Originally Posted by wildcard  You have been lucky then. I don't breed yorkies, but have been breeding papillons for several years now. I think it is very important to show and finish dogs before claiming you can produce show quality. That is the whole point of dog shows, to have your dogs evaluated by people who have studied structure, movement and your breed's standard, and who have been tested on it, before determining whether a dog should be bred. I am not saying that a dog has to be a finished CH in order to be bred, but rather that showing and also observing dogs in the ring bred by others can help to insure that you really are meeting the breed standard, and not just your concept of the standard.
I sat down and came up with having "invested" just over $40,000.00 into our breeding program thus far, including the price of the dogs, leasing bitches, finishing AKC CHs on them, whelping supplies, vet care related to breeding (CERF, Cardio exams, progesterone, 2 ER c sections), and including just one year of routine vet/food/toys/crate/misc for each of our finished dogs. It does not include traveling/entries/expenses for the performance events (which it should as my first show dog is a CH/MACH/UD/RAE which makes his get more desirable to me and others), and it does not include show related expenses or regular routine care for the dogs I am currently showing or are puppies, nor does it include caring for some older dogs that were not able to finish CHs for whatever reason and just did performance work. If you included the costs related to the works in progress or the "flunkies" LOL and then considered all of the dogs routine care over their lifetimes, including my oldest dog who has a heart condition and who has been taking $100 worth of medications on a monthly basis for 7 years now (that is $8100 alone), you are probably looking at closer to double that or more. I also have not included the costs of remodeling our homes and yards to make sure that the dogs have plenty of room and are comfortable, at two houses that were remodeled at probably $7500-$9000 each (fence is expensive!). Also not including the agility or obedience equipment and supplies... and not including the motorhome and its insurance and upkeep (I don't even want to go there!).
Over the last several years, we have produced a grand total of 16 puppies, of which we kept 6 to show. The remainder were placed at a pet price.
Believe me, the costs of this hobby FAR outweigh any income, at least for me. I am not complaining about it, but I want to support the original poster as she is absolutely SPOT ON. |