We have loads of dogs waiting for just the right person or family.Please go to our Adoptable Dog and Puppy page to see our glorious, loving, and sometimes goofy pack. When you find someone you want to meet, then please go to our Adoption Application page and complete it in its entirety.

Okay, we admit it, some of these figures at the left made us roll on the floor in laughter. So maybe the fun isn't over.  I mean, have you priced premium dog food lately? And just one vet visit for a new dog is close to if not exceeding $200. Try multiplying that figure by three at least. 


From Stephen Zawistowski, Ph.D., Sr. VP Animal Sciences, ASPCA 
Notes
1Premium brand dry kibble.
2 Exam, vaccinations, heartworm medication.

  **The above spreadsheet created by Mr Zawistowski estimates the costs of keeping a pet. It is a crude estimate since many of these costs can vary from place to place, or based on personal preferences and choices. It considers generally essential costs, and does not include boarding, walking, day care, etc. Veterinary costs will escalate for older pets. It does not include costs for the acquisition of the pet.

from RaisingSpot.com
  If you saved the money most dogs cost over their lifetimes, you could buy a new car or take a trip around the world. Before you decide to adopt a dog, consider the cost, both monetarily and emotionally, of raising a healthy, happy puppy through adulthood.

The first year
  The cost of a dog is usually more the first year than each year after because of several one-time expenses. These include the price of the puppy, initial vaccinations, and the purchase of supplies like a crate, collar, and leash.

Purchase Price of a Puppy: $50 – 1,000
  A future champion show dog can cost more than $1,000 or you can adopt a puppy from an animal shelter for as little as $50-75. The cost of a purebred puppy may seem steep, but it’s worth it if he’s healthy and the breeder guarantees he has no genetic defects. You’ll spend less on veterinary care over the dog’s lifetime than you would with a “free puppy” from poor breeding with the potential for temperament issues. **Obviously we in rescue know our facilities are crammed with dogs and puppies from breeders, therefore, we do not endorse buying a puppy. Please don't breed or support breeders while shelter dogs die.

Veterinary/Medical costs: $160 – 670
  The cost of spaying or neutering a dog is $50-200 depending on the size of the dog and whether there are health conditions that can complicate the surgery. A routine veterinary exam runs from $45-150. The cost of puppy vaccinations and boosters is $20-150. Worming and fecal exams cost $20-40. If you live in an area that puts your dog at risk for heartworms, basic testing and preventative treatments run $25-130.

Dog Food: $150 – 500
  The cost of your dog’s food will depend on his size and what you feed him. The bigger the dog, the more he eats, and premium dog food is more expensive than off-brand kibble. You can save money with a generic food, but it could be at the expense of your dog’s health.

Supplies: $150 – 1,700
 The supplies you’ll need to care for a dog include: food and water bowls, a collar and leash, stain cleaner and odor neutralizer, chew toys, treats, and a crate. Optional items include: a dog bed, a car restraint, and fencing if you have a yard. Of course the cost of dog supplies will vary based on the quality of the products.

Grooming: $20 – 400
  Short-haired dogs require less maintenance and have fewer grooming expenses than those with longer coats. You can tackle grooming on your own with some shampoo and a brush. If your dog has special needs, however, you’ll need to pay for a professional groomer.

Training: $30 – 500
 All dogs need obedience training. It allows you to communicate with your dog and keeps him healthy both physically and mentally. If you’re the do-it-yourself type, you can train your dog for the cost of a book or DVD. But remember, there’s no substitute for the assistance of a professional dog trainer.

Miscellaneous: $100 – 500
 This covers minor charges associated with the cost of owning a dog. They include: licensing fees averaging $10-20 per year, having a pet sitter come by or boarding your dog at a kennel, and the special treats that find their way into your cart at the pet supply store.

For the first year of ownership, dogs cost anywhere from $660 to $5,270 or more.

