Money Matters

[Konotashi]

I have been doing a lot of consideratons and calculations for the past two weeks. I've always sprinkled knowledge of GSDs into my little brain, but I've been cramming it all in my head lately - I've gone into an uber obsession with them.

What I would like to know is:<span style="color: #FF0000"> How much money should you expect to spend on puppy supplies/a puppy? How much should you have stashed away for the upcoming vet visits for their vaccinations, and food?</span>

My goal is $3,000 total. $1,500-ish for the actual puppy, then the rest is for all of the supplies, like a crate, training supplies, the FURminator, etc.

I'm going to try and get a job soon, and I'm expecting to be paid minimum wage. I figure that if I'm paid $7.25/hr and work 20 hour weeks, then I'd make $145 per week. I'm not sure how much is taken out for taxes, but I asked ChaCha (not the most reliable source), and they said 15% is taken out for that. SO, I'd be making a little more than $120 weekly. I would put $30 every week to gas, and $10 to a vet fund, giving me about $80 to put to a GSD. I reckon it'll take about 10 months to get to my goal of $3,000 and persuading my mom to let me get a GSD. (Still working on that )

<span style="color: #FF0000">Does that sound alright?</span> Btw, I grossly overestimated a lot of the costs of the supplies.

Also, <span style="color: #FF0000">what are some MUST HAVE items waiting for the puppy's homecoming, like food, crate, etc.?</span>

[Mandalay]

Buy stuff a little at a time. Look on eBay and Craigs list. You can get a used crate very reasonable on CL. I got Mandalay a HUGE dog bed (she fits almost all the way on it when she is totally stretched out) on Freecycle.org. Check there for crates and the like, too. If you don't mind, you can probably even get bowls there.

Watch for sales on leashes, collars, toys, training supplies, etc at your local pet supply place or online and buy the things then. After you convince your mother (definitely start there) then buy things when they are on sale ans store them away.

These dogs rip up plushy toys like crazy, so instead of buying Mandi petstore toys, I (thanks to Lauri's suggestion last year) go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and buy stuffed animals for 25 cents for her (just make sure to remove the bead eyes and the bean bags that might be inside first). MUCH cheaper than shelling out $10 to $20 for one from Petco.

If you absolutely still need to save money, and AFTER the vet checks your pup over, use the vaccination clinics at Petco (Luvmypet) for vaccination boosters. Please don't forgo having a vet check your pup first, though.

Instead of buying training books (which you should start reading now) use the library.

[Mandalay]

Oh, ok, also....

chances are you will have a bday between now and then...ask for dog supplies. Ask for gift cards to pet supply stores so you can use them to buy food later on.

Also...instead of buying a puppy from a breeder, consider adopting a GSD from a shelter or rescue. That would save A LOT of money.

[SouthernThistle]

Save your money on the FURminator. You can buy the cheaper knock-off by Bamboo for $9.99 or just get an undercoat rake (plastic teeth/tips) for about the same price.

We picked up some form of an undercoat rake at our Humane Society Thrift Store...brand new...still in plastic...for $1.00, and it works 10x better than the FURminator.

[FuryanGoddess]

I got a nice leash at Walmart. It's 5' and made for GSD's and large breeds. It was like 4.80 or something like that. You can get nice collars there also.

[JKlatsky]

Okay I'll play.

I did this with my kids in class once.

Puppy- $1500

Food- I average about $50 a month on food per dog for a quality kibble, so that would be $600 for the year.

Treats- I do a lot of training. And I spend a lot on treats for training and chews like bully sticks to keep puppy happy in the crate...At least $20 a month. That's $240 a year.

Heartworm preentative and flea meds- I live in Florida, we have to keep current on this stuff year round. Approx $25 a month. That's $300 a year.

Crates- I usually get 2, a plastic one for as a puppy and the car, and a wire one for the dog as an adult, but conservatively $150.

Vet care- You have several rounds of shots, and usually 3 vet visits. I would say that you're probably looking at about another $200. I had one puppy that had a respiratory complication from vacination on a Saturday night, trips to the E-vet are expensive. It was $250 and we had to follow up at the vet the next business day. I've never had a puppy that didn't need something beyond just the regular shots...even if it was just an extra worming. Consider also spaying and neutering, while perhaps not necessary, pet dogs should be altered at some point. We'll say $200 though assuming everything is pretty good.

Training- We do a lot of training. Standard rate is $20 a lesson/week. A standard class is about $120 in this area. Conservatively I would say $300 for training the first year. Right now for my 4 dogs I spend $210 a month on training. Which does not include the gas and treats.

The extra stuff- bowls, leashes, collars, toys. This category has a lot of room for variation in cost. With new dogs I usually like to budget $100 or so for "things", although truthfully as I get more dogs I buy less things, and the new guys get hand me downs.

So if we total it up...
I get $3300.

I agree that adoption could really save you some money. Look for deals. I like Craigslist for crates. Garage sales can be helpful. My humane society has a thrift store where they sell donated items. Goodwill and the Salvation Army here get stuff in sometimes too. I love to shop the clearance at my PetsMart. I also have a lot of friends at training that will pass around "puppy" things. If you pick things up slowly over time, it doesn't all hit you at once.

