Like I said it costs money but breeders do make money a lot of money. When I was a child I know more childhood stories, we had an actually very famous boxer breeder that lived across the street from us. She has been on pedigree comercials for breeding champion boxers she was my babysitter. So I saw how much money they make. So to do all of the health checks I bet they make that money back the first litter. The rest the bitch put out is pure profit. So you say $500 to get the heart certified like I said you get that done and make more than that back on one pup. SO if a bitch can make a breeder 27,000 over her life. Is it feaseable getting health checks cost that. Probably not, all I'm saying is "show breeders" make tons of money on these puppies too. They use their dogs pedigrees to charge more. There's nothing wrong with it but don't try to take the moral high ground and say you do it only for the betterment of the breed. You do it for money too.
If a breeder is producing enough dogs to be in a Pedigree commercial, they have plenty of money outside of the dogs.
Sure, breeders make a lot of money. Even reputable ones. HOWEVER - they also SPEND a lot of money, before they sell the puppies, and it is almost always more than they make from a litter.
Let's take your example, but we'll be realistic about it, OK? First of all, "all the health checks" is a lot more than just the heart testing. You have hip x-rays ($250), thryoid test ($100), Doppler ($300), Holter ($200), brucellosis ($40), progesterone testing ($50 per day, at least 3 days and sometimes 7 or more; we'll average it at $250). Plus OFA certification for hips, heart, holter and thyroid - $75. That's $1215 in testing, and some breeders do CERF as well which is another probably $150+. Then you have the stud fee - about $700 for a quality, health tested male. Then, there are the vet checks for the bitch while she's in whelp - palpation ($30), ultrasound ($50), x-rays ($75). $2070 and we haven't had the pups yet. Once the puppies are born, provided there are no problems with the delivery, there is tail docking and dewclaws. We'll use an average litter of 6 puppies - at $25 per puppy that's $250 - plus checking mom over and giving a pit shot if necessary, another $30. Then vaccinations and wormings, which most breeder give at least once and some twice - we'll average that to $25 per puppy, so another $250. Heart check at 7 weeks, at $30 per puppy, is another $180. $2780. Now, we need to include the increased food and supplements for mom while she's in whelp and nursing, and then the food for the puppies. My last litter, that ended up being about $600. $3380. Plus at least week off of work, for me $620 (unless you've got paid vacation, which I don't). So we're at $4000 and these are probably cheap prices, but I get a deal from my vet. Now - we're breeding for ourselves, of course, so we're keeping one of the puppies. We have 5 puppies to sell, if we charge $800 each (the high average across the country) we've just broken even.
Oh - wait - we haven't included the costs of showing and finishing the bitch. That's about $5000 in and of itself. So, the next litter will cover $4000 of that, so there's $1000 left to make up with the third litter. (And a responsible breeder will almost never have more than three litters with a bitch, and often only two.) But, we've also had two more stud fees ($700 each), and four Holters and four thyroid tests (these are repeated yearly, and we skip a year between litters). Tack on another $1200, plus $120 for OFA certification. And, of course, two more brucellosis tests and progesterone testing, another $580. So, we're back up to $3840 - yippee, we made a profit of $160 after 3 litters! Oh - but wait - we forgot about the litter registration for AKC ($25 plus $2 per puppy, so $37 per litter which equals $111) and the individual registration for our three puppies from the litter ($15 each for $45). What's our profit? $4.
Then, of course, there are some breeders who reimburse for spay/neuter on their puppies - that's $500 per litter, so we're now at a loss of $1496. And, some breeders pay for the AKC registration for all the puppies - subtract another $75 per litter. Then there are the really "crazy" breeders who offer incentives for obedience training, titles, etc. I won't count them, because there are not many of them (although I am one), but keep them in mind.
Our grand total profit? $ -1646
Yep, that's enough to give me an early retirement.