Annual cost of a dog
  After the first year, you can estimate the yearly price of owning a dog as follows:

• Food: $150-500
  
• Veterinary Exams: $45-150
• Vaccinations: $10-100
• Worming and Fecal Exams: $20-40
• Heartworm Treatment: $25-130
• Grooming: $10-400
• Training: $0-500
• Supplies: $0-200
• Miscellaneous: $100-500

The yearly cost can start at $360 and rise to $2,520 or more.

The total
  If a dog’s average lifespan is twelve years, buying a puppy and caring for him throughout his life will cost $4,620 to $32,990. You may spend more or less depending on the dog you adopt and where you live. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include expenses like emergency medical care or dealing with the issues of old-age in dogs, which can run into the thousands of dollars.

It’s also important to consider factors other than money, particularly the emotional cost of owning a dog. Raising a pet through sickness and health can be as trying as it is rewarding.

The cost of a dog is an investment, both of your money and your love. So before you adopt a puppy or dog make sure you’re willing to spend what it takes to keep a pet healthy and happy for his lifetime.

We believe strongly in obedience training that continues until your dog dies. Dogs like people are constantly learning so it is important to provide these high intelligent dogs with mental stimulation.
There are not strong enough words to state how important we believe positive training with a huge emphasis on foundation training is for a successful relationship with your dog.  Good, loving, positive training helps create a lifelong bond between you and your dog. Leaders like Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor and Jean Donaldson provide wonderful step by step ideas for making positive training work for you and your dog.  Please invest in books, tapes, any material from these giants in positive behavioral training. Jean says it best in the following article:
Talk Softly and Carry a Carrot or a Big Stick?
By Jean Donaldson, 
Director of The SF/SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers

Dog training is a divided profession. We are not like plumbers, orthodontists or termite exterminators who, if you put six in a room, will pretty much agree on how to do their jobs. Dog training camps are more like Republicans and Democrats, all agreeing that the job needs to be done but wildly differing on how to do it.

The big watershed in dog training is whether or not to include pain and fear as means of motivation. In the last twenty years the pendulum swing has been toward methods that use minimal pain, fear or intimidation - or none at all.

The force-free movement has been partly driven by improved communication from the top. Applied behaviorists, those with advanced degrees in behavior, and veterinary behaviorists, veterinarians who have completed residencies specializing in behavior problems are in greater abundance than in previous decades, and there is much more collaboration between these fields and trainers on the front lines. These two professions are quite unified on the point that the use of physical confrontation and pain is unnecessary, often detrimental and, importantly, unsafe.

On a more grassroots level, trainers have found more benign and sophisticated tools by boning up on applied behavior science themselves. Seminal books like marine mammal trainer Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog made the case that training and behavior modification can be achieved without any force whatsoever. 

But dog training is currently an unregulated profession: there are no laws governing practices. Prosecutions under general anti-cruelty statutes are occasionally successful but greatly hampered by the absence of legal standards pertaining specifically to training practices. Provided it's in the name of training, someone with no formal education or certification can strangle your dog quite literally to death and conceivably get off scot-free. 

It's not a complete wilderness: three sets of dog training guidelines exist, one in the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) Mission Statement, one published by the Delta Society and one by the American Humane Association (AHA). All state that less invasive (i.e. without pain or force) techniques must be competently tried and exhausted before more invasive techniques attempted. Such guidelines are not yet mandatory but they're a start. 

And so the current professional climate is one laden with some remaining fierce debate. There's an ever-expanding group of trainers that train force-free (ad. literature will be some variation on the theme of "dog-friendly" or "pain-free"), trainers that still train primarily with force (ad literature: "no-nonsense" or "common sense") and trainers that employ liberal use of both force and rewards (ad literature: "balanced" or "eclectic"). From a consumer's standpoint, the choice in methods is wide. You can hire a professional to train your dog pretty much any way that suits your fancy and it's all legal.

