A Complete Price Guide for the Puggle

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The Puggle is one of the designer dogs that have become popular in recent decades. For those who are unfamiliar, they are meant to capture the best characteristics of not one but two purebred dogs in the same animals. As a result, designer dogs aren’t quite the same as standard mixed-breed dogs that have come into existence through happenstance. In any case, it is very common for them to bear names that make it very clear which purebred dogs were used to create them. It should come as no surprise to learn that Puggles were created using Beagles and Pugs.

What You Need to Know

Beagles are scenthounds on the smaller side of things. Apparently, they are called thus because they were meant for beagling, which would be the hunting of hares and rabbits but specifically not foxes. Thanks to that, Beagles possess exceptional noses even by canine standards. This is one of the reasons that they are so often-used as detection dogs, though it helps that they are also both smart and good-natured animals. On top of that, Beagles aren’t particularly prone to inherited health problems. Something that has contributed to their popularity as pet dogs as well. Meanwhile, Pugs started out as pet dogs and have remained as pet dogs. However, it is important to note that these animals have seen significant changes over time. In particular, modern Pugs have flatter faces compared to their predecessors, which is why they are so much likelier to suffer from eye problems as well as breathing problems. Still, they are playful and affectionate animals, meaning that they have managed to endear themselves to a lot of people out there. Designer dogs can be rather unpredictable. Simply put, purebred dogs have undergone generation after generation of breeding for a single consistent set of characteristics. Even then, it is very much possible for them to inherit unwanted characteristics. Designer dogs were created in much more recent times. As such, they are a much more random mix of characteristics from both sides of their heritage. Puggles are no exception to this rule. This is why interested individuals should make an extra effort to familiarize themselves with the dog of their choice before bringing said animal home with them. Otherwise, they might experience an unwelcome surprise because their Puggle turns out to be different from what they expected.

Having said this, it would be an exaggeration to say that designer dogs have no consistency whatsoever. Generally speaking, Puggles can be expected to inherit any characteristics that are common to both sides of their heritage. For example, they tend to be very friendly animals that can get along very well with their human family members. Similarly, it is very common for them to have a stubborn side, which can make it somewhat more difficult to train them. Puggles become much more variable when Beagles and Pugs differ from one another. Sometimes, they are as laid-back as their Pug predecessors. Other times, they are much more energetic, which is very much a carryover from the Beagle side of things. Likewise, they tend to be better-off than Pugs when it comes to their faces, though they can still have inherited health problems. Despite this unpredictability, Puggles are quite likable, so it isn’t hard to see why people would want one of their very own.

What Can You Expect to Pay For the Puggle?

Mixed-breed dogs tend to be cheaper than purebred dogs. After all, the latter are held in higher regard by most people, with the result that they can fetch higher prices from most people as well. However, it is important to note that this is a general guideline rather than a hard rule. As mentioned earlier, designer dogs aren’t quite standard mixed-breed dogs, which in turn, means that designer dogs tend to sell for quite a bit more than standard mixed-breed dogs. In the Puggle’s case, interested individuals shouldn’t be surprised if they are asked to pay a price that is in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Certainly, they can find cheaper puppies from cheaper sources. Even so, there is a question of whether they should do so. Generally speaking, dog breeders are running businesses. As a result, they need to make a profit on their primary product, which means selling their dogs at a high enough price to cover the cost of their dogs as well as the cost of their operations. If dog breeders can’t do that, they are going to eat a loss on every single one of their dogs.

Something that will see them going out of business at some point unless they have some other source of money that they are willing to use to sustain their dog breeding operations. Under these circumstances, the price of a dog tends to reflect the costs that went towards that dog. Some of these costs are very direct in nature. For example, health care tends to cost a fair amount of money. This is true whether the health care is meant for a dog or for a human. Similarly, training tends to cost a fair amount of money because that kind of thing calls for a fair amount of expertise and experience. Meanwhile, other costs are less easy to connect with individual dogs but are no less important for them. To name an example, dog breeders need to pay a fair amount of money for their dogs’ accommodations, which include costs that might not be so easy to divide up among them. Regardless, the important thing is that the price of a product reflects the costs of a product, which is as true for dogs as for anything else.

