[Branca's Mom]

Lets say a puppy costs 800 euros in shipping. 850 euros for the puppy, that is still less than what you pay for some puppys in the states...

I can find great quality puppies all day long from great breeders here in the states for less than that. I am not talking about the "vanity kennels" but still top quality, reputable breeders.

 

[sherif65]

Just paid $ 1200 for mine 2 days ago and i know for sure this is cheaper by about $600 than normal here in Kuwait !

 

[Jessiewessie99]

yes $11,000.I went back there and the puppy wasnt there, I am assuming someone got the pup.If u are ever in California, stop at the Cerritos Mall and go to the puppy store.Last time I was there they had 2 GSD puppies.Cute as can be the price was insane!

 

[milkmoney11]

Well...basically it is the going rate. I've done a lot of research in my area and BYB are charging an average of $500.

Sooo...if you want to ensure you are going to get a quality dog, from a respectable breeder who does limited breeding, you will pay upwards of $1000.

If you don't, you might as well forget about getting a GSD unless you got connections...which I don't.


I'm amazed that people will pay $3000 for a week's vacation. Does that make it wrong to spend that much?? Not at all. Just means everyone has different values for what to spend their $ on. I'd prefer to have the companionship of a dog for 10 years rather than a week's worth of fun. All that matters is what is important to you.

 

[robinhuerta]

MrsK...the conversion for a 1650 euro for puppy & shipping is approx $2300 US dollars. Basically, it's less expensive to title & breed the dogs in Germany than it is here in the USA. The costs for OFA X Rays, A-Stamp certifications,(For those of us that title dogs)... Conformation Show entry fees, Handler fees, Training expenses, Trial fees, and (breeding costs)Stud fees, shipping, vet costs...ie, Brucellosis testing, Vaginal Cultures, Progesterone Testing, Ultra Sounds...etc...etc..
The list of costs do not even include the "normal" costs of rearing the puppies.....
I think this is one reason the prices seem higher here in the USA, and YES...some breeders ask way too much for their puppies... Our average prices range from $1200 to $2500, depending on how much $$ finances, are already invested in the breeding....as shipping the female to & from Germany, stud fees, boarding...etc.
Sorry the post was so long....
Robin

 

[new_wind]

Because I don't want to steal the other topic...

I've been wondering a lot lately. How comes that people in the US are willed to pay a ridiculous amount of money for GSD puppies.....

Because you hear many Trainers telling that American Dogs (Not Lines) have been compromised in many ways due the over breeding, Aside the problems of HD and ED, their temperament has been compromised. I am not sure but I think Leerburg in one of his videos states that police institutions don’t use American dogs, only German because they don’t trust in American dogs, I am talking from the top of my head right now.
Aside of this there is the “Fancy” attitude about having a “REAL” German shepherd imported from Germany, I Meet a lady with a black German shepherd for which she claim Paid over 5,000 USD plus importation and she was giving away because she couldn’t control the dog, Funny thing she was amazed by my well behaved baby total American lines.

 

[new_wind]

Oppss, this is not related to the topic, supposed to be to a private message.

 

[GSDElsa]

Your kind of making up your own math I think? You can get a VERY GOOD working line GSD for $1200. You by your own admission are saying that a working line GSD in Germany runs from 500-1300 Euros. And you're saying you can ship a dog for 600 Euros.

Good working line German Shepherd in US: $1200-1500

Importing a GSD from Germany at "basement bargain" prices: 500 Euro for dog = 600 Euro for shipping = $1513.77 at today's exchange rate.

How is that cheaper? And that is "calculating" at the lowest price that you just gave.

And using the upper end of your range, just the price of the dog is more expensive than a really good working line GSD. 600 Euro shipping + 1300 Euro = $2889.92. Much more than any working line GSD puppy I've ever seen (although I'm sure they exist).

Don't confuse what a WORKING LINE GSD goes for and what a SHOW LINE goes for...here or in Germany. It's exponentially more expensive in either place.

