At Pickwick Pugs, we carefully evaluate and select only the finest, health-tested AKC registered and foreign registered pugs with champion pedigrees from both America and Europe that will contribute to the future of our breeding program AND the future of this marvelous, ancient breed. When you look through the pedigrees of our breeding stock you will find a sea of AKC champions and grand champions, (including a pug who won more Best in Shows than any pug in history), as well as the kennel names of some amazing and important pug breeders.
So, what is a "preservation breeder"?
An honest preservation breeder is not going to make a profit but they will do their part in ensuring that future pugs continue to meet breed standard and are beautiful not just on the outside ("conformation") but also in temperament, and health.
An honest preservation breeder is not going to make a profit but they will do their part in ensuring that future pugs continue to meet breed standard and are beautiful not just on the outside ("conformation") but also in temperament, and health.
Why buy from a responsible preservation breeder?
Before I was born . . . . .
- My breeder studied my pedigree for a very long time and carefully chose my mom and dad.
- My parents were health tested.
- My family has proven at the shows that they conform to the breed standard (parents, grandparents, great grandparents ... my whole family.)
- My parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. proved typical pug's temperament in tests.
- Someone had me in their thoughts. I was purposefully bred.
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After I was born . . . . .
- My breeder took good care of me so I grew up well.
- My breeder put a lot of effort to socialize and train me.
- My breeder chose my new family carefully.
I can always go back home to my breeder at any time for any reason.
Responsible breeders protect, preserve, and better the breed.
Be a responsible dog owner - choose wisely.
Why preserve the pug breed?
Pugs are unlike any other dog. Described as "multum in parvo", they truly are "a lot in a little". That's the Pug .... a lot of dog in a little space.
Pugs love to love and be loved in return.
Pugs are charming, mischievous, smart, and loving. They are truly a perfect companion dog. That is their purpose in life.
This ancient breed was preserved from the times of Confucius .... going back some 2,000 years .... when the emperors of China developed these refined pets. Like many Far-Eastern breeds, Pugs were a treasure and outsiders only acquired them as a gift.
In the 1500s the breed spread to Europe with the Dutch traders. The Pug became the mascot of Holland's royal House of Orange after one saved the life of the prince by barking to warn him of an attack, (according to legend). After William and Mary of Orange arrived in England, their Pugs began the breed craze that swept Britain. Did you know that Napoleon's wife, Josephine, used her Pug "Fortune" to carry secret messages under his collar to her husband while she was imprisoned at Les Carmes? Did you know that Buddhist monasteries in Tibet kept Pugs as pets? They protected the monks by barking to warn the guards of any intruders.
With 2,000 years of history, we could be here all day talking about incredible pugs and the famous people they loved and comforted but the point for this article is that this INCREDIBLE ancient breed was preserved from the times of Confucius to the 21st century because of Preservation breeders.
If pug lovers want this marvelous breed to continue to flourish into the 22nd century ... with pugs who look and act like pugs and not chihuahuas or beagles ..... then they need to support responsible preservation breeders of the 21st century.
Pugs are unlike any other dog. Described as "multum in parvo", they truly are "a lot in a little". That's the Pug .... a lot of dog in a little space.
Pugs love to love and be loved in return.
Pugs are charming, mischievous, smart, and loving. They are truly a perfect companion dog. That is their purpose in life.
This ancient breed was preserved from the times of Confucius .... going back some 2,000 years .... when the emperors of China developed these refined pets. Like many Far-Eastern breeds, Pugs were a treasure and outsiders only acquired them as a gift.
In the 1500s the breed spread to Europe with the Dutch traders. The Pug became the mascot of Holland's royal House of Orange after one saved the life of the prince by barking to warn him of an attack, (according to legend). After William and Mary of Orange arrived in England, their Pugs began the breed craze that swept Britain. Did you know that Napoleon's wife, Josephine, used her Pug "Fortune" to carry secret messages under his collar to her husband while she was imprisoned at Les Carmes? Did you know that Buddhist monasteries in Tibet kept Pugs as pets? They protected the monks by barking to warn the guards of any intruders.