[rover51]

Check with the local pound for low cost vax. On second thought, that may not be a good idea for a puppy. But if you adopt an adult, it should be OK.

My DH is working at the shelter right now and they get alot of PB GSD. He was really surprised. Even puppies. Maybe when you are about ready to get one, contact them and have them call you when a young dog comes in? You never know.

[DianaB]

If you have a pet food express in your area, they have buy 3 get one free... for food, toys, chews, etc. I nearly always shop there. Plus (they don't advertise this), they lead test ALL their products, so I buy my toys there instead of walmart/target because of this fact alone. Nice to know there won't be lead in the products from China.

[3K9Mom]

If money is that tight, I STRONGLY recommend budgeting for health insurance (approx $30 per month). It's a big expense, but the problem is, you never know when you'll have a HUGE veterinary issue come up. If you don't have the money (thousands of dollars all at once), and don't have someone that's willing to lend it to you, you'll be in a dire situation.

Some people will tell you to "self-insure," to put a bit of money away in a savings account each month. That's a great idea, unless your dog decides to get sick or injured before you have a chance to save up enough money. My two dogs (ages 7 months and 20 months) "decided" to need knee surgery, dental procedure and have a hip problem (which we're not going to operate on at this point, but the diagnostics ran $500, plus surgical consultation, plus we're going to start physical therapy.).

I'm looking at THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars all within a few months. If I had put away $20 per month when I got Meri and added to that when I got Celo, I'd have about $560. I'd still thousands of dollars short. Fortunately, I have health insurance on them. My out of pocket costs should be rather minor. Plus, Meri had to go to the emergency room over the summer, when we were on vacation away from home. The insurance picked up that $600 tab too.

The problem with dogs is that we never know how much they're going to cost. My dogs came from highly regarded breeders and I take very good care of them, but they're living creatures, so nothing is guaranteed. Things go wrong.

I was once in the emergency room with another dog. I witnessed a young couple who was desperate because their dog had been hit by a car, had a broken leg and pelvis and they simply could NOT afford to have the dog operated on, even after the hospital waived its profit. It was heartbreaking.

You don't ever want to be in their shoes.

Health insurance (with a reputable company like Trupanion or PetPartners). If you're in a position of needing to figure out what a pup will cost, then you're almost certainly in a position that you need the backstop of insurance. I hope you NEVER need it. But if you do, you'll be glad you have it.

[DianaB]

Originally Posted By: 3K9MomIf money is that tight, I STRONGLY recommend budgeting for health insurance (approx $30 per month). It's a big expense, but the problem is, you never know when you'll have a HUGE veterinary issue come up. If you don't have the money (thousands of dollars all at once), and don't have someone that's willing to lend it to you, you'll be in a dire situation.

Some people will tell you to "self-insure," to put a bit of money away in a savings account each month. That's a great idea, unless your dog decides to get sick or injured before you have a chance to save up enough money. My two dogs (ages 7 months and 20 months) "decided" to need knee surgery, dental procedure and have a hip problem (which we're not going to operate on at this point, but the diagnostics ran $500, plus surgical consultation, plus we're going to start physical therapy.).

I'm looking at THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars all within a few months. If I had put away $20 per month when I got Meri and added to that when I got Celo, I'd have about $560. I'd still thousands of dollars short. Fortunately, I have health insurance on them. My out of pocket costs should be rather minor. Plus, Meri had to go to the emergency room over the summer, when we were on vacation away from home. The insurance picked up that $600 tab too.

The problem with dogs is that we never know how much they're going to cost. My dogs came from highly regarded breeders and I take very good care of them, but they're living creatures, so nothing is guaranteed. Things go wrong.

I was once in the emergency room with another dog. I witnessed a young couple who was desperate because their dog had been hit by a car, had a broken leg and pelvis and they simply could NOT afford to have the dog operated on, even after the hospital waived its profit. It was heartbreaking.

You don't ever want to be in their shoes.

Health insurance (with a reputable company like Trupanion or PetPartners). If you're in a position of needing to figure out what a pup will cost, then you're almost certainly in a position that you need the backstop of insurance. I hope you NEVER need it. But if you do, you'll be glad you have it.

I agree with this. We have Veterinary Pet Insurance for Siena (started when she was 10 weeks old before her health issues came about)... The bigger the vet bill, the less they pay (but in our case, every dollar we get back helps). We've had to do two surgeries (and another pending) and from those two, we got about 25% back for everything. We did all the same calculations you did and read up on what it should cost over the life of the dog and the estimate was about $15K. We spent that alone in the first year. So just be guarded that you don't get yourself into trouble with finances. There are quite a few genetic problems with GSD's and my dog seems to have them all We had a reputable breeder, health guarantees, etc. and in the end, it made no difference because in order to collect on those guarantees, we'd have to give her up (and she'd be put down). Breeders don't like to have 'sick' dogs in their line as it makes them look bad.

That's just my two cents worth.