 

[robinhuerta]

We have 2 working line breeders in our area, that are well known......and "their" puppy prices are $1500 to $2500......pretty close to some of the show line breeders...
Our (mine) puppy prices are $1200-$2500....again...pretty similar.

 

[Mrs.K]

Your kind of making up your own math I think? You can get a VERY GOOD working line GSD for $1200. You by your own admission are saying that a working line GSD in Germany runs from 500-1300 Euros. And you're saying you can ship a dog for 600 Euros.

Good working line German Shepherd in US: $1200-1500

Importing a GSD from Germany at "basement bargain" prices: 500 Euro for dog = 600 Euro for shipping = $1513.77 at today's exchange rate.

How is that cheaper? And that is "calculating" at the lowest price that you just gave.

And using the upper end of your range, just the price of the dog is more expensive than a really good working line GSD. 600 Euro shipping + 1300 Euro = $2889.92. Much more than any working line GSD puppy I've ever seen (although I'm sure they exist).

Don't confuse what a WORKING LINE GSD goes for and what a SHOW LINE goes for...here or in Germany. It's exponentially more expensive in either place.

I said let's say the puppy costs 850 USD and the flight 800 Euros.

That would make a total of 1650 Euros which would be 2271.4758 USD which is cheaper than 2500 USD's that somebody on here wanted to pay for a puppy.

Oh and as a matter of a fact. My puppy costs 850 EUR(from a breeder that has been at the World Championships five times and ranked 5th in 2005 so he could charge much more than that but he refuses to) and I can ship two grown Shepherds that are over 50 lbs for not even 1500 EUR from Frankfurt to the US (INCLUDING THE KENNELS). So it probably doesn't even cost 800EUR for a single puppy.

 

[Jessiewessie99]

In the end the GSD,you companion for life, your best friend.All the memories you have are one price that will never go up or down. And thats priceless.

 

[Mrs.K]

In the end the GSD,you companion for life, your best friend.All the memories you have are one price that will never go up or down. And thats priceless.

That I agree with. :wub:

 

[IllinoisNative]

That would make a total of 1650 Euros which would be 2271.4758 USD which is cheaper than 2500 USD's that somebody on here wanted to pay for a puppy.

Yes, but that is still not a huge price difference. And considering a lot of the working lines are 1200 to 1500, there are less expensive options as well. Not to mention, in Germany there are also more expensive dogs that price well over 2500. There are cost differences on both sides of the ocean.

And, as other's have said, Germany is a MUCH smaller country than the US with many more clubs for titling a dog. Many breeders in the US have to travel great distances to title/show their dogs which is expensive and time consuming. It's not the same. So if you have a small country with say 2000 clubs, for example, that's going to be different than a HUGE country with 100. It's all relative.

Disclaimer: Those numbers listed above are not accurate but were just used to illustrate a point.

 

[Mrs.K]

No it is not a big difference. But it is crazy that a puppy from Germany AND the Shipping Costs & including the ridiculous exchange rat is still less than a puppy from the States.

That's my point. Think about the exchange rate, shipping costs and everything and THATS still cheaper. Maybe only a couple of hundreds of bucks but those are a couple of hundreds bucks in your pockets, PLUS you don't get only the AKC papers, you have the red papers in your hands.

I know, I know there are great breeders in the US. There are good dogs in the US and trust me, just because there are so many clubs over here doesn't necessarily mean that they are good clubs, so a lot of people end up driving long distances to get the training they want.
Vet costs are not cheap either, plus we pay TAXES for dogs and in some federal states you don't get the breeders tax anymore so you pay for every single dog you have. While the first one is the cheapest you may pay over a 100 EUR for the second, over 150 EUR for the third and some people pay up to a 1000 EUR tax (sometimes even more, depending on how many dogs they have and where in Germany you live. Some regions are cheaper. It really depends on the state and region you live in. Some still have the breeders tax and others charge for every single dog) a year for their dogs.
If you want to have the best food possible you have to pay a huge amount of money too.
That new (to us new) US Grain Regal food for example costs over 80 Eur for a 15kg bag.
Wellnes 50EUR for 15 kg.
So yeah... it's not like dogs are cheap in Germany, yet most working dog breeders don't charge more than a 1000 EUR over here because they believe it shouldn't be more than that. Usually those breeders are called hobby breeders and they don't want to make money off of breeding because they are idealistic and do it because they love the breed and want to make it better.

