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Originally Posted by Lorraine  An honest ethical breeder won't be selling you a show dog. They will be selling you a pet usually around $1500. What you get is a quality puppy that has come from show lines. What you get is a puppy that the breeder lives and knows yorkies and the pedigrees of all her puppies, knows the breeders that are in those pedigrees and knows about health issues as they are usually Yorkie club members. You will get limited registration and usually a private contract that says you cannot use it for breeding and they will hold you to it. You will get support from that breeder if something should go wrong.
If you are looking for cheap because of the price, you may not be able to afford a dog as Vet bills can be pretty expensive and if a yorkie becomes ill, you can't mess around, you must get Vet care.
Read the contract and there should be one outlining what is covered. Do a little research, ask around about that breeder.
There is a huge show coming up early December with two Williamette Toy Club shows, two back to back Mt. Rainier Yorkie Club specialties and two all breed shows in Vancouver Washington just across the border from Oregon. Likely info on AKC site for upcoming shows. There will be many Yorkie breeders there, some local to Portland. |
You may pay more money up front for one of her dogs, but the chances of you getting a puppy that's riddled with the health problems you may find in a cheaper dog is SOOO much slimmer.
I found this explanation of costs yesterday for another breeder. It may help the OP understand the costs in breeding....
Yorkshire Terrier Breed Characteristics | Yorkmont Yorkshire Terriers for Sale | Yorkshire Terrier Breed Description
BTW, one thing the above breeder doesn't really touch on is health testing. It cost's a lot to health test a dog for breeding...and think about how many dogs breeders show and then test for good health to breed, only to find out it fails the test and cant be used...that's money that's no recouped in the dog...or if for any reason the dog throws genetic issues and needs to be pulled from the breeding program. Breeding QUALITY is very expensive.
The way I look at is the following...you can pay for a dog from a great line and a great breeder upfront, and you can enjoy a much healthier dog....or you can pay a BYB a cheaper price...but you are most likely buying from someone who hasn't genetically tested their dogs(this is different than just a vet exam) and the chances of problems getting passed to a puppy are much greater...and then you end up paying MORE money anyways on vet bills and you end up suffering lots of heartache as you watch your pet suffer.
I adopted both of my dogs. My dog that was FREE has cost me well over $2,000 in vet bills JUST this year and I've only had him a few years. I could have paid for a "well bred" puppy for that. I can't imagine how irritated I would be if I paid $500-$1000 for the dog and then had to turn around and pay for a bunch of health problems.
Don't get me wrong...I love my little guy and would pay his vet bills all over in a heartbeat and I am glad I adopted him and wouldn't trade him for anything...I am just saying, for as much as I've paid for a pup with health issues, I could have bought a pup from someone like Debbie.
If you do get a dog from a person who doesn't do genetic testing, I'd urge you to get health insurance for the dog right away!! If you don't want to pay top dollar for a dog, you probably don't even begin to want to know how expensive vet bills can get for dogs who are poorly bred and are sick or suffer from genetic illneses.