A Complete Price Guide for the Bullmastiff

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There are some dog breeds that have very misleading names. However, the Bullmastiff isn’t one of them. After all, its name makes it very clear how this dog breed came into existence, which is to say, through the crossbreeding of two other dog breeds. One was the English Mastiff. The other was the Old English Bulldog. As such, the Bullmastiff is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It is important to note that the Bullmastiff wasn’t brought into being in a well-organized manner by people who documented every single step in the process in thorough detail. Instead, it seems that various people in various parts of England crossbred English Mastiffs with Old English Bulldogs in the 19th century to create a dog that was well-suited for protecting people as well as property. In particular, these proto-Bullmastiffs proved to be popular with gamekeepers, who needed dogs with plenty of strength and toughness while remaining obedient to their commands to help them out with preventing poaching. Something that was still very relevant in the England of those days. Bullmastiffs didn’t receive recognition as Bullmastiffs as soon as the Kennel Club started up in the late 19th century. However, they received official recognition in 1924, with the result that they soon started receiving further recognition from other kennel clubs operating in other countries. Nowadays, Bullmastiffs are a very well-established dog breed in their own right because they had held said status for decades and decades.

In any case, Bullmastiffs see a fair amount of use as family guardians in modern times. They are very independent-minded. As a result, they are a poor choice for first-time dog owners who can’t take charge because they will take charge instead. Despite this, Bullmastiffs do have a number of things that recommend them. For example, they are big, powerful animals, meaning that they come with a lot of deterrence value. Simultaneously, they can be loyal and loving companions so long as they have received the proper training and socialization. On top of that, Bullmastiffs are low-maintenance, which can make them a solid choice for people with a lot of demands on their time. Combined, it is natural for people to wonder what one of these dogs might cost.

What Can You Expect to Pay For a Bullmastiff?

If people are planning to buy a Bullmastiff, they should expect to pay $1,500 to $2,500 for a puppy. That isn’t the highest range of prices that can be found out there for purebred puppies. However, that still isn’t exactly what most people would consider to be cheap. As a result, it is common for interested individuals to look into other ways of getting their hands on a Bullmastiff. That can make for a much lower price. However, interested individuals should know that some of those ways are worthwhile while others are very much not.

For starters, interested individuals can look for a Bullmastiff owner who is either giving away or effectively giving away their dog. This kind of thing happens when people can’t take care of the Bullmastiff but wants to take a hands-on role in making sure that they reach a suitable home. For example, they might have run into either some kind of physical issue or some kind of financial issue that makes it impossible for them to take care of their dog. Alternatively, their dog might have had an unexpected litter of puppies, meaning that they are now scrambling to find interested individuals for the lot. The upside to this would be the much reduced cost. Meanwhile, there are a number of potential downsides. One, interested individuals can’t count on having a lot of choice. There is no guarantee that they will even be able to come upon such an opportunity. Never mind coming upon an opportunity that provides them with exactly what they are looking for. Two, this means an increased chance of the dog having some kind of issue when compared to buying a puppy from a reputable dog breeder. It could be that the dog having some kind of issue is the reason that they are being given away in the first place. Furthermore, if people are giving away puppies, chances are good that their resources are already stretched, meaning that they can’t provide the puppies with all of the healthcare and training needed to make them as good as they can be. Something that won’t be helped by the presumably uncontrolled circumstances that brought about the puppies in the first place.

Moving on, if people want something more practical, they should be looking at animal rescues and animal shelters that are taking care of Bullmastiffs. Once again, they are going to run into some familiar problems with this approach. For example, they aren’t exactly going to be presented with a wide range of choices, though they should know that there are resources out there that help interested individuals look for candidates for adoption and rescue over a much wider area than most people can be bothered to look through on their own. Similarly, it is pretty common for these dogs to have one kind of issue or another, which might have been what exceeded the original dog owner’s ability to care for them. Having said that, adopting or rescuing a Bullmastiff comes with plenty of upsides as well. For instance, it is common for these dogs to have issues, but chances are good that interested individuals will be informed about that ahead of time because animal rescues and animal shelters tend to take their charges’ well-being very seriously. They have zero reason to give people an unwelcome surprise, which when combined with their provision of healthcare to their charges, means that chances are very good that interested individuals will be able to make a fully-informed decision about whether they want to bring the dog home with them or not. On top of this, it is possible that people will be asked to pay a fee, which can go into the hundreds of dollars. Even so, that is much lower than buying a puppy. Moreover, a good portion of it will go towards providing the dog with healthcare as well as other necessities, which are things that they will have to pay for at some point anyway. There isn’t much of a difference between paying those costs directly or indirectly, so they might as well as pay for them in this manner.

