“If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”  That’s a cheeky little quote from Sir James Goldsmith.  Here’s another one, which is a famous Spanish proverb: “Cheap is expensive.”  And how about, “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little”, which is commonly attributed to John Ruskin, explaining that buying cheap often means losing everything when the product fails?

So, what the heck does this have to do with puppies?  It’s our gentle way of saying that you get what you pay for.  Any here’s why.

Paying for a quality puppy from a responsible, preservation breeder will cost you more than a puppy from a backyard breeder or puppy mill.  A puppy from a puppy mill is a product of high-volume production without any consideration to the health and welfare of the parents, and without the genetic health planning and socialization you can come to expect with a quality puppy.  When it comes to backyard breeding, at its worst, you can expect that they are bringing puppies to the world by simply throwing a male dog into the backyard with a female in season and walking away to hope for the best.  Whelping those puppies might consist of watching the mom burrow into the back of a closet in the towel you provided, to leave her to it.  It might not be that bad, but you get the idea.  Responsible breeding requires so much more.  And to be frank, it costs a lot more too.

Now let’s be clear, preservation breeders do not make money.  If someone tells you that they do, it is pure myth.  Any one of the preservation breeders that you meet will tell you that a litter with lots of healthy puppies might allow you to break even.  In the chance that the money made from selling the puppies is more than the expenses that go into bringing them into this world, then it is likely that money is directed to the planning, breeding, whelping and socialization of the next generation. 

So why do we do it?  We do it to further the breed.  Preservation breeders want to not only maintain the traits that meet the breed standard established decades, some time a couple of hundred years ago.  We also want to improve on the health of the puppies.  Plus, but we want to establish socialization that will allow the puppies to go on to be the best family members that they can be.  All of this amounts to one thing: value.  A puppy from a preservation breeder has more value than the less expensive alternative.  It means that the puppy buyer will have a better chance of getting a pup that will be a happy and healthy family member for life.

Let’s take a closer look to see what I mean.

PUPPY PLANNING

Before a dog is even considered as a mom, she is assessed for good structure and movement.  This is done by a third party at a cost.  It can be done by an expert with decades of experience.  Most often it is done in the show ring by independent judges, brought in from all over the world.  These judges have an in-depth knowledge of the traits that meet the breed standard.  The breed standard is established by the national breed association for each breed and is the single, accurate description of the perfect dog for that breed. 

Once mom is successful in her assessment for structure and movement, she will go onto genetic health testing.  Now every breed has weak links for genetic health that can be tested for.  If they are not tested, those diseases will be passed on from generation to generation.  Testing, and making decisions according to those results, ensures that does not happen.  If a dog with a preservation breeder does not meet the necessary health standards, it is not used for breeding. Those tests cost money.

INSEMINATION

Puppy planning requires special knowledge of pedigrees, genetics and structure.  A preservation breeder will have goals on what they wish to produce to make each generation better than the previous one.  That is achieved by putting all of their knowledge into play with the selection of a mate.  The semen from that mate costs money.  If a breeder is lucky, the mate can be found just down the road.  If they are truly lucky, both dogs have strong drives and make quick work of mating without any human support.  Often however, that is not the case.  It is not unusual for the best mate to be in another city, another province, or even another country.  That means a great deal of extra expense when it comes to insemination.  That takes the form of semen collection and processing by a veterinarian, and shipping of the semen in a specialized container.  Then the timing for insemination has to be right.  How do we know what the best day is?  We do this with progesterone testing of the dam.  Insemination does not occur until progesterone hits a particular level.  To discover that level, testing has to be done every few days.  Ideally that is done at home, but more often than not, it is done at the vet.

Once the timing for insemination is known, the actual insertion of semen into the dam is done.  Some breeders will do this themselves, particularly with fresh semen that is readily available.  However, in the costliest case scenario, a veterinarian will do the insemination.  This is done one of two ways, each with different price points.  The decision on whether to do it one way or another will depend on whether the semen is fresh-cooled or frozen.  The sperm count and motility will also factor into that decision.

