Making a living from breeding

I know breeding is strenuous, stressful, time consuming and expensive.
if you are a responsible breeder, is it a career or more like... an expression for love of that breed??

B) expression of love

Expression of love, or by necessity. A lot of people who have working dogs breed them in order to continue to supply themselves and others with good working animals.

No responsible breeder would breed animals for profit.

A reputable breeder has so many expenses between showing their dogs, doing health tests, doing tests during pregnancies, etc, etc, that they're lucky to break even. I saw the costs broken down by a breeder once . . . When they compared the money spent versus the money they got for the puppies, they made about $1.84 an hour.

whoa. i actually wouldn't mind breeding one day. given the cercumstances are right. there are a few breeds i love. i would love to have more to do with working kelpies.

but actually gven that. breeders, is their "day job" usually something to do with dogs, training, kennels, welfare work etc?

Many I know are retired, but they did work at varying jobs when they were younger. One was a teacher, the other a drilling engineer, etc.

Breeding dogs, done right, is a hobby. A very expensive one.

For example: I'm planning a litter, and puppies from this litter will sell for 1K and 2K.

Wow, sounds like a lot of money, huh? Well, don't count the dollar signs until you read the rest of the story....

Progesterone testing to make sure the timing is right $350.00
Collection fees for AI, plus shipping for the semen $500.00
Surgical implant $650.00
Whelpwise rental $500.00

This is before this litter is even conceived and on the ground. If a section is needed, add another thousand.

The breeder gets a puppy back. I am keeping 2 puppies. The stud dog owner is taking a puppy for the fee. So that is 4 puppies right off the top.

Then we can talk about what I spent showing this dog to her titles (approximately 5K), health testing that's been done (about $1000.00)

Let's leave all the crates, bowls, buckets, food, supplements, vet care, my van, and the 25K I'm spending building a kennel area in my new house out of it.

I could breed 2 litters a year for clear profit and it would take me DECADES to catch up what I've spent over the years.

Breeding PROPERLY, so that you can attempt to benefit your breed, is not cheap, nor easy.

yeah, i can imagine its all worth it right when you get a litter of healthy lovley pups?

hypothetical situation
i was thinking, say - kelpies.

i buy a bitch from a reputable breeder from working lines.
get her titles in herding trials

health testing - i'm still vague on what sort of tests are required?

It varies from breed to breed.

For my breed, the big 4 are hips, elbows, eyes, and heart. Many people also do thyroid and vWD.

You would need a good mentor as well, to help you understand pedigrees and where a dog or bitch should or should not be taken to avoid health issues and other faults.

okay. thanks.

Pretty much everybody I know, breeds to recover the cost of breeding

AFAIK the only way to make more then a few bucks is stud fees... then you have none of the expenses of raising the pups etc. But in order to get to that, you have to have a very accomplished dog, which means you've likely spent thousands getting him to that point... so you're really not making anything here either.
There are a few people I've seen who can make money breeding responsibly... but in the hundreds/thousands of people who breed... these are only a lucky handful who happen to have dogs who have outstanding parentage and the sire of the pups is worth 10's of thousands by himself.

The only people who make money are the Puppy Mills ...because they don't give a d@mn !

Grammy has a great point!

My friend's fiance, C, bred his doberman bitch to his friend's doberman dog, and tried to sell the puppies for $500 each. Well, I think he might have sold ONE for that, but he ended up giving the rest away, except for one which he hasn't been able to find a home for(but he still needs to rehome it because he only wants to keep his doberman bitch once he gets married). If anybody wants a free BYB doberman pup who is gonna be 6 months old soon, let me know .

The breeders I am close to have jobs unrelated to dogs.. And showing and breeding are money pits for them. But they do it for the love of the breed and to better it.

No good breeder I've ever met makes money. Most I know don't even break even.

Expression of LOVE no doubt :
But I did get a job in the Dog world outside of breeding in order to offset the very expensive hobby of Professional dog breeding costs.

I just did my taxes and god even with 2 litters im in the RED by thousands.
One dog show alone cost be $800.00 . That does not include the $400.00 in camping equip I got to take all the dogs to a UKC show.

But some have kids , some collect cars, or wear expensive jewerly to spend money on.
I show work test and breed dogs ,
And the just rewards of kisses, puppy breath and happy owners with stories of love and heros are great things to live on and leave behind.