The inflated price for puppies
Robin Scott bemoans the current inflation in breeder’s prices for puppies, as well as his sketchy memory
Until last week I’d forgotten how old my labrador, Sam, was. I’m hopeless on birthdays and honestly thought he had just about gone eight. It was Will, owner of his litter sister, Ella, who put me right – the lad’s fast coming up 12. You wouldn’t believe it to look at him: he’s sleek, carries no weight, his black coat’s still as glossy as ever and there’s not a grey hair in sight. True enough he isn’t quite as speedy as he used to be, but who is?
How much of a useful working life does he still have to look forward to? Two seasons? Three at a push, perhaps?
If only…
With hindsight, and had I kept track of his age, I would’ve bought a pup last year to bring along and have ready to work next season. I suppose I could retrieve a little bit of time now by finding a puppy and getting the bonding/training programme underway. But with winter coming that pleasurable process quickly becomes toil. I discovered ‘four dogs ago’ that short days, dark nights, bad weather and playful pups don’t mix. Much better to start in spring when the sun’s shining and there’s fresh grass to roll a tennis ball on.
As for buying a pup right now, by all accounts it’s become a much more expensive exercise than it used to be. Massively so. I read somewhere that prices have soared thanks to a flood of people getting puppies to break the boredom of the lockdown. Would you believe commercial breeders are charging up to £3,000 for spaniels and £2,000 for labs?
If that really is the case then I’m going to have to start saving hard for Sam’s replacement. I might even put the old boy on herbal remedies to keep him limbered up and jogging along for as long as it takes to save the pennies.
With eye-watering prices such as these there’s no wonder dog and puppy thefts have risen so sharply in recent months. However, with lockdown being lifted the hope is that demand for puppies will fall and with it their prices. But I’m not going to hold my breath: if the predicted second wave of this pandemic takes hold and another lockdown comes, what then? If demand – and prices – for gundog pups stays high my only other option is stump up even more money and buy a ready-to-go, fully trained dog. Or maybe keep an eye on the local dog pound in case folk start
“I’ve discovered that short days, dark nights, bad weather and playful pups don’t mix”
dumping animals when the novelty of puppy ownership wears off.
In the case of a likely looking spaniel it will doubtless mean taking on board an undocked animal, but that’s something most of us could live with, at a pinch.
Shooting homes
I was hoping that these inflated prices would remain confined to commercial breeding but not so. A friend with a five-week-old litter of cockers tells me she has already received two offers at more than double her £800 asking price. “Maybe I should’ve taken the money but it would have meant the dogs going to non-shooting homes, and that’s not what I want to happen,” she said. “I’m keeping one of the pups, another is going as the stud fee and the remaining four are being sold to friends who shoot.”
That’s noble of her (and the ethos that has underpinned selective puppy breeding in the gundog world) but how long will it continue? Are high prices the new norm? Will they lead to a rise in the sort of indiscriminate breeding that the sport has worked hard to erase, and yet more heartbreaking thefts? Let’s hope not. To own and work a healthy gundog should be every sportsman’s aim but pricing first-time buyers out of the market – particularly young shooters – is not going to help them realise that dream.
For the sake of gundogs and shooting let’s hope things return to some sort of normality soon. Is it the Yorkshireman in me that considers £3,000 an unacceptably high price for a gundog pup or, until now, have they been sold too cheaply? It will be interesting to hear what other shooters, dog handlers and sensible breeders have to say about it.
One thing I had hoped to do in retirement is pick up with a team of three or four dogs. But buying them as puppies at these inflated prices will probably mean having to remortgage the house. Maybe the answer is to fork out a small fortune on a suitable bitch and start my own breeding regime. Anyone got a whelping box going cheap?
• See Nick Ridley, page 58