I often have people comment on the cost of dogs verses the expenses and they comment that it must be a lucrative business. I just pause and comment that from the outward appearances it sure looks that, knowing full well our accountant would laugh and laugh. EVERYTHING we use for dogs is consumable. It is not "one and done". Not $85 crates, whelping boxes, whelping pads, towels, cleaning supplies,fencing, toys. NOTHING. It all has to be replaced. We replace a mop about once a month. Plus our main cleaner costs $75 a gallon.
Here are some expenses that we incur along this journey. Testing for parents, costing over the $1500 mark. Yearly vaccines, monthly heartworm, de-worming mamas before birthing, flea and tick. Supplements for the birth process such a calcium and several others. We keep liver in the freezer and all dogs eat eggs along with their food. We go through around 6 bag of dog food a month and every dog gets groomed about every 6 weeks. We use NUVet supplements, High quality Salmon OIl. Food grade DE, and Probiotics. Puppies are dewormed and got to the vest twice before going home.
They have toys that get chewed up, fences that we use to run our socialization program, crates for everyone including puppy crates and vet carrying crates as well as crates to fly pups in. We use Pine pellets that get dumped once or twice a day for puppies starting at 3-4 weeks. We pay for cleaning about 10-16 hours weekly and have at least 10 hours of socialization weekly.
We pay a website fee for our site and management as well as yearly for Canva to make various flyers for social media. We run Facebook, INstagram, Tiktok and Youtube and answers countless emails, calls, texts and DM daily. Some will literally spend hours asking questions and still never buy a dog from us. That's okay. It's all part of running a business. We have an 80 sq foot building that is heated and cooled and the washer and dryer runs multiple times a day. We have air purifiers, mini vacuums, shop vacuums, about 8 different types of cleaners and sprays for flies and other bugs. We have a power washer and all of these items do NOT last. They simply gets used WAY TOO MUCH.
We buy gift basket items and chips and pay to register them, we spend time creating documents to help our families adjust in their new life. We plan our entire lives around litters. No vacations occur when pups are due or are under 2 weeks old or are going home or if there are some that are struggling. We cook whelping mamas food to go with her kibble to help her gain her weight back.
We pay for our invoicing system monthly that keeps our records so our CPA doesn't fire us and we pay 4% on top of that to process fees. We then pay taxes ON TOP of the cost of the pup AND we pay an experienced CPA to handle the business aspect. We have attorney fees to cover contracts and insurance to maintain the business.
I attend conferences to learn to be better and do better.
We buy collars and leashes and more toys, maintain cameras and lights to insure we have visual access to all dogs and puppies. DO we make a profit? Hourly? Less than minimum wage. Sure we get tax write offs and that will simply have to be the reward. We keep the lights on, but if you think we walk about with even close to the amount we charge you are mistaken. We don't do this half way. You can go to a backyard breeder for that. We do this to the best of our ability for you to have the best dog possible. You matter and your puppy matters to us. We could find way more profitable businesses to do, but seeing the smile on a little boy's face when he meets his new best friend is worth it to us. You are worth it to us. *Kara