With 2,000 years of history, we could be here all day talking about incredible pugs and the famous people they loved and comforted but the point for this article is that this INCREDIBLE ancient breed was preserved from the times of Confucius to the 21st century because of Preservation breeders.
If pug lovers want this marvelous breed to continue to flourish into the 22nd century ... with pugs who look and act like pugs and not chihuahuas or beagles ..... then they need to support responsible preservation breeders of the 21st century.
Preservation Breeders are not in it for the money, they are in it for the preservation of the breed. Do you want your pug to look like the ones pictured in the breed standard books or like the ones you see in the Westminster dog show on tv? If so, you need to buy from a preservation breeder who ONLY breed pugs who meet the breed standard. A responsible preservation breeder will NEVER breed a pug who looks, acts, or thinks like a puggle with a large muzzle, or pugs with unhealthy spindly legs, fiddle front legs, eastie-westie front feet, or eyes which are not set correctly and 'bug out'. A responsible preservation breeder often travels across the country or world to find the best representatives of the breed to include in their program.
If a puppy buyer could find a pug faster, or perhaps even cheaper, from another breeder who does not care that the pugs they breed are amazing representations of the breed, does not care to join parent clubs like the Pug Dog Club of America, does not bother to show their pugs in AKC conformation, does not do important health testing, then why fool with a preservation breeder? Why pay more or wait longer? Because you are ensuring that the pug breed will continue to thrive and hopefully be around for the next generations to come. You are an active supporter and champion of the breed making sure your pug is "breed standard" ... that your pug looks acts, feels, and thinks like a pug not, say, a chug.
Purebred Pug
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Chug
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Don't get me wrong, chugs are cute and ALL mixed breed All-American dogs are amazing. We are dog lovers to the core, which is one reason we are also so active in animal rescue. However, we especially love pugs .... it has been our breed for over 30 years. There's a reason people love pugs. They are totally unique! So it's important to keep them unique and not breed pugs if they don't look, act, think, feel, and love like a purebred pug. (That is, if we want the breed to still be around in the 22nd century and beyond.)
Why should breeders "show"?
Quite often we hear puppy buyers mention "I'm not looking for a show pug, just a pet" and, to be honest, we probably said that ourselves many years ago when we purchased our first pugs in 1990. Back then, we honestly didn't know about reputable breeders and had no clue what the pug standard truly involved. But now we know that saying "I don't need a dog from a breeder who shows" is like saying, "I don't need a house from a builder who builds to code."
Why should breeders "show"?
Quite often we hear puppy buyers mention "I'm not looking for a show pug, just a pet" and, to be honest, we probably said that ourselves many years ago when we purchased our first pugs in 1990. Back then, we honestly didn't know about reputable breeders and had no clue what the pug standard truly involved. But now we know that saying "I don't need a dog from a breeder who shows" is like saying, "I don't need a house from a builder who builds to code."
It's true that, even when the parents are incredible, not every puppy in a given litter will end up being Westminster worthy. However, it's also true that if both the parents look more like chugs than pugs, (because the breeders didn't care enough to participate in dog shows, health testing, and educate themselves by being members of groups like the Pug Dog Club of America), then there is no chance that ANY puppy from a given litter will end up Westminster worthy.
When breeders do not participate in conformation dog shows, they often become kennel blind and standards are lowered. If enough breeders did this, pugs would stop looking like pugs, and eventually the breed would disappear entirely.
It's true that the show world is far from perfect and, in all honesty, some of the best pugs in the show ring will not be the best pugs in the home, temperament wise. Some pugs just hate the show world (like our Princess Buttercup) so it's possible in some instances that a breeder might allow certain dogs not to finish a championship yet still be a part of the breeding program. In our case, since Princess Buttercup had won "Best of Opposite Sex" to the #1 pug in the country (Biggie, who won more best in shows than any pug in history), and won Winners Bitch, Best of Winners etc. with some very important AKC judges, we felt that enough experts had confirmed our evaluation of her exceptionalism. Buttercup actually loved doing tricks and scent work, so we decided to allow her to pursue other avenues over conformation. Her quality of life was more important to us than yet another ribbon. However, we also continue to learn, grow, research, study, and stay involved in conformation with our pugs who don't mind the show scene and have earned several championships with other pugs since our decision to let Princess Buttercup stop showing. Since she sailed through all of her health testing so, we decided to breed her to a Grand Champion and, as we expected, she was an amazing mother and their offspring was gorgeous, and amazingly healthy. Yes, probably Westminster worthy.
