USCA Sieger Show - Page 10

The biggest thing that breeders won’t speak about is profit margin…the biggest claim is “we don’t make any money off breeding.” For some reason, that makes people feel better about buying dogs. The reason for the downfall of trials and shows is that they cut into profits for no reason. A the moment, most people can charge equal or close to equal prices for untitled/unshown dogs and make a much higher profit margin than those of us training/titling/showing. Going to a national event in the United States is pretty much a $1000 expense. Gas, hotel, food, entry fees, and everything else that goes with it…and it doesn’t get you anything on the back end when you’re getting out there and selling puppies. Too many people with posses on the internet who will convince any potential buyer that such and such breeder is the greatest on earth and titles are useless and they know what they’re doing and blah blah blah. Words are cheap…profit margin goes up.

Like someone else stated earlier…VA doesn’t really get someone more of anything in this country…so you’re taking away the biggest reason to get it. I’m not bashing the pursuit of money, we all need to make it in order to keep doing what we’re doing and there’s nothing wrong with profit being a motivator. The problem is, there are much easier ways to make that profit because the goal of the whole system is to keep buyers in the dark and not give them the whole truth of what the market is and what dogs should be worth.

"Pregnant female shopping" comes to my mind - untested, untitled, not DNAed, x-rays most often not "official", in most cases very young, but "European bred", and - most important - CHEAP...
Sold "pregnant" because they were not worth the effort of training and titling, a couple of weeks later, as soon as they touch US soil, the puppies out of those dams and European sires ( whoever it was...) are advertised and sold as "working dogs / show dogs out of imported European lines".

2 healthy puppies only, and the potential "breeder" is +/-
- 2 healthy litters within one year, and the new car is almost paid...

Who cares about standard and working ability?

NO PUPPY is worth 5,000 dollars at eight weeks old. My question is WHAT justifies breeders charging that much?

 

The fact that somebody is always willing to pay that much ?

So they advertise, " pups are for sale and people are willing to pay 5,000 dollars for them", then people read that and go buy them???

Whatever something is sold for is how much its worth.

That's the issue...when everyone is charging high...the unknowing buyers have no idea that the pups aren't worth that. The whole system is set up for those "in the know" to be able to make a profit without having to justify the reasons behind it. When there really isn't a choice and the gap between true BYB and just those that know enough to look and sound reputable being pretty big...the buyer is screwed. A few letters...participation letters even, make the breeder/dog look WAY better than the guy not doing anything. What those letters stand for...doesn't matter. And there is no way for buyers to learn the differences in the letters without getting involved...and that usually involves owning that first dog. That's why today we have breeders figuring out the easiest and cheapest way to get some letters and make your dog stand out above the true BYB.

When forums and internet sites are filled with "rally, dock diving, and lure coursing can prove the same thing that IPO can" the people trying to learn something and do the research suffer.

The overall effect is as if they actually did that, yes. Many ads do not carry the price. So the buyer phones and asks; the price is stated; the buyer has not done any homework, and/or knows someone else who has paid top dollar (maybe even boasts about that), so agrees the amount. And as long as at least a good percentage of the people they are selling to will do so, greeders see no reason not to ask those prices. [Roughly equivalent to buying a dog from a puppy farmer, to get the pup out of the horrible place - just makes room for the next for sale]. Simple economics. The better sort of breeder, those more interested in developing the breed and/or producing a few good specimens, will probably not be those asking these inflated prices. But then, without doing their 'due diligence' in advance, how do buyers tell the difference: between an inflated price; a fair price, and decent breeder; or a cheaper BYBer ? Some folk are just asking to get taken.

Not to mention the fake "service dog" title.
I've seen that one used more than a few times.

If the lazy breeders win and IPO gets wiped out then things like barn hunt titles are going to increase in value.

Race to the bottom, but that's just a consequence of dogs not being required to help us do real chores anymore.