The force-free movement gains momentum every year and a sure sign of this is that many trainers in the other camps resort to murkier and murkier euphemisms to disguise their more violent 

 Janis Bradley, my colleague here at The SPCA, sagely points out that the positive reinforcement trend has become a big enough juggernaut to warrant a backlash and Milan represents exactly that. Like the frazzled Los Angelinos in the film "Crash" (which, notably, took Best Picture honors at The Academy Awards last year), people are fed up with having to be politically correct in a chronically frustrating and disconnected world. Couldn't we just "get real" and stop being kind and tolerant all the time? 

And here we positive-reinforcement oriented dog trainers are now telling everyone they have to be nice and politically correct to the dog? Well, yes.
Dog training is a divided profession. We are not like plumbers, orthodontists or termite exterminators who, if you put six in a room, will pretty much agree on how to do their jobs. Dog training camps are more like Republicans and Democrats, all agreeing that the job needs to be done but wildly differing on how to do it.

The big watershed in dog training is whether or not to include pain and fear as means of motivation. In the last twenty years the pendulum swing has been toward methods that use minimal pain, fear or intimidation - or none at all.

The force-free movement has been partly driven by improved communication from the top. Applied behaviorists, those with advanced degrees in behavior, and veterinary behaviorists, veterinarians who have completed residencies specializing in behavior problems are in greater abundance than in previous decades, and there is much more collaboration between these fields and trainers on the front lines. These two professions are quite unified on the point that the use of physical confrontation and pain is unnecessary, often detrimental and, importantly, unsafe.

On a more grassroots level, trainers have found more benign and sophisticated tools by boning up on applied behavior science themselves. Seminal books like marine mammal trainer Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog made the case that training and behavior modification can be achieved without any force whatsoever. 

But dog training is currently an unregulated profession: there are no laws governing practices. Prosecutions under general anti-cruelty statutes are occasionally successful but greatly hampered by the absence of legal standards pertaining specifically to training practices. Provided it's in the name of training, someone with no formal education or certification can strangle your dog quite literally to death and conceivably get off scot-free. 

It's not a complete wilderness: three sets of dog training guidelines exist, one in the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) Mission Statement, one published by the Delta Society and one by the American Humane Association (AHA). All state that less invasive (i.e. without pain or force) techniques must be competently tried and exhausted before more invasive techniques attempted. Such guidelines are not yet mandatory but they're a start. 

And so the current professional climate is one laden with some remaining fierce debate. There's an ever-expanding group of trainers that train force-free (ad. literature will be some variation on the theme of "dog-friendly" or "pain-free"), trainers that still train primarily with force (ad literature: "no-nonsense" or "common sense") and trainers that employ liberal use of both force and rewards (ad literature: "balanced" or "eclectic"). From a consumer's standpoint, the choice in methods is wide. You can hire a professional to train your dog pretty much any way that suits your fancy and it's all legal.

The force-free movement gains momentum every year and a sure sign of this is that many trainers in the other camps resort to murkier and murkier euphemisms to disguise their more violent 

 Janis Bradley, my colleague here at The SPCA, sagely points out that the positive reinforcement trend has become a big enough juggernaut to warrant a backlash and Milan represents exactly that. Like the frazzled Los Angelinos in the film "Crash" (which, notably, took Best Picture honors at The Academy Awards last year), people are fed up with having to be politically correct in a chronically frustrating and disconnected world. Couldn't we just "get real" and stop being kind and tolerant all the time? 

And here we positive-reinforcement oriented dog trainers are now telling everyone they have to be nice and politically correct to the dog? Well, yes.

