A Complete Price Guide for the Coton de Tulear
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The Coton de Tulear is a Malagasy dog breed. After all, its name refers to the city of Toliara, which was once called the city of Tulear. Said city was a port town and remains a port town, which is relevant because the Coton de Tulear is sometimes said to have served as ship’s dogs in the past. It isn’t 100 percent clear how the Coton de Tulear came into existence.
There is speculation that it is descended from the Tenerife dog that was brought to Madagascar by European sailors with the result that it proceeded to interbreed with its local counterparts. However, it is important to note that there are a lot of stories about the Coton de Tulear, which include some that are very dubious. For example, it was never feral.
Similarly, it was never a hound capable of challenging boars and crocodiles. Instead, the Coton de Tulear was very much a companion, so much so that it became associated with the rulers of Madagascar. Something that remained the case when these dogs started being introduced elsewhere during the 20th century.
Adaptable and Affectionate
Generally speaking, a Coton de Tulear is supposed to be both adaptable and affectionate. These characteristics make it capable of getting along in a wide range of households under a wide range of circumstances. Simultaneously, these characteristics make the Coton de Tulear a dog that is on the less demanding end of things.
Something that should come as welcome news for people who would like to have a canine companion but have concerns about the demands that would be placed upon them because of that. Of course, the Coton de Tulear does has its fair share of potential issues as well. For example, they are one of the dog breeds that can suffer if they are forced to spend too much time away from their humans.
Similarly, they have a small gene pool because they came uncomfortably close to extinction at one point in time, meaning that bad breeding practices have been known to hit them very hard. Still, the Coton de Tulear can be a wonderful canine companion for those who make the right choices.
What Price Can You Expect to Pay For a Coton de Tulear?
How something is perceived has a huge effect on how something is priced. Purebred dogs tend to be seen in a more prestigious light than their non-purebred counterparts, so it makes sense for them to sell for higher prices than their non-purebred counterparts. Having said that, even individual dogs aren’t interchangeable.
Never mind separate dog breeds. As such, some purebred dogs can sell for much higher prices than others. For proof, look no further than the Coton de Tulear, which has a price range that is better-described as being in the low thousands of dollars rather than more than a thousand dollars. Apparently, it is common for one of these dogs to sell for $2,000 to $3,000.
A price range that can go even higher for more prized dogs from more reputable dog breeders. That is well beyond what most purebred dogs cost even when interested individuals choose to buy from reputable dog breeders. In fact, this price range is comparable to the kind of price range that one would expect for lot of purebred dogs with prestigious backgrounds.
How Price is Determined
The price of a dog is determined by the interaction between supply and demand in much the same way as any other product. Less supply means higher prices because interested individuals are competing for a smaller number of units. Similarly, more demand means higher prices because there are more interested individuals competing for those units.
The Coton de Tulear doesn’t seem to be the most in-demand dog breed that can be found out there. One source says that the American Kennel Club put the dog breed at 81st out of 195 dog breeds popularity-wise, which means that the dog breed is neither too popular nor too unpopular. As such, it seems reasonable to speculate that the issue is one of supply.
This is particularly true because the Coton de Tulear doesn’t seem to have been introduced to the United States until the 1970s, After which, it didn’t manage to win recognition as a dog breed from the American Kennel Club until the mid 2010s.
Can the Price Be Cheaper?
Regardless, it is understandable that interested individuals will want to find a way to get a Coton de Tulear at a cheaper price than this. After all, $2,000 to $3,000 is a lot of money even by the standards of most purebred dogs. There are some factors that might be worth looking into to see whether they can be used to get a better deal on a particular dog or not.
For example, most people want puppies, so any dog that is older than that tend to be less expensive because of a lack of demand. Similarly, it is worth mentioning that there are strict rules for what color a Coton de Tulear’s nose can be. Specifically, both American rules and international rules recognize those with black noses.
Unfortunately, only the latter recognizes brown noses. As for pink noses and even partially-pink noses, neither rules recognize those. Nose color doesn’t seem to be correlated with any physical issues or behavioral issues, so if people don’t mind getting a dog that doesn’t perfectly conform with the standards, this is something that they might want to look into.
Besides these, interested individuals might also want to think about getting a dog that is very closely-related to a Coton de Tulear without being considered one if they don’t care about official recognition from the kennel clubs. Mixed-breed dogs tend to be less expensive than their purebred counterparts, so this is something that might prove to be useful.
Buyer Beware
In any case, interested individuals should be careful about finding a deal for a Coton de Tulear that is suspiciously cheap. As a rule, they should always pay a visit to a dog breeder’s operations when they are buying a dog. This is so that they can actually see the dog breeder’s operations for themselves, which makes it much easier for them to figure out whether the dog breeder’s claims can be believed or not.
