The cost of owning a dog

I used to have danes. keep a slobber towel handy!!:giggle:

Danes are such sweet monsters. Don't live long enough though..

If I got a giant dog, it'd have to be an irish wolfhound. Awesome dogs.. and so sweet.

I have 3 dogs. Two male pit bulls, and a female husky/lab mix. Our main monthly expenses are food and dog biscuts. Shots once a year, heartworm once a month, flea preventative once a month. Once a month baths, but we have a shower massager and we just put an extra length of hose on it so it reaches the floor of the shower and instant dog bath made available.

I consider it all very well worth it. My husky mix, Andromeda, Drama for short, and I have a very special relationship. I wouldn't want to do without any of my dogs!!!!!

Take in to consideration when picking a breed, your time to train a puppy is more involved than with an adult. also how active are you going to be. Labs can be both active and couchpotatoes. some breeds such as our frenchie has a rough time making it around the block if its warm,so if you jog that would be a dog that would always be getting left at home. On the other side my borzoi wants to just take off and go. Sometimes for miles.:D

Labs are a greet breed (have had 2 over the years). Normally very well tempered, excellent with children and not extremely high maintenance. If you are getting a young one or puppy though I would suggest budgeting in a large dog crate and a Kong dog toy. Kongs are pricey but well worth it. We always bought the red normal one and the blue water one. Labs will chew, especially young ones so the Kong pays for itself many times over in my opinion. Labs also tend to be somewhat goat-like and will get into anything their superior nose tells them is "interesting". Make sure garbage cans have strong lids and that your young lab is crated when you aren't around to keep an eye on it. Our labs always housetrained very quickly but then the crating helped that.

All labs love retreiving, it's part of the instincts of that breed so plan in time for daily ball throwing or water retrieval training. Like most hunting breeds these dogs need to have a job and will be a way better pet if they can express their strong need to retreive for you.

Labs seem to have a long puppyhood/teen stage so discipline and training sessions are a must or they can be big idiots until they settle into the couch potato stage LOL. We found that the haltie type collars (on the face not the neck) worked really well with our labs to stop them from sniffing everything and getting distracted during walks, also for snapping up any piece of garbage laying near the sidewalk that some doofus had dropped (see goat-like LOL). Watch them for weight gain as they do tend to chub out later in life if they are allowed too many treats and a fat lab isn't a happy lab.

They are my favorite breed and one I can't wait to own again.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Labs are a greet breed (have had 2 over the years). Normally very well tempered, excellent with children and not extremely high maintenance. If you are getting a young one or puppy though I would suggest budgeting in a large dog crate and a Kong dog toy. Kongs are pricey but well worth it. We always bought the red normal one and the blue water one. Labs will chew, especially young ones so the Kong pays for itself many times over in my opinion. Labs also tend to be somewhat goat-like and will get into anything their superior nose tells them is "interesting". Make sure garbage cans have strong lids and that your young lab is crated when you aren't around to keep an eye on it. Our labs always housetrained very quickly but then the crating helped that.

All labs love retreiving, it's part of the instincts of that breed so plan in time for daily ball throwing or water retrieval training. Like most hunting breeds these dogs need to have a job and will be a way better pet if they can express their strong need to retreive for you.

Labs seem to have a long puppyhood/teen stage so discipline and training sessions are a must or they can be big idiots until they settle into the couch potato stage LOL. We found that the haltie type collars (on the face not the neck) worked really well with our labs to stop them from sniffing everything and getting distracted during walks, also for snapping up any piece of garbage laying near the sidewalk that some doofus had dropped (see goat-like LOL). Watch them for weight gain as they do tend to chub out later in life if they are allowed too many treats and a fat lab isn't a happy lab.

They are my favorite breed and one I can't wait to own again.

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Well put!!! I have seen so many puppies loose a perfectly good home because they're owners didn't know about crate training or proper chew toys.

Thanks Nancy. I think any young dog needs appropriate toys/housing but labs especially are almost orally fixated. Maybe it comes from their hunting skills so they more than most need something to have in their jaws or they will find something they shouldn't. We had a friend years ago with an aged lab that would not settle at night till it had a baby sock to take to it's bed at night. They hadn't had a baby in the house in years but had to regularily go out and buy packets of baby socks for the silly thing. He had a whole basket of rolled up socks to pick from LOL.