Breeding is an art, not a science. Conformation dog shows are one of many tools a breeder can utilize. A very important tool, though, because as soon as breeders retreat entirely to their 'backyard', they will lose sight of breed standard .... Chugs replace Pugs .... and, if enough breeders retreated, the world would lose this amazing and ancient breed. Read more about backyard breeders.
Show me the money....
It's understandable why breeders would prefer not to fool with shows. They are expensive. They are time consuming. Keeping a dog "show ready" is a tremendous amount of work. Dog shows aren't always fair (there is a lot of politics involved) so they're often very frustrating.
Sometimes we'll be at Home Depot or a Sporting Goods store socializing one of our pugs and a person will approach us and say "are those show pugs?" "Do you breed them?" And then the inevitable question, "how much money do you make?"
Sigh.
This is probably the real reason some breeders don't want to fool with dog shows ... or health testing.
So, we try to explain to this Home Depot shopper that "we actually don't make any money ... in fact, we lose money" and they look at us incredulously as if we're keeping a secret from them. Who would be dumb enough not to make money?
But, that's the honest truth. Preservation breeders are not in it to make money. The best they can ever do is break even but that rarely happens, especially with pugs which are a very challenging breed to whelp and keep alive during the early weeks of life. And, they typically have pretty small litters (singletons are common -- 2 or 3 litters very common -- 6 or 7? that's like Old Testament wonder.)
Of course, we don't have time in the middle of Home Depot to go over the numbers with the inquiring stranger, but perhaps a little math at this point might explain things a bit further. Let's use a recent Pickwick pug litter for some stats.
If this litter had been a singleton, and the dam was not to have, or unable to have future litters, then that one puppy would have cost the breeder $44,000. Not smart math for the Preservation Breeder, but smart math for the future of the pug breed.
Dam and Sire are multiple Best of Breed winners in AKC shows, with Dam even having won Best in Show and sire being an AKC Grand Champion and half-brother to Biggie, the pug who won more Best in Shows than any pug in history. Multiple lengthy trips to Texas were involved and a hefty purchase price for the Sire. The Dam was the product of multiple lengthy trips to St. Louis, expensive progesterone testing, AI's etc., plus a purchase price to the breeder of the dam's mother (in addition to the purchase price of the dam's mother). This is before the expenses of showing the dogs, doing health testing, training, and on and on. And we haven't even mentioned the 'usual' expenses for a dog owner of vet bills, food, supplements, toys, beds, chews, treats, etc.
To get an idea of the scope of expense involved to produce a quality pug from health tested, champion bloodline parents, here is a breakdown of some of the expenses (not including food, routine vet expenses, vaccinations, supplements, etc.) with low end estimates on travel expenses and not including cost to whelp the Dam initially.
Example of costs from a litter of 3 puppies:
$3,000 to buy pick of litter back from dam's mother's breeder
$50 AI
$2,500 C-section
$175 X-ray #1
$175 d-ray #2
$180 Ultra Sound
Progesterone Tests (3): $80x 3 = $240
Brucellosis test $125
Re-stock of supplies: Oral cal, Benebac, Saline, Feeding Tubes, Lactated Ringers, Oxygenator, Incubator, Whelping box, blankets, heating pads etc.) ca. $1,000 (not including food, bones, goat milk etc.)
COSTS OF SHOWING DAM (this is a low-end scenario ... in other cases, there were things that cost more money .....when cars broke down, when a reservation was wrong and couldn't be canceled so we had to pay 3 times what was appropriate for a last-minute place to stay ... or when friends say "let's go out for dinner" instead of eating that peanut butter jelly sandwich for dinner etc. This is a very low estimate and doesn't even include the meals and treats and expensive shampoos and products, scissors, getting grooming shears sharpened, treats, toys to distract the pug, massages to relax the pug and so on. Yes, we have to spend money on all those things. So, in reality, factor in several more thousand).