However, I don't know about the Showlines. And I know that they are probably breeders out there that know that especially people from the foreign countries pay a lot of money for a good dog and that's why they have so much business with outside Germany going on.

I was also surprised that there is a huge different between males and females puppies. I have never seen that before.
The breeders I am in contact with charge the same price for every puppy, doesn't matter if male or female.

So yeah, this is just new for me and I am trying to understand the differences and learn as much as possibe so don't take this as an offense I am fairly new to the Schutzhund and Shepherd Szene in the US.

 

[Cassidy's Mom]

I was also surprised that there is a huge different between males and females puppies. I have never seen that before.
The breeders I am in contact with charge the same price for every puppy, doesn't matter if male or female.

I've never seen it before, I don't think it's very common here.

 

[robinhuerta]

We have no difference in price from female to male..

 

[Mrs.K]

We have no difference in price from female to male..

Well that one "old fashioned" kennel does, as far as I remember.
But good to know that that is an exception.

 

[Hunther's Dad]

From a breeder's perspective

The wonder is not that puppies cost so much, but that they cost so little.

I just did the math on what I have spent on obtaining and training one purebred male German Shepherd Dog (Hunther vom Haus Tyson) to get him ready for breeding. Food, training, vet bills, etc. (I cut the specifics out, to shorten the post.)

$26,400 that I've spent getting this dog to Schutzhund III, KKL1, AD, show rated SG, "A" normal, OFA Good. $4,400 per year, times six.

Now, take that $4,400 and multiply it by 7 and you get $30,800, the cost of my OTHER, 7 year old female GSD. (V Britta vom Haus Tyson, SchH III, AD, KKL2 "A" normal, OFA good.)

$26,400 + $30,800 = $57,200 that I've spent on these two dogs in money, effort, and time.

I have bred two litters, and sold eight puppies. $57,200 divided by eight equals $7150; plus 10% profit would mean that I should have priced them at $7,865 apiece. There's obviously no way I could have sold a puppy at that price. I have almost no reputation as a breeder that would justify somebody spending that kind of money on one of my puppies, nor would I even price them that high to begin with. I priced them at $800 for the first five from my "A" litter, and $1,000 for the three from my "B" litter (because now I knew that they were good puppies, and people told other people about them). A total gross income of $7,000. Financially, I lose my shirt doing this.

The look on people's faces when they take their new puppies home - PRICELESS. Waiting for a track to age with one of my buyers, and having a total stranger stop and tell my buyer (within my hearing) what a great looking dog he has - PRICELESS. Having that same buyer tell me that he refused somebody's $5,000 for his dog... JAW-DROPPING!

 

[GSDElsa]

What? I'm still confused. I think we've established that $2500 is not the "normal" price for a working line GSD. $1200-1500 is. If someone found a litter going for $2500...OK...that's not the "normal" that people are usually paying for a good working line GSD. You keep talking about the price in Euros--OK...let's say the AVERAGE is 900 Euros. That's THE SAME COST as the AVERAGE price for a working line GSD in the US.

And as far as your "exception to the rule" with males and females being different prices. No, MOST breeders do not charge more or less for one or the other. You get to trained, "world class" level males....yes, you probably need to sell a child. But again, that's not what the average US working line GSD owner is doing. And some of these outrageous prices on dogs are ones being imported from Europe...........

 

[lhczth]

Mrs. K, what is the average stud fee in Germany for a top producing working dog?