Recently a group of dog people were arguing over nutrition for our animals. Trust me, it is impossible to put a group of us together and not get a variety of viewpoints especially if you have a RAW Diet advocate in the group.  On one point we all agree, selling dog food is big business and marketing that dog food is even bigger business. We've all seen ads on TV where fresh delicious human-grade ingredients are flowing into a doggy bowl to make that kibble your dog love to eat. Well folks, don't fall for it. Your paying  in part the salary of the person that developed that campaign, then you're helping pay for that advertising and finally you're paying for the ingredients actually being used to make that dog food. And let me share, if you saw the real ingredients going into that food you would never consider feeding it to your dog if your dog's health was even a little important. 
Many consumers don’t want to know is that the pet food industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries. Those consumers just want to add that bag of dog food to their cart when they are doing the family marketing. Let's face it, we're all rushed, stressed and time is precious in today's world. Unfortunately, pet food provides a convenient way for slaughterhouse offal, grain waste considered “unfit for human consumption,” and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, heads, hooves, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts. Just take a look at some of the bigger players in the pet food industry. The most recent information we could find was from 2009. The players included Mark (Mars Pet Care) owning, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Cesar and Nutro; Nestle is number two and to their credit are going green. This company is the first to use renewable energy to produce dog food.  They own - Alpo, Come 'N Get It, Mighty Dog, Chef's Blend, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Kit 'N Kaboodle, Deli-Cat, and Nestlé Purina products such as Dog Chow, Pro Plan, Beneful and Purina One; Colgate-Palmolive owns Hill's Science-Diet, including the prescription foods; Proctor & Gamble Co. own Eukanuba, Iams, Natura Pet Products including Innova, Evo, California Naturals, Healthwise and Karma and Del-Monte Foods owns Nature's Recipe, Meaty Bone, Kibbles 'n Bits, Gravy Train to list a few of the biggies.  

Regardless, one woman in our dog group came out with a statement I told her I was keeping as mine. She said essentially would you allow your child to eat fast food for every meal? It was a light bulb moment for me when it comes to explaining nutrition to other people. We all know what fast food is for humans so what do we consider the fast food equivalent for dogs?  Foods that contain ingredients like the following:

Additives: Glyceryl Monostearate, Phosphoric Acid, and Propylene Glycol. 

Binders: Corn Gluten and  Wheat Gluten

Carbohydrate Sources: Brewers Rice,  Cereal Food Fines,  Feeding Oat Meal,  Grain Fermentation Solubles, Maltodextrins & Fermentation Solubles, Potato Product, and Soy Flour      

Coloring Agents: Blue 2 (artificial color), Red 40 (artificial color), Titanium Dioxide, Yellow 5 (artificial color), and Yellow 6 (artificial color).

Fat Sources: Animal Fat, Beef Tallow, Lard, Poultry Fat and Vegetable Oil

Fiber Sources: Cellulose, Corn Bran, Corn Cellulose, Oak Hulls,     
Peanut Hulls, Rice Hulls, Soybean Mill Run and Wheat Mill Run, that may also appear as "Wheat Middlings".

Flavoring Agents: Animal Digest, Digest,  Flavor, Glandular Meal, Fruits & Vegetables Apple Pomace, Citrus Pulp,  and Grape Pomace. 

Preservatives: BHA, BHT,  Ethoxyquin and Propyl Gallate
 
Protein Sources: Beef & Bone Meal,  Blood Meal, Chicken Byproduct Meal,  Corn Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles,      
Corn Germ Meal,  Corn Gluten Meal, Fish Meal, Liver Meal, 
Meat & Bone Meal, Meat Meal, Pork & Bone Meal, Poultry Byproduct Meal, Poultry Meal and Soybean Meal 

Supplements: Bone Phosphate,  Salt, Mineral Oil, Yeast Culture, 
Yeast Fermentation Solubles, Sweeteners Cane Molasses, Corn Syrup, Fructose, Sorbitol, Sugar, Synthetic vitamin E, also listed as Dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate Vitamins Menadione Sodium Bisulfate, Vitamin K3 and synthetic vitamin K. Feed grade. Also listed as Menadione Dimethyl-Pyrimidinol Bisulfate, Menadione Dimethyl-Pyrimidinol Bisulfite, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite and Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex.