@vido I appreciate this post, because my family dogs growing up were adult dogs who didn’t want, need, or care about toys, crates, dog beds, and they were past the days of destructive chewing or eating foreign objects. I thought I’d spend about a $1000 on startup costs and maybe $125 monthly (to include vet visits, insurance, food, new toys, etc). HAHAHA, that was the biggest lie I’ve ever told myself, and I talked to MANY people who have raised puppies before to gauge an appropriate amount. But what I’ve learned is that puppyhood is like pregnancy and labor, people forget the things they don’t want to remember!!
Between vet visits (normal vaccine schedule and preventatives but he also had kennel cough, likely from puppy class as that’s the only place he went before final vax, a sensitive stomach which has led to several vet visits, an allergic reaction, etc), finding chews and toys he actually wants to play with, new harnesses/collars/crates as he was a rescue and the initial breed idea WAS NOT what he ended up being and at 6 months he’s the size they and I thought would be his full grown size, and puppy classes, private training, and daycare for the super high energy breed he ended up being, I have spent well over $3000 since March when I picked him up. Honestly he doesn’t even seem very spoiled to me. It’s getting better: the first 2 months I spent $1000 each and now we’re trending toward $500/mo. If he wasn’t as sickly (and I do have pet insurance), it would be less but the reality is that you don’t know what kind of pup you’ll get. The “excessive”purchases I’ve made have been for my sanity which has certainly pushed me to the edge of my budget, but I don’t regret it and yeah, I hope other people do understand that this kind of spending is NORMAL, depending on your pup. If you have a low energy, non-sporting breed who isn’t inclined to make a mess, destroy things, or eat foreign objects, you might be able to avoid some of these. And to the person who is saying that this post might discourage low-earning potential puppy owners, I hope it does! Had I known the actual tangible costs, as a moderate income earner, I would have seriously reconsidered a puppy and searched harder for the adult dog who would fit my needs (full grown under 35lbs, child and dog friendly, and able to handle a busy neighborhood). Puppies aren’t for the faint of heart and certainly not for a super strict budget, in my opinion and experience.
