It’s about a month before most colleges start again. During this season, it seems as though students like to turn their lives even more upside-down and (hopefully) adopt or buy a dog. I think this is a great idea. My opinion stands contrary to a lot of other trainers and that is mostly because I’ve recently been a college student with a dog. Having a dog, and doing it right, I feel adds more stability, more maturity, and a more accurate representation of what life outside of college is going to be like. Emergencies come up, scheduling time can become a nightmare, and sometimes caring for another living creature can be exhausting.
When I talk with someone about what it takes to own a dog, I’m normally faced with lifestyle and training questions. These questions are really important and having a conversation with anyone, not just a professional trainer, will illuminate you to so many ideas that you never even considered. And what’s even better about these conversations is that emotionally, you get in the zone of dog ownership. Phrasing getting a dog as “rescuing” really get’s the emotional blood flowing.
There’s one catch to this conversation: how much does it cost to get a dog? And I’m not talking about licensing, shots, and adoption fees. I’m talking serious long term costs for food, boarding, training, time, equipment, and toys.
Let’s break it down to the different phases of dog ownership. For ease, we’re going to have three different phases. Phase 1 being bringing your dog home, Phase 2 being learning your dog’s needs, and Phase 3 being meeting your dog’s needs forever.
Phase 1: Bringing Your Dog Home
This is the cost to walk out the door of a shelter with a dog. I will talk about shelter dogs exclusively because I feel in most cases, a person should adopt a dog from a shelter. Here are the costs for walking out the door of a shelter with a dog. I will be using information from my local shelters and rescue groups to inform this budget.
Adoption fee: $50
Licensing Fee: $16
Total: $66
So now you’re out the door. What do you need for your dog at home?
Leash: $10
Collar: $10
Toys: $30
Bowl: $5
Kennel $50-$100 depending on size
Food: $40 (we’re not buying Old Yeller brand. Pick a good food)
Total: $145-$195
Our grand total to minimally provide for a brand new dog is between $211 and $261. Of course you can find used or hand-me-downs to reduce these costs. Either way, you’re looking at $200 just to get a dog out the shelter door and into yours. Once your dog is in the door, give him some time to settle and learn about each other for a few weeks. Then move on to phase 2.
Phase 2: Learning Your Dogs Needs
At this point, your know your dog pretty well. If he’s like most shelter dogs, he didn’t come out of the box perfect and needs some training. Maybe he needs a special diet or only like special toys. This is also a great time to get him to your favorite vet and get him checked out. For the information here, I’m going to use training costs from my business and average procedure prices from my local vets over my years of dog ownership.
Here is what I feel a price list for a year will cost:
Training: $360-$640 depending on length of time the dog/owner needs to learn
Food (This cost never goes away): $480
Vet Visit: $40 to walk in the door
Tests: $50-$150 depending on what the doctor orders
New Toys: $40
New Leash: $15
New Collar: $15
Bath Supplies: $10
Bed: $20
Total: $1030 - $1410
This phase lasts about a year. The sticker shock here is enormous. The average price, $1220, spread out over a year is about $102 a month. Granted you could try to learn to train your dog by yourself, he may not need new clothes or a bed, and a hose off in the backyard may be just fine. But I know a lot of dog owners and their children are all spoiled rotten. It also feels good to buy these sorts of things for our dogs.
If someone can make it a year without taking their dog to a vet for some sort of illness, then your dog must be the healthiest dog on the planet.
So far, just after 1 year, a dog can cost anywhere from $1241 to $1671. But the good news is, you have your dog! You have a relationship with another living creature and you get to share that excitement for a long time. Now that begs the question, what about the rest of your dog’s life?
Phase 3: Meeting Your Dog’s Need Forever
My favorite age for dogs is between 2 and 3 years. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is amazing to watch and I feel it’s where most of the bonding and growing happens in the person and the dog. Now what does it cost you to keep him for another 10 years?
Food $40/month/year: $4800
Vet visits once a year: $1500
Toys: $500
Beds: $200
New clothes: $200
Total: $7200
What’s unfortunate about this number is that it can vary so widely. I gave you what I feel to be the minimum. This number does not reflect possible emergency vet visits ($500 minimum), boarding (most places charge from $30-$50 a night), more training ($240 or more), or even treats.This number reflects the bare minimum to own a dog.
I hope this does not frighten anyone away from dog ownership. It’s just a reality people need to face before their emotional high of rescuing and saving a life gets destroyed faster than their bank account.
I think the hardest financial burden of owning a dog is not how much it costs, but how much it costs at one time.That’s to say, you can’t spread that $150 vet visit over a couple months, it’s due right then and there. If owning a dog was a monthly payment of $75, i’m sure that would be a lot easier for some people than all the money at once.
Make sure you and your wallet are ready for a dog. Their lives are dependent on yours.
If you feel I forgot something or want to join in on the conversation, leave me a comment, send me an email at Michael@concentricdog.com, or find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/concentricdogtraining.
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