PREGNANCY

So now the dam is inseminated.  At this point we cross our fingers that she caught and is pregnant.  How do we know?  At a particular point in her pregnancy, she is ultrasounded.  The ultrasound may have been done at home with specialized equipment.  Alternatively, it is done at the vets.  Either scenario cost money.  If there are heartbeats, we have success.  If not, then the expense so far has to be eaten. 

But let’s say that we get good news and puppies are on their way.  As the pregnancy gets to within a certain number of days before the due date, x-rays are done.  It is at this time that we are able to do a puppy count.  The puppy count is a fun part of the pregnancy.  We can now envision those puppies on the ground.  There is also a practical reason for doing it.  It’s imperative to ensure the birthing of those puppies is complete.  Mom doesn’t always have an easy time delivering and knowing that puppy count allows us to know whether intervention is required or not.

BIRTHING

The gestation for a dog is exactly 63 days from ovulation.  But how do we know when ovulation occurred?  We have an approximation based on the results of the progesterone testing that we did, but we don’t know for sure.  Not knowing the whelping date can be stressful, and maybe even dangerous.  Again, progesterone testing can help with that.  Once the reading reaches a particular level, whelping can almost be assured. 

But what if there is no progress?  That situation brings us to the most dreaded of all solutions, the c-section.   Hopefully whelping is uneventful, but a breeder has to be prepared if its not, with a c-section as a backup plan, (or even the primary plan in the case of a dam with known pregnancy challenges).  Not only is a c-section a high risk, high stress situation, it is a high-cost situation.  It is at this point that one can guarantee the breeder will be out of pocket.  And let’s not forget concerns for the dam’s health. 

PUPPIES!

Have you made it this far into this article?  Let’s hope our hypothetical breeder has made it this far too.  Let’s hope they now have puppies in the whelping box.  Let’s say we are on day four and the dam and puppies are past the most critical stage and there has been no incidence.  The chances of something going wrong resulting in loss within the first three days is likely enough, but let’s say it was clear sailing.  For some breeders, day four represents the first day their socialization program begins.  This could take the form of a formal program or a program the breeder has developed over time.  Whichever is done, you can be assured that the interactions the puppy receives each day is intentional.  The socialization program continues until the day the puppy goes to its new home.  As the old Mastercard ads used to say, the value for this extra contribution is “priceless”.  Is that value factored into the price of the puppy?  Rarely.  Will it spare you the expense and aggravation of future behavioural training?  Very likely.

ASSESSMENT

Now once the puppies are almost ready to go home, assessment for who goes where is done.  Will the puppy be best suited to a show home?  Does it have the drive and energy where a performance home will help it thrive?  Does it have the temperament to go onto having a special career as a service or therapy dog?  Or will it be the laid-back couch potato who is happiest with a daily walk and occasional treats?  Breeders with the right expertise and experience will be able to assess the puppies to make this decision.  Many however, look to engaging the services of a third-party expert.  Or maybe even two.  Again, more expense.

Now is also the time when puppies are seen by a vet for shots, deworming, and overall health evaluation.  In addition, they undergo specialized eye exams so that we have a baseline on their eye health. 

NEW HOME

Finally, it’s time for each puppy to go to it’s forever home.  They will go with a puppy kit that bundles food, comfort items, and instructions.  It might even include insurance against veterinary expenses.  And of course there is the puppy.  The puppy buyer will know that no effort was spared to ensure the puppy has received all that is required so that it can be the healthiest and happiest it can be.  The buyer will know with confidence that the value they are getting for the new family member exceeds what they would receive if they hadn’t gone with a responsible, preservation breeder.  Now it’s their turn to guide the puppy into adulthood.  Still, they can trust that their breeder will be there to support them along the way.

VALUE

So that’s it in a nutshell: value for puppies.  In the words of Warren Buffett, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”  It’s that value that you can come to expect when sourcing your future puppy from a responsible, preservation breeder.  It’s, as they say, “what you get”.