Price of import puppies? - Page 1

What is a fair/good price to charge for a puppy if you import the dam in whelp from Europe? Thanx BB

Depends? 1500 to 2000 of course VA breeding is more expensive and you can charge much more for the puppys.A lot of people in Germany are selling this way with the female already bred. But remember you get very little guarantees from there

It also can vary depending on where you are located geographically and what your kennel reputation is.

We live in the northeast.No reputation yet, good or bad. Just trying to start out on a good note resonable and fair! Thanx!

To me, and the descerning eye, it depends how good your dam is. A schh title is only one minor aspect, but a high show ranking is another. I rather buy from an UNtitled female who i've seen with my own eyes and has a superior pedigree. Its the difference between a Kia or a Benz. I would not spent 1500 on a pup from a schh titled Dam without a serious show ranking what so ever other than from the BSZS. EVEN if the male is a VA male. There is NO way that male can make up for the flaws in that female. You're taking a crapshoot. To me, a V rated female, from 'some' judge from some obscure country bumpkin town means absolutely nothing. Nor would I buy from the VA rated males, but, that you have to do your own research on. Most unsuspecting buyers don't know what they're buying, so they get sold a Kia for the price of the Benz by too many money hungry sales people. If you want to do it right, you must spent the money, & do the research in order to breed quality dogs. That means, either go to europe and inspect the dogs yourself. IF you don't have the knowledge, you must HIRE a trusted party in europe to go there for you. That costs me (i know what i want, yet no time) 500 euros for my contact to go anywhere in Germany and test the dog, take reality pics - action pics (video mpgs) and sent them to me here. I rather loose the 500 euros than buy a lemon.

It depends alot on who the parents are,and many other factors such as those listed above. If you care to share more information on the parents it would help to answer your question. Just because the dam is imported doesn't mean alot by itself

I imported a bitch from Germany who had been bred to a VA dog. It was a disapointing litter to say the least - one puppy, long coated to boot. There were a couple theories provided to me on this. The stress of being up and moved from one country to another (and in the case of my girl the seperation from her former owner to whom she was very bonded) may have caused her to "absorb" some of the pups. Another reason given was that they don't do progestrone tests over there so it is a crap shoot as to when she actually ovulating. Finally, the rumor given to me is that when breeding to a VA dog over there is that you get one shot. Over here you will typically get mutilple breedings. I'm sharing this because importing a bitch in whelp can be a little disapointing regardless as to the stud used. -Calvin

They do progesterone tests in Germany. I know this to be a FACT, because it cost me 40 Euros everytime I have one done. Just because a dog is VA does not mean it will not produce long coats. That you only had one, consider yourself lucky. I have bred with a VA dog before and I was not limited to one day, rather every day the female was receptive that I wanted to try.

Keep in mind that many of the top V and VA studs are used on more than one female in a short period of time. Often you get a bitch who was bred, but does not end up pregnant. It is disappointing, but can be avoided. This can be done by requiring an ultrasound or x-ray (date-dependent) confirming pregnancy before purchase (this is at your cost, but cheaper than buying the female and ending up with no pups!) or only dealing with people who are known to be honest and trustworthy and have a good reputation. Price of puppies from an imported dam depends on the lines, depends on the titles of the parents, depends on the structure and anatomy (and yes, color and pigmentation, even), depends on hip certification and ZW scores, and lastly, depends on the market and how desirable those puppies are considered by people who want them. I've seen people charge anywhere from $500 per pup to $4000 per pup. It really depends on what the pup is, overall, and what is being given with that pup. Are you giving a health, genetics, hip/elbow guarantee? If so, for how long? Are the pups going to be single, dual or tri-registry registered? Microchipped? Tattooed? DNA certified? Full or limited registration? A lot of things goes into the pricing of a puppy. Sometimes you have to ship the female BACK to the country of origin to have her RE-bred to the same male (typically you are offered a free re-breeding if your female does not conceive). This can cost you an additional $600-$800 EACH WAY, as well as the second round of progesterone tests at 40 euros per test, up to 6 tests are occasionally needed(yes, Germany has them!), boarding your female while she is kept there until confirmed pregnant (about 10 euro per day for 50 days), confirming pregnancy costs (anywhere from 50-180 euros). So add all that up and it's about $2270, plus the original cost of the stud fee (approximately $900), the original cost of the progesterone, boarding, etc (another $700 at least), the cost of the bitch herself and the original shipping (probably another $3000-$10000 total, depending again on pedigree, etc), properly caring for and providing correct nutrition for this female and the litter, $50 cost for AKC registration for the female, $30 for DNA certification for the female, vaccinating, de-worming, vet health checkups, microchipping, DNA certifying, tattooing, registering each of the puppies....suddenly you're looking at a cost of about $8000 for that litter (and that's on the LOW end of those ballpark figures!). Let's say you have 6 puppies--you'd have to charge $1350 just to break even, and that's not given your time, effort it takes to raise puppies, guarantees you offer, etc! Each subsequent litter that your bitch has makes the original cost less, but things do not always go as planned, and females have been known to die, kill pups, get pyometria and have to be spayed, all kinds of things can happen. And yet, everyone expects that everyone who breeds should automatically offer this great "bumper to bumper" guarantee with nothing to be done by the buyer--the one responsible for their puppy. Every warranty I've ever seen on anything non-living requires some sort of management by the buyer. How much more so should it be for a living, breathing creature? Okay, enough novel writing....I could go on and on. Hope I didn't cloud the water and did answer your original question!

Hi guys, Thanks for weighing in. I should have put the disclaimer in that I'm new to the GSD world and repeating what was told to me, not necessarly fact. Since I bred the dog myself the next breeding cycle, got 2 ties and 8 pups after dilligent progestrone tests I've privately thought that she just wasn't ready and the one tie (based on what I was told) was to early. I heard competing info that the bitch herself is often the best test and when she is receptive she's "ready." The female has since been spayed. During the whelp pup #6 started to go up the other uterian (sp?) horn. 2 mile trip to vet and he could not manually remove pup and did a c-section. 10 weeks later the bitch developed absesses - she was rejecting the natural stitches and had to be opened and reclosed with steel. After a careful disccussion with the vet it was decided we could never know if another c-section might be needed and that you could not keep going in when the stitches were wire and still in there. So we had her spayed as well. Spay didn't go well and she she spent 3 days in ICU ($3500) but lived and is pretty darn happy these days. Moral of the story, don't let a breeder talk you into buying a bitch and splitting the proceeds of the pups through her kennel. Never think you'll make money from pups and don't think that you're just as smart as the breeder who talked you into to buying the bitch and going at it on your own. until you are setup for it, it is a LOT of work. There is a lot more to importing a bitch and having a litter then I could have ever guessed. I learned a lot, lost a lot of $$$ but the important part is that now I know better. Would love to get back into the breeding game but will be waiting a few years until I'm better prepared. Things weren't bad - they just could have run much smoother if I new better. When you add the cost of the c-section, unplanned spay and c-section our cost per pup was even higher. -Calvin