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I just know the GSD world. People there push to the small hobby breeder. They work day jobs, breeding dogs is their passion, not a job. Or one spouse works and the other deals 99% with the dogs. The money they make goes back into the dogs.
Here is a breakdown that was passed on to me by one of my mentors....
If a more dollars and cents breakdown is helpful, here's one for the history of one of our broodbitches, Raven. Though again, this is going to vary widely from breeder to breeder so is hardly representative of breeders as a whole. Just one example.
Initial price: $1200 (in this case we bred her ourselves, but price still applies)
Health testing.
Hip/elbow prelims: $150 (and we get x-rays cheap compared to what most have to pay. I'd say the going rate for a set of OFAs is more about double this.)
Hip/elbow OFAs: $185
OFA DM: $65
OFA Cardiac: $35
OFA Patellas: $35
CERF: $35
Thyroid panel every couple of years: $150x2=$300 thus far
So total for health checks: $805
Titling costs. She has a slew of titles, way more than would be considered required for proving breed worthiness. As I said in the previous post, I couldnt even quantify the thousands of dollars, or thousands of hours (time is money!), spent training to this level, or break it down on a puppy by puppy or litter by litter basis. But lets just say its a LOT. All her titles represent well over $1000 just in trial entry fees alone.
So cost of one broodbitch, just in terms of purchase price, health testing and titling costs is $3000. And that doesn't include any regular upkeep of the dog for her lifetime, or any of the training that went into those titles since I only counted the actual trial entry fees. So saying $3000 is beyond being conservative.
Now for breeding. Just going off memory here so not accurate down to the last dollar, but not far off.
Litter 1 8 puppies
Pre breeding vet check up and brucellosis test: $100
Progesterone tests to time ovulation: 4 x $50 = $200
Stud fee: $1000
Travel to stud 300+ miles away (gas, 2 nights hotel, etc
): $300
Ultrasound to confirm pregnancy: $90
Additional food for dam for last few weeks of pregnancy and through weaning: $200
Wormer for puppies: $55
Albon for puppies: $70
Food for pups from weaning through sending home: $300
Vaccinations for pups: $75
Fecal test for pups: $50
Microchips for pups: 8 x $15 = $120
AKC registrations: $180
Total litter cost of $2740. For 8 pups equals $342.50 per pup. But none of that figures in all that went into the grump before breeding her, or the costs of the whole puppy whelping and raising set up with whelping box and kennel and assorted supplies. That is just the costs directly attributable to this particular liter.
As far as profit. One pup given away for free. Other 7 sold for $1200 each. Total puppy income of $8400. So on paper, that shows a profit of about $5660, which comes out to around $700 per pup. Though it only appears to be profit since we're not including any of the costs that went into having a good broodbitch or the appropriate facilities for whelping and raising a litter.
But now figure in all the time. 24 hours non stop vigil for whelping. At least 2 hours per day devoted to the pups in the first 4 weeks or so until weaning, and at least double that from weaning through to when they go home, at least 3-4 hours per customer interviewing and screening them, and many more hours spent on people who didnt make the cut to even be considered for a pup, all the pedigree research that happened prior to the breeding, 3 days out of town travelling to get the breeding done, vet visits, preparing meals for the pups and cleaning up after them, doing laundry practically around the clock, etc
In terms of dollar per man hour, wed make more profit flipping burgers. If the costs of raising and maintaining the grump for the previous years and doing everything needed to prove her breed worthy were figured in, wed be paying them for the privilege of flipping their burgers.
Litter 2 - 12 pups.
Not going to break it all out again, but to sum up stud fee was higher, travel costs lower, costs for caring for all the pups proportionately higher as there were half again as many pups, time spent a whole LOT higher as 12 is more like having 2 litters at once and most socialization and outings had to be done twice, broken into 2 trips of 6 since 12 is just way too many pups to keep track of at one time. Kept 2 pups ourselves so no income from them. I dont feel like doing all the math but profit would still come out to about the same in terms of per pup costs and profit.
Litter 3 - 2 pups???
We're still waiting to see if we even get 2 live pups, and this situation really illustrates the other side of breeding.
Pre breeding vet check up and brucellosis test: $100
Progesterone tests to time ovulation: 5 x $50 = $250
Stud fee: $1500
AI breeding costs as stud is 2000 miles away and stud owner decided she doesnt want to do natural breedings with him to outside grump any longer.
Semen collection and shipping kit: 2 x $104 = $208
Semen collection at studs vet: 2 x $174 = $348
Transcervical insemination at our repro vet: 2 x $272
Ultrasound to confirm pregnancy: $90
Second ultrasound to make sure shes still pregnant: $90
Already $2858 invested. Per the most recent ultrasound, she only has 2 live pups in there. So costs are already at $1429 per puppy and we will still have all the associated care and raising costs and time coming up in the next few weeks. Plus if things dont get a move on in the next day or two, we may be facing a c-section to the tune of another $1500 or so. Also wouldnt be out of line to add in another $1000+ in costs for the 2 previous AI breeding attempts with the same stud (but different grump) that produced no puppies before finally getting a breeding that took and produced this hopefully upcoming litter of 2.
Likely one pup will be given away to a close friend for free, on a co-own, and the other sold for $1500. Which means in terms of bottom line on this litter we're already taking a huge loss, and will get even deeper in the hole before it's said and done and pups go home. A whole lot deeper if a c-section is required.
Of course, a lot of corners could be cut in a lot of places. Feed cheaper food, less vet care, not registering the individual pups, not microchipping, cheaper vaccinations and wormers, etc
And using ones own stud is the most obvious cost cutter. But as every grump is different, her ideal breeding match is also different. Thus the chances of a breeder having a stud, or even multiple studs, that are truly good matches for all their grump is slim and in many cases using an inhouse stud is sacrificing quality of the pups for cost and convenience.