Funny thing, for a big lab to have a baby sock dangling from his mouth he almost looked wussy LOL but this same dog stood down a wolf that wandered on to their property and near where their kids would play (this was a night so of course the kids were not actually there). Labs are not great guard dogs but I know our two labs would have died before allowing anything to hurt "their" kids. Only problem we had was one of our female labs would not allow our kids to go swimming. We had to restrain her from jumping into the lake and herding the children back to safety LOL.

Yeah, and don't forget possible added costs in the beginning with a puppy can include: a training crate/kennel,wee wee pads, gallons and gallons of nature's miracle, and various housetraining aids. There are just so many hidden costs with a dog....such as if you decide to keep him outside when you're at work for instance, a doghouse is a must...quite costly for a large breed. If he's gonna be kept inside, a crate/kennel is a must..and you may have to buy more than one to compensate for a puppy that will outgrow its kennel pretty fast. I think the most you'll have to spend with a puppy ....is time. Time for training, bonding, walking, playing,housetraining,vet visits,cleaning up after "messes", etc. And like everyone else says...get from a breeder.Absolutely NO pet stores!!! If your going to adopt, go to a specific breed rescue. Good luck!..puppies are nothing short of having a kid....especially the big ones!

I think that if you're going to get a lab, I wanted to share something that happened to my parents. They bought a female chocolate lab about sixteen years ago. (She passed away a few years ago.) Anyhoo...when she was a puppy, she ate EVERYTHING. She ate her dog house, shoes, hoses, etc. Just remember that puppies are cute, but they're a HANDFUL.

I don't want to scare you away, but you ought to know what CAN happen.

Everyone that has responded to this thread has offered great advice.

The only thing I have to add to this, is do make sure you get a pup from a breeder who will stand by thier breed. If you choose a big breed, ask alot of questions about hip dysplasia in thier stock....dont be shy..be direct. Hip dysplasia is common in alot of the larger breeds. My hubby bought me a st. bernard pup for a wedding present when we married almost 6 years ago, the breeder said she had never seen HD in any of her dogs and said they (all her adults) were all pen hip certified. Once my st. got to 6 months old, I noticed some odd movement within his hips when he walked and heard alot of popping that should have not been there. Took him to the vet, knowing what the diagnosis would be, after expensive x-rays and anaesthetic to make him sleep to get films of his hips, it cost me around $300... to verify what I had guessed was wrong...HIP DYSPLASIA ofcourse. When I contacted the breeder, she calously, told me, put the dog to sleep, I will replace it with one out of my next litter, that was unacceptable to me seeing as though the contract w/ her said other remedies would be taken. Be wary, breeders gaurantees usually mean they will not pay for the cost of fixing such issues in a dog you have already gotten attached to, thier idea of taking care of the situation, is to put the animal down and replace them usually. So ask questions, ask what happens in this situation should it come up for you. In the end, my st. needed over $5000.00 worth of hip surgery to replace BOTH hips, we did scrounge up the money after lots of saving and pinching, he had his hip surgery, unfortunately, he rejected the implants and had to be taken back to have his hips fused and implants taken out. He was euthanized by the time he was 11 months old due to the pain he was in and loss of quality life. A very sad sad loss for me. After all this happened, I had contacted others I knew who purchased from the same breeder, and SAME litter that my st. came from, out of a litter of 9, all but 2 presented a case of hip dyplasia by the time they were 1 yr. old. Mine and one other were eventually euthanized.. the rest are doing as well as can be expected with replacement hips and/or supportive care. What was intially an $800 dog for me, turned out to be somewhere around $7300 (cost of animal, hip surgery, x-rays and 2nd surgery) not including anything else. And all I have to show for it, pictures of a dog I loved very much.

Also, no matter what breed you get, I reccommend buying a kennel and using it regularly. It will make training so much easier and may be a really good thing like I have found out since Zeus (g.shephard) has gotten older.