Dog Breeding as a Profession

Is dog breeding profitable as a profession? What are the requirements to start this profession and what is required apart from dogs. What is a good way to estimate the cost and return in the process. Thanks

nvr mind

I was thinking I have some money and interests in dogs so why not breed them as a profession or a part time job to make money by doing good at it?

Breeding is not profitable in the least if you are breeding correctly. You know how puppy mills in the news are always full of ill-socialized, frightened dogs, often disease-ridden, lying in their own feces, or even lying dead in cages? That's because the only way puppy-millers can make a profit is to cut corners and cut corners and cut corners and when that happens, the dogs suffer.

A GOOD breeder will be lucky to break even on a litter. Good breeders breed as a hobby, not as a profession.

Edit: Also, good breeding takes TONS OF TIME. It's best to be present at the birth in case anything goes wrong. And what if Mother Dog decides she doesn't want to deal with these puppies once they're born? Guess who gets to bottlefeed the puppies every few hours. You lucky person! Then you have to keep an eye on the puppies as they grow older in case they get into things or swallow something harmful. The puppies need to be raised in the house, NOT some kennel outside, so that they'll be properly socialized. In addition, you have to get them used to walking on different types of materials and socialize them with different types of people. You should start rudimentary obedience training with the puppies before they go to their new homes at a minimum of twelve weeks.

Puppies are simply a lot of work and no profit.

I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.

breeding as a profession = unhealthy dogs, damage to the canine gene pools

breeding as a hobby (responsibly) = healthy, intelligent, gorgeous dogs that make you happy, give you a sense of achievement and you know you doing good

READ http://www.geocities.com/stevenlecornu/Backyard_Breeders.html

So you can be a good responsible and eventually a reputable breeder and make profits? or you think seasoned and reputable breeders can't make profits?

No, a reputable breeder will not make more than a pittance on breeding. Certainly not enough to live off of. Good breeders breed for the betterment of the breed and realize that they will probably be losing some money with each litter. A good breeder also must spend time "proving" the parents by showing them in dog shows . . . More time and work.

You are lucky if you break even on what you pay to take care of and properly health check your dogs before you breed. My dogs breeders for example charges $800 for her pet dogs and $1200 for her show dogs. She does and ultrasound on the pregnant bitch to determine how many pups and if they are developing right and then you have to figure in the costs of deworming pups, shots, PRA and BAER testing which my ACD's breeder does before the pups go to there new homes and just all around care for the pregnant bitch and her pups. You shouldn't look at breeding as making profit you only do that if you do it the dirty and un-ethical way BYB or puppymiller

I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.




I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.



I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.




I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.




I think one should get some experience with a pet before even asking questions about breeding.

Dollar Signs are how every puppymill or byb starts.

No, good/responsible breeders DO NOT make money.

Any breeder I would consider personally buying a dog from is probably investing (or losing, if thats how you want to view it) THOUSANDS of dollars per litter. Breeding is also a VERY large time commitment (dedicate most weekends to traveling around the country to show -- also be prepared to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars per year on showing). To be a good breeder, you also need experience with a specific breed and an idea of how you can improve that breed. You need dogs from good stock (again, thousands of dollars). To find "good" dogs you need to spend years attending shows, etc, and learning how to analyze strucutre, temperment, conformation, etc...

Overall, to become a breedr you need to develop a critical eye, develop a critical mind to decide how you want to improve the breed, invest years of your life (all your spare time, weekends, holidays, etc) in getting to know your breed, spend thousands on the dogs that you might want to eventually breed, spend thousands on showing said dogs, spend thousands on vet care for proper testing and THEN breed. Once you breed, be prepared to again spend thousands of dollars on veterinary care for the pups.



Before you think about breeding, why not get some experience. Find a rescue dog, train that dog, put obedience titles on that dog, get to know people in the breed you're interested in through shows, etc.


In the meantime, if you have some extra money lying around, why not invest it in something like a CD so that in 10+ years when you might be ready to start thinking about breeding, you'll have slightly more than you started with?

opcorn:

Government bonds are a great way to earn money and don't poop!

In a word, NO.

In a few more words: If you have enough time, money and patience to spare to even contemplate breeding, do roses instead. Shorter turn-around time and no poop to clean up! Plus, think of how much money you get on Valentine's Day!

If you like puppies instead of breeding, you should foster pregnet or homeless litters of puppies. If you can handle that, then you should start asking about breeding...

If you manage to
- buy healthy breeding stock,
- invest the money to train and show them in performance as well as conformation
- have all the required health testing done, and
- are financially able to provide
--- veterinary care,
--- clean housing,
--- high quality nutrition
--- appropriate socialization and training, etc.
to all of your dogs (adults as well as puppies before they go to their new homes)

and manage to sell the puppies for a high enough price, then, maybe, you can be a good, reputable breeder and make money. It's not very likely though.

Excellent point.

I echo Mordy !!!! I would say that with breeding my own line and siring 6 litters over 40 years ... I cleared about $300 ( about 100 pups involved ... all spayed or neutered ) . When you care about a breed , you don't do it for money !!! If you do it for $ ... you CAN'T put in the time and $ that's involved for GOOD litters !!! If you don't care about testing etc.... sure, buy anything and breed it to anything and charge $1000 ...... but stay away from here !! Check with Championship lines and their offspring. None make money !

off topic but,
grammy, you only had 6 litters in 40 years? am I reading this right? not that I think its wrong, I would just think you would have more litters then just six in 40 years??? but again, I might have missed something...