A house without a dog, would not be a house. They make such a lovely companion and bring joy into the house. But before that there are 4 major things to consider, if you are getting a puppy.

Being financially stable is important, as your doggy expenses would play a huge part of your dog life. We want the best for our dog, such as feeding him the most nutritious food, best supplements, providing a comfortable home and lastly, healthcare. All these, do not come for free and it cost lots of money. If you are not financially stable, you not would be able to provide the necessities for your dogs. Let me break down, on how much you would spend annually for your dog.

Understand how much you dog would consume is important, so you would know the budget. Bigger dogs (Golden Retriever Size), definitely need to consume more and the more they consume the more it would cost you. For example, one pack of 30lbs dry food cost you averagely $45 – $100 and it would last you a month or 2 depending how much you feed.

Not forgetting treats and supplements as well, it can boost their immunity but it may not be a necessity. This would cost you $5 – $80 per month.

Just the food and supplements alone, would cost you at least $600 annually.

The basic healthcare for every dog is to have yearly vaccinations, it help your dog to stay away from virus infections, such as Parvo virus and etc. Each vaccination would cost $30 – 50 per visit. Also not to forget heart heart worm prevention, this medication it would cost $30 – $100 per year.

Getting sick or chronic illness

Every dog would fall sick in their lifetime and some dog would have chronic illness as well. You would want to have some spare cash in hand to stand by for all these. Each visit to a vet and just the consultation only would cost you $30 – $50, medications would at least cost you $30 or more and surgery would cost you more much!

This alone, I would recommend you to stand by at least $1000 annually for health care.

Keeping our dog clean and Flea & Tick prevention is a must as well. Just shampoo alone would cost you $15 – $30 per bottle for 32 oz, and for Golden Retriever size it would last up to 2 to 3 months. Not forgetting conditional as well, its not a must but it helps to smoothen their fur.

Is important for you and your dog to attend obedience training as well. It can help you to have control of your dog and develop your dog confident.

Price ranges from $300 – $600 per course. ** One time Payment.

Toys, License, playpen, bowl, comb and etc. Getting toys, will help to keep your dog occupied. All these accessories would cost you averagely $100 – $200. ** One time Payment.

Not to forget pee pad, if your dog is indoor trained.

Would cost you $10-$20 a month depending how fast your dog would use. Otherwise you can use newspaper to save cost but the absorption is not

Knowing the breed is important, hence you would what kind of breed would suit your life style.

For Example, If you are an outgoing and active person. You can consider working dogs such as border collie, husky, jack russel and etc. These breeds will definitely occupy most of your time, as they were bred to work.

But if are not an active person you can consider lower energy dogs such as Shitzu, Pug, Chow Chow, Afghan hound and etc. These dogs would not be as active as others, but you still need to provide fair amount of time for them.

Space

Another thing to consider is space. Bigger active dogs would ideally need bigger space to roam around.

If you are allergic to dog furs, you should consider a breed that doesn’t shed much. If you are planing to get a Golden Retriever, Border Collie, Husky, Dachshund or Japanese Spitz and etc. I highly recommend you to think twice before having one, as these dogs shed alot! You do not want to deal with allergy reaction everyday!

If your allergic problem is not very serious, you can consider getting a dog that doesn’t shed as much like, Poodle, Miniature Schanuzer, Bichon Frise, Silky Terrier and etc. These dogs probably only shed 5 – 10% of the time, compare to Husky, Golden Retriever and etc would shed almost 90% of the time.

Every dog will shed no matter what, different breed shed lesser than the other. So do consider your health problem as well before choosing the breed.

Not to mention, drooling problem as well. Bigger dogs tend to drool much more compare to the smaller dogs. Short snorts dogs like, bulldogs, shitzu, boxer and etc, would drool the most. Thus, if you hate cleaning the house so often, you should not get these dogs.

I would encourage, everyone to go for preparatory classes and also do some research, on how to deal with different behavioral problems,  before having a dog. So you would always be one step a head of your dog and prevent all bad behavioral from developing, that would cause you problem in the future.

Visit our lessons page to learn how to solve your doggy problem.