous £30 due to the fact that we have had to claim literally thousands for various medical conditions. Insurance definitely is essential to us and I don't know what we would have done without it. Those costs are just the medical sides of things not even considering toys, treats, bedding, etc.

well i have 4 13in dogs so i guess that equals to 1 large dog and for food it costs me about £250 per yr so thats roughly £20 a month

>I wouldn't have a corss-breed at any price

Well, that's your loss then.

I have a wonderful crossbreed from an accidental litter.  We took him in aged 6 months as the home he had initially been plcaed with was not prepared for a very large, exhuberant youngster.  We didn't pay a penny for him but his vet bills have been astrnomical due to severe arthitis in both knees (he is 3 years old). Thank goodness we have insurance. Whilst I would obviously prefer that he were 100% fit and healthy, I give thanks every day that we found him...someone else may not have been prepared to invest the time/effort/heartache in helping him through his health problems :(  I cannot imagine life without him and he is every bit as valuable to us as our pedigree who cost £800.

These "crossbreeds" are in all rescues and whether people buy them or not from rescue they will unfortunately still be bred but if we all refuse to buy them then we know what will happen to them for sure!

Obviously you already have him, but would it not have been better if he had never been born and have these health issues. 

The whole point of reputable planned breeding is to breed as best we can healthy animals, which your poor lad already had the deck stacked against him from the word go. 

Perhaps his breeders would have done better to get the mother spayed or have the injections to prevent the litter.

It isn't the fact the crossbreeds and mongrels are such but that they have been bred irresponsibly in most cases sadly as are so many supposed pedigree dogs.

there is a need for cross bred dogs what about lurchers and long dogs they are cross bred. lots of people cross beed working terriers, they have a use and what about cocker cross springers. you cant right off all cross bred dogs there is a use for some of them

In the past i have always owned pedigree dogs, but this time i wanted to give a home to a dog who really needed one, my first cross breed is a lab cross bitch, and my second one is a terrier cross, both are loved as much as my pedigrees were, and IMO as good as any pedigree. I understand why people want pedigrees, but for me i wanted a dog just to train and love. I paid £100 for my bitch and £75 for my dog. Would i have a pedigree again?  probably not. But then i dont want to show or breed, i just want a pet.

I still think £20 for a cross bred puppy is ridiculers, at that price its a throw away dog. I agree not everyones the same, and that some people would look after him no matter what the price, but i still think that some people would think, especially if they have not had a dog before that at £20 he is worth a go, i dont think people would stop and think before they buy, they see a bargain and would buy him, and if they dont get on with him for what ever reason, they would just get rid of him.

My dog by the time he was about 6 months old we were his 3rd owner, i dont know why because he has the sweetest temperment, the only thing i can think of was he wasnt house trained, but within 2 weeks of him being with us he was.

My point is, not many cross-bred dogs at all are bred responsibly. Plus, they are at risk of the potential health problems of several breeds and I have yet to hear of anyone health testing the parents of a cross-breed. You also cannot be sure what you are gtting with most cross-breeds, but you can at least have a good idea with a pedigree dog. Although it is not the dogs themselves I am against, but the circumstances in which they are usually born.

If all breeders were responsible and truly cared about all pups they bred, accepting them back either to keep or re-home at any time int heir lives, rescue centres would be virtually non-existant.

Here here my thoughts exactly.  Every dog crossbred or pedigree has a breeder who ought to be responsible for them when the owners no longer can be. 

This would just leave the few cases of breeders who themselves were in changed circumstances or had died or become ill.  I do think owners divest themselves of their responsibilities all too easily too, salving their conscience with the thought that they will find a good home.

doesn't mean that they will sell them to just anyone, they may vet homes before hand and i agree that alot of people charge too much for crosses

I also don't believe that people can't afford £500 for a dog, but can afford to look after it. Keeping a medium to large breed dog costs at least £50 a month, so surely if someone can afford that, they can afford to save up for 10 months if they really want a dog?

i have three rescue pedigrees, my newest boy would have cost £1000 upwards froma breeder, that didnt stop him ( & many others) coming into rescue. i got him at 7 months & paid the rescue donation for him. he is just as much loved and cared for as any dog that would have been bought for 10 times that amount. i never paid anything for my other two & would do anything for them. i dont think paying a high price makes you value the dog more, for  some people it actually makes them see the dog as more of a disposable posession.
i personally couldnt afford £1000 for a dog, neither could i justify it. however allmine are insured, have a good diet ( yes i pay £30 +a month too for food for each dog.) they are well looked after, wormed, flead, & go obedience, agility & hydrotherapy which costs me a fortune each month. i find the money for this and work hard.
i see nothing wrong with true accidental matings, & would happily pay £20 for a mongrel, but would not pay over £100 as i would be concerned about the motives & also if they make money from an accident they may be tempted to repeat this.
i often see mongrelsup the park & am astounded when the owners tell me they apid over £200!!