Official documents are very good in this regard; official documents plus eye evidence is even better. A suspiciously cheap price is the kind of thing that makes it even more important for interested individuals to pay a visit because it is a potential sign of a puppy mill.
For those who are unfamiliar, puppy mills happen because there are limited ways by which dog breeders can make their businesses profitable. The orthodox approach would be producing better dogs through good care, good breeding practices, and the like. Something that should enable the dog breeder to charge higher prices by building up a better reputation.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous dog breeders out there who will choose to make their businesses profitable by going all-in on a low-price, high-volume strategy. With a lot of products, that is a non-issue from an ethical perspective. For example, the best pens can be quite expensive. However, a cheap, mass-produced ballpoint pen is much the same for most people under most circumstances.
Production Costs
As such, there is nothing wrong with choosing either option so long as interested individuals feel that they are getting their money’s worth. When a product happens to be a living being, the considerations change. Now, there is nothing wrong with lowering production costs so that some of the savings can be passed on to would-be dog owners.
Interested individuals definitely shouldn’t feel compelled to seek out the most expensive dog that they can find if they just want a happy, healthy dog. The issue is that there will come a point when that cost-cutting starts eating into the minimal level of care and consideration that should be afforded to the dogs, which can have a very negative effect on said animals.
In fact, it is worth mentioning that the Coton de Tulear is actually quite sensitive to bad breeding practices. As mentioned earlier, they have a small gene pool. Thanks to this, bad breeding practices increase the chances of inheritable medical conditions showing up. Suffice to say that such things can be very expensive.
Not the Most Common Breed
The Coton de Tulear isn’t the most common dog breed that can be found out there. Still, it isn’t exactly what anyone would consider to be a complete unknown either. As such, it is possible for interested individuals to come upon a Coton de Tulear in animal shelters as well as similar organizations, meaning that adoption should be a better choice for people who are concerned about paying the prices that these dogs can command.
After all, even the most expensive adoption tends to top out at around $200 to $300, which looks particularly good when the normal price range for a Coton de Tulear is 10 times those numbers. Of course, there are various potential issues with adoption that interested individuals will need to keep in mind if they want to proceed with this particular course of action.
One, there is no guarantee that they will find a suitable dog right away. Two, even if they find a suitable dog or suitable dogs, chances are good that they will be choosing from a smaller number of possibilities. Three, dogs are sometimes sent to animal shelters and the like because they have some kind of issue that their previous dog owner couldn’t handle.
None of these issues are insurmountable. Still, they mean complications that interested individuals need to be prepared to tackle if they want the best results from the process. Fortunately, animal shelters and the like want to see interested individuals succeed with their adoptions, meaning that these organizations tend to be very upfront with relevant information.
What Other Costs Should You Expect From Owning a Coton de Tulear?
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of specific information about the other costs of owning a Coton de Tulear. Still, they aren’t particularly unusual dogs in any respect. As a result, it seems reasonable to speculate that the average costs of owning a dog should be at least somewhat applicable to their case. For starters, the first year of dog ownership tends to be the most expensive.
This is because of the various costs that need to be paid for the initial setup. For instance, interested individuals are going to need bowls, leashes, as well as other toys, tools, and accessories for their dog. However, a lot of the costs are likely to come from microchipping, medical examinations, and other procedures that need to be carried out.
Some of these can cost hundreds of dollars. To name an example, spaying or neutering can cost anywhere from $150 to $700 depending on the exact circumstances. Combined, it is no wonder that the first year can be twice as expensive as the average year, which is already something like $1,500 to $9,900.
Small Numbers Add Up
A fair amount of those costs will come from food, grooming, and pet services. Even small numbers can add up when they are repeated again and again with great consistency. However, healthcare and healthcare-related costs tend to make up a very noticeable chunk of a dog’s regular expenses. Just routine visits, routine tests, and other kinds of preventative healthcare can hit the high hundreds of dollars to more than a thousand dollars with ease over the course of a single year.
If a dog actually needs treatment for something, that number can skyrocket because paying out-of-pocket for treatment is extremely expensive. There are a lot of serious medical conditions for which interested individuals will need to pay thousands of dollars for treatment. Due to this, it is very common for people to buy pet insurance, thus ensuring that their dog will be covered in case something goes wrong. On average, the cost of pet insurance for dogs is something like $50 on a monthly basis. Besides pet insurance, it is also a good idea for interested individuals to set aside an emergency saving fund so that they will have money ready in case something ever goes wrong.
