$20,000 protection trained dogs - Page 1

Who in their right mind needs/wants a $20,000 "personal protection trained" dog?

is it an ego thing? status symbol thing? a new piece of furniture?

I have a blue heeler mix I picked up at 5 weeks old for free in the local Walmart parking lot which would give her life for our family, she has bitten for real and no doubt would do it again.  Same goes for the red merle rescue Aussie in my front yard that I found last year after someone nearly beat her to death and dumped her on the side of the road.  I can bring people in and out with them, take them in public with no issue's, have my sisters kids around them, and still know both would die to protect me.  and I wasn't out $20,000.

I see more and more people looking to buy "protection" trained dogs, 1/2 of the ones for sale are worthless (just cause it barks and hits a sleeve does not make it a personal protection dog, then you get the ones that bites anything that moves), and majority of the lookers do not even need/or have the knowledge to handle one.

I see only high risk people (rape victims, people with stalkers/abusive exs) needing a personal protection dog, and even then, those dogs can be shot, poisoned ect.  if you really need protection or peace of mind, just get a gun, alot cheaper and doesn't require feeding.

To each his own.

I know people who have spent $50k + on a single homing pigeon.  So, this doesn't surprise me.

There was a company called "lifestyle pets" selling GSDs for $120,000 USD. The Titan Protector, they called it. I don't know if they're still selling it, but here's an old news release.

[link]

$20,000 is chump change to someone like George Soros, or Bill Gaits, to me is half a year's salary.

You can't buy what really matters for any price.


Fight terrorism and buy domestic....I  agree.

Twenty thousand is cheap for a trained protection dog...Don't any of you guys remember that place earlier this year that made news on here?  Something to do with selling a GSD to Steven Seagal?  As I recall, their dogs went up to $65,000 each. 

To me, for that price a dog had better come gold plated, self-maintaining, and with free replacements for life.  I realize that to some, paying that high price makes them feel as if they have really invested in something special, but the bottom line is that a dog is not that hard to kill.

It's like watching someone with money going out and buying a Lexus, then driving around thumbing their noses at everyone driving cars that cost less.  Lexus is simply a glorified Toyota!  Your Lexus is no better than any other reliable car out there, regardless of what you paid for.  All cars can have problems, and so can all dogs, regardless of how many years' worth of salary you throw in there.

Spend 50K and you still risk getting a dog with bad hips, or a dog that ends up with spinal problems, or whatever...Good investment, or poor judgement?

For those who have the money to spend that way, fine, it's your money.  But, like someone said, "There's a fool born every minute."

And, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Just my two cents...The free dogs often end up being the best dogs you can get. 

Crys

 

There are many people that want a dog that might not only protect them but that are fully health screened & obedience trained. These buyers are willing to pay a good amount of $ for piece of mind.

Speaking from experience from a stalker back when I was only a 19 years old. We had alarm, & lighting systems installed in our home. We even re-landscaped by the advise of home security expert. None of which helped. I also did purchase a gun & took lessons to use it. But it didn't do me any good having it in my night stand up stairs in my bedroom, when my stalker walked in my home. It was the middle of the day when the alarm was turned off. What did help? My personal protection GSD & my rescued dog. They saved my life. This was along time ago before they had stalking laws like they do know. The trainer & breeder of my dog wasn't asking $20K back then, but it was still more money than I could afford on a part time job while going to college. He sold me my protection trained GSD for the money in my pocket that day, which was $80. He had enough buyers that were buying his others dogs that he was able to basically donate a dog to me. So in turn those buyers also help saved me too.

Now when I breed a litter of dogs / rescue foster dogs I also have some I donate for police / SAR / service work / needy person or family. What goes around comes around. We need people to save the lives of needy animals & some people need animals to help save people in the community. It's hard to put a price tag on either.
 

Maybe $20,000.00 is a little on the pricey side, but if you buy a dog from a reputable trainer is it really that ridiculous? The time and effort training a high caliber dog costs money, so does feeding and  boarding it for a 1.5 years. There's lots of half fast companies flipping Sch. dogs with very little real work that are a rip off for sure. On the flip side there are some really good kennels that produce dogs that will happly do their job when or if required.

i have  a question : so a Sch 3 GSD maybe worth somewhere in a range of $10,000. well i'll extend that to $15000. ... just to get in the ball park ... my question ? so you think $20,000 is outlandish for a very very highly trained canine protector , given as a poster mentioned the vet bills , the dog food , the housing [ heat in cold climates] , plus the 1000 hours plus in trianing  [ and with two people working the dog at times]  /. OK i won't debate the issue either way ..  BUT .. the big BUT ,,,, what about a Sch VA-1 dog sold for anywhere from 1 million to 1/2 million especially at the far end of it's breeding career .. .. IMO seeing those kind of  transactios and many many transaction Sch 3 GSDs are sold for $50,000  .. MAYBE .. just maybe $20,000 is just mere pittance compared to that ... what do you say / how you folks feel about that ??? ??? beats me .. sometimes a man's trash is anothe'rs treasure and another 's classic antique is just old carbage to another .i guess the dogs are viewed the same way ?? you think ???  makes me wonder,  personally .........