So when interested individuals come upon a dog with a strangely-low price, that should cause them to wonder at exactly what is going on. It is possible for one dog breeder to run their operations in a more efficient manner than another dog breeder, thus enabling them to offer some of those cost savings to their customers in the form of a reduced price. Still, there are limits to what even the best dog breeders can do without having a detrimental effect on their dogs’ wellbeing. This doesn’t mean that a lower-priced dog must be a worse animal than a higher-priced dog. Just that there must be something unusual going on with a dog selling at a much lower price than most of its counterparts. Perhaps the dog breeder is trying to effectively give away the dog for some reason; perhaps the dog breeder is running their dog breeding operation at such a low cost that they can make a profit even with that price. Whatever the case, this is an important reminder that interested individuals should always check out a dog breeder’s operations so that they can be sure that said individual is on the up and up. Having a good reputation is a good thing, but having a good reputation that is backed up by eye evidence is even better. If people get careless, they could wind up with a Puggle that has a much higher chance of getting either physical issues or behavioral issues. Something that will mean much higher costs for them in the future because of the necessary health care.

Of course, there are a wide range of factors that can influence the price of individual Puggles. For example, there are more dog breeders producing them in some areas than in others. As a result, people living in those areas might be able to get a better price on them because competition means that the average price of a Puggle can’t go up too much. Interested individuals might be able to take advantage of this kind of thing by looking for Puggles from dog breeders that are situated further away from them. However, doing so will come with a couple of other major drawbacks. One, they can expect to pay transportation costs. Two, they will have a much harder time evaluating the dog breeder’s operations. Still, some people might consider these drawbacks to be worthwhile trade-offs for a lower price. Similarly, it can be worthwhile for people to look into Puggles that are considered to be less desirable by most people for reasons that aren’t actually detrimental to their ability to be a happy, healthy canine companion. Age is one of those things that are either always or almost always applicable. Puggles aren’t purebred dogs, so they don’t have breed standards that can be exploited in the same way as their purebred counterparts. Still, some Puggles are bound to be more popular than others for innocuous reasons, so those are things that interested individuals might want to look into.

Other than buying a Puggle, there is the option of adopting one as well. This option should be much cheaper than buying a Puggle from a reputable dog breeder. Even at its most expensive, it shouldn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars. The issue is the availability of Puggles. These designer dogs have decent popularity by designer dog standards. Even so, that doesn’t mean that interested individuals can count on there being a candidate for adoption with their local animal shelters and other animal welfare organizations. For that matter, even if there is a small number of candidates, that means that they are going to have fewer options to choose from, thus increasing the chances that they will have to settle for a dog that is good enough rather than be able to choose the perfect dog for them. Still, that low price can be very attractive. Never mind the fact that adopting a dog means doing an unambiguously good deed. If there is one more thing that people need to watch for, it is the chance that their candidate for adoption has some kind of issue that will make it more difficult to take care of them. Fortunately, animal welfare organizations tend to be very upfront about such things because they do want adoptions to work out for everyone involved. Thanks to that, interested individuals should be able to prepare ahead of time.

What Are Some of the Other Costs that You Should Expect From Owning a Puggle?

The price of a Puggle is just the start when it comes to owning one of these dogs. Interested individuals can expect to pay a lot of other costs as well. For instance, they can expect to spend between $150 and $650 on supplies for their Puggle’s first year. This will be higher than subsequent years because of non-repeating costs for things such as bowls, tools, and accessories. After that, the cost of supplies should fall to something like $55 to $260 on an annual basis because those non-repeating costs can be removed from consideration. Health care costs won’t see the same dramatic fall. There is still an estimate of $395 to $795 for the first year. However, subsequent years won’t be that much lower at an estimate of $330 to $725. Be warned that these are costs for preventative health care. If a Puggle gets sick, interested individuals can expect to see a dramatic spike in their health care costs because even a single treatment can cost hundreds of dollars.

The more serious the health problem, the higher the probable health care costs. Still, preventative health care can do a lot to prevent health problems as well as reduce the severity of health problems, thus making it very important even from a purely financial perspective. Of course, there are other costs that may or may not be applicable depending on what interested individuals look into for their Puggle. For instance, a lot of people will choose to buy pet insurance so that they will be covered in case something bad happens. On average, pet insurance costs something like $565 on an annual basis. The issue is that perceived riskiness has a huge impact on premiums, so interested individuals might want to see if there is anything that they can do to lower the perceived riskiness of their Puggle for the best price possible. Meanwhile, training costs tend to be relatively low for Puggles. They can be a bit stubborn, but even so, they aren’t one of the dogs that will need a lot of very expensive training. In most cases, training costs for Puggles will probably be around just $200 for a few weekly sessions.