Finally, there is the option of going to a less reputable dog breeder than charges a lower price for a Bullmastiff puppy. As always, interested individuals need to remember that they get what they pay for. Essentially, dog breeders are running businesses, meaning that they need to make a profit on their dogs if they want to be able to continue running their operations. As such, if someone is selling puppies at strangely-low prices, that means that they are producing those puppies at strange-low costs. Yes, it is possible for one dog breeder to be more efficient with their operations than another, thus enabling them to pass some of those savings on to their customers in the form of reduced price. However, it is very likely for one dog breeder to be so much more efficient than one another that they can sell their puppies at a fraction of the price without having cut some serious corners. For normal products, this can mean reduced quality, reduced durability, and other issues that can be bad but not necessarily a deal-breaker so long as people know what they are getting into. When it comes to something like puppies, well, suffice to say that those cut corners can have a very detrimental effect on how they were produced, raised, and otherwise cared for. Something that can mean a much increased chance of both physical issues and behavioral issues in the long run. Bullmastiffs are neither the healthiest nor the unhealthiest dogs that can be found out there. Still, they are like every other dog breed in that bad breeding practices can definitely increase the chances of problems showing up. Something that can be extremely concerning when these dogs are already on the short-lived side of things with a life expectancy of just 7.5 years.

What Are the Factors that Can Influence the Price of a Bullmastiff?

There are numerous factors that can influence the price of a Bullmastiff in one direction or the other. For example, most people want puppies, so it is common for older dogs to see a fall in their price. Meanwhile, puppies born of champion parents as well as otherwise more prestigious bloodlines can command higher prices, so much so that interested individuals might be expected to pay $3,500 or more for them. In any case, the important point is that people might want to look into these factors to see if there is anything that they can use to get the dog that they want at a better price than otherwise possible. To name an example, consider the coat color of the Bullmastiff. Unless people care a great deal about shows and other events, chances are good that they won’t care too much about what the coat of their dog looks like. As such, it is worth mentioning that Bullmastiffs are supposed to have one of three coat colors, which would be red, fawn, and brindle. They are allowed to have a small white spot on their chest but anything beyond that is considered to be a fault. If people don’t care about that, well, getting a Bullmastiff that is flawed in this manner might be able to get them a discount on what they are expected to pay. Of course, not every kind of deviation from the standards of what a Bullmastiff is supposed to be is worth looking into. Sometimes, those deviations mean that the dog either has an issue or has a higher chance of developing an issue, which is definitely the kind of thing that people will want to avoid. Even if people are willing to bring home such a dog, they should remember that the costs of owning that dog will be higher than necessary. Something that they will definitely need to prepare for.

What Other Costs Should You Expect As a Bullmastiff Owner?

Bullmastiffs aren’t cheap to own. They are on the bigger side of things for dogs, meaning that the costs of owning them are on the bigger side of things as well. Unsurprisingly, those costs will be highest in the first year of Bullmastiff ownership because there are a lot of one-time costs that people need to cover. After which, the costs should fall for the most part, with the possible exception of healthcare costs, which can see significant increases in the long run. In any case, just the supplies for a Bullmastiff can cost $245 to $925 in the first year depending on where people live as well as what people choose to buy. Later, the costs of supplies will drop quite a bit to just $105 to $410, which can be explained by the fact that people can get by with just replenishing the things that have been used up. Meanwhile, the healthcare costs for the first year can cost $440 to $855. A range of prices that isn’t including the cost of optional procedures, each of which can cost a few hundred dollars. Once the first year is up, healthcare costs will continue to cost $525 to $1,025, which covers a check-up, vaccines, and other preventative healthcare. Treatment for medical problems should be considered separate, not least because that can hit hundreds of dollars or even thousands of dollars for just a single medical condition. It is possible to buy pet insurance, but that won’t come cheap at an average of about $565 for all dogs out there. On top of this, interested individuals might want to budget for training as well because as mentioned earlier, they can’t afford to let their Bullmastiff get the wrong idea about who is in charge because that can make for more complications rather than fewer complications in the long run.