64 nights hotel: $6,720; gas/mileage: $5,280 = $12,000
40 entries $1,400
Cost of Sire: $6,000
Trip to pick up stud/sire: $1,800 (we had to stay for a period of time waiting on the breeder)
COSTS OF SHOWING SIRE:
13 trips: $3,120 +$5,775 = $8,985
Training classes: $450
29 entries: $1,015
Puppy culture protocol materials: $800
Health tests: $1460 (OFA hip and patellar testing $550, PDE/PkDef $170+, spinal Xray and shoulder $320, $300
OFA eye/ophthalmologist; cardiac test $120)
Vet wellness visit: $145
C-section: $2,500
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
All this BEFORE actual pregnancy/whelp = $44,000
$44,000 divided by 3 puppies $14,666.67 per puppy
Cost of Puppy
Cost of 1 puppy to Pickwick Pugs $14,888.89
Individual Puppy’s Expenses (low estimate) $ 839.00
Dewclaw Removal: $84
Deworming/Vet Wellness: $160
AKC Reunite Microchip: $67
Temperament Evaluation: $45
AKC Registration and Pedigree: $88
Misc (Clavamox, probiotics, tube feeding supplies, xrays etc.) (A previous litter would have included the price of expensive equipment such as incubator, nebulizer, oxygenator, and other equipment which cost several thousand dollars)
High-Quality diet ($600 easily, dependent upon litter size; organic raw goat's milk
N&D Ancestral Grains, Raw Bones, Raw Meat, Treats, Vitamins, Collostrum,
Calcium, Esther C etc.)
Cost to breeder of one puppy (had it been a singleton with one litter $ 44,000.00+
Discount from Pickwick Pugs (our contribution toward preservation of the Pug breed): -$40,000.00
Total for puppy buyer: $4,000.00
Or, assuming this dam will have more than one litter with, ca. 3 puppies per litter the math might play out something like this:
Cost to breeder of one puppy........................................................................................................$8,312.89
Discount from Pickwick Pugs (contribution toward preservation of the breed): -$4,812.89
Total for puppy buyer........................................................................................................................$3,500.00
(Singleton Litters are more expensive as they almost always involve a C-section since the puppy grows larger and is usually too big for natural delivery. This does not mean the puppy will be bigger eventually, just in the womb as it gets all the nutrients to itself. Additionally, a singleton litter actually requires much more work due to the added socialization and training needed to counterbalance the lack of littermate who help with training, resource guarding, socialization etc.)
Schedule for individual time with each puppy (assuming all goes as planned an no problems with aspiration pneumonia or other issues such as engorged breasts eclampsia etc. and there are always complications with any litter, so these are low end time estimates)
Weeks 1-3
Whelping: Time varies ranging from a few hours (c-section) to 12 hours – not factored into time as $ of cost of c-section is included above
*NP – Neonate Phase
Weeks 1: Supervision of nursing every 90 minutes (literally, placing mother on back and placing each puppy on teet, aspirating milk constantly to prevent aspiration pneumonia, followed by elimination of each puppy by human and respiratory treatment with sucking out nose, nebulizer, percussion therapy and oxygen after each feeding for every puppy) = approx. 45 minutes times and a daily weigh-in and ENS approx. 5 minutes, and a daily GR gene stimulation approx. 3 minutes, so = 178 hours (16 nursing sessions daily x 45 minutes = 720 minutes plus 8 minutes ENS, daily weigh-in, and GR gene stimulation) = 728 minutes daily x 7 = 5,096 minutes per week or almost 85 hours per week) plus trip to vet for dewclaw removal and checkup so approximately 88 hours, plus administration of worming meds, probiotics, etc. approx. 90 hours
Week 2 = another approx. 87 hours
Week 3 = approximately 90 hours (add sound protocols and other)
Week 4 = approximately 20 hours per puppy minimum (adding training sessions, clicker, barrier challenges)
Week 5 = approximately 20 hours per puppy minimum
Week 6 = approximately 29 hours per puppy plus vet visit for 1st shots (or week 8)
Week 7 = approximately 34 hours per puppy (adding more training sessions and protocols and socialization)
Week 8 = approximately 44 hours (adding more training, protocols, socialization, and temperament evaluations and puppy party)
Week 9 = approximately 38 hours per puppy and puppy party
Week 10 = approximately 38 hours per puppy and puppy party
Week 11 = approximately 37 hours per puppy (and 2nd vet visit and shots)
Week 12 = gotcha day
517 hours per puppy minimum (it's really double this in reality) of individual handling/training/cleaning/grooming etc. x $5 per hour $2,585.00
Purchase Price of a 12-Week-Old Puppy from Diamond Litter:
Reimbursement of Expenses for the Diamond Litter: $8,312.89
Discount from Pickwick Pugs: - $4,812.89
(Pickwick Pug's Contribution toward preservation of the Pug Breed)
Total: $3,500.00
Once again, if this litter had been a singleton, and the dam was not to have, or unable to have future litters, then that one puppy would have cost the breeder $44,000. Not smart math for the Preservation Breeder, but smart math for the future of the pug breed.
When breeders do not participate in conformation dog shows, they often become kennel blind and standards are lowered. If enough breeders did this, pugs would stop looking like pugs, and eventually the breed would disappear entirely.
It's true that the show world is far from perfect and, in all honesty, some of the best pugs in the show ring will not be the best pugs in the home, temperament wise. Some pugs just hate the show world (like our Princess Buttercup) so it's possible in some instances that a breeder might allow certain dogs not to finish a championship yet still be a part of the breeding program. In our case, since Princess Buttercup had won "Best of Opposite Sex" to the #1 pug in the country (Biggie, who won more best in shows than any pug in history), and won Winners Bitch, Best of Winners etc. with some very important AKC judges, we felt that enough experts had confirmed our evaluation of her exceptionalism. Buttercup actually loved doing tricks and scent work, so we decided to allow her to pursue other avenues over conformation. Her quality of life was more important to us than yet another ribbon. However, we also continue to learn, grow, research, study, and stay involved in conformation with our pugs who don't mind the show scene and have earned several championships with other pugs since our decision to let Princess Buttercup stop showing. Since she sailed through all of her health testing so, we decided to breed her to a Grand Champion and, as we expected, she was an amazing mother and their offspring was gorgeous, and amazingly healthy. Yes, probably Westminster worthy.
Breeding is an art, not a science. Conformation dog shows are one of many tools a breeder can utilize. A very important tool, though, because as soon as breeders retreat entirely to their 'backyard', they will lose sight of breed standard .... Chugs replace Pugs .... and, if enough breeders retreated, the world would lose this amazing and ancient breed. Read more about backyard breeders.
Show me the money....
It's understandable why breeders would prefer not to fool with shows. They are expensive. They are time consuming. Keeping a dog "show ready" is a tremendous amount of work. Dog shows aren't always fair (there is a lot of politics involved) so they're often very frustrating.
Sometimes we'll be at Home Depot or a Sporting Goods store socializing one of our pugs and a person will approach us and say "are those show pugs?" "Do you breed them?" And then the inevitable question, "how much money do you make?"
Sigh.
This is probably the real reason some breeders don't want to fool with dog shows ... or health testing.
So, we try to explain to this Home Depot shopper that "we actually don't make any money ... in fact, we lose money" and they look at us incredulously as if we're keeping a secret from them. Who would be dumb enough not to make money?
But, that's the honest truth. Preservation breeders are not in it to make money. The best they can ever do is break even but that rarely happens, especially with pugs which are a very challenging breed to whelp and keep alive during the early weeks of life. And, they typically have pretty small litters (singletons are common -- 2 or 3 litters very common -- 6 or 7? that's like Old Testament wonder.)
Of course, we don't have time in the middle of Home Depot to go over the numbers with the inquiring stranger, but perhaps a little math at this point might explain things a bit further. Let's use a recent Pickwick pug litter for some stats.
If this litter had been a singleton, and the dam was not to have, or unable to have future litters, then that one puppy would have cost the breeder $44,000. Not smart math for the Preservation Breeder, but smart math for the future of the pug breed.
Dam and Sire are multiple Best of Breed winners in AKC shows, with Dam even having won Best in Show and sire being an AKC Grand Champion and half-brother to Biggie, the pug who won more Best in Shows than any pug in history. Multiple lengthy trips to Texas were involved and a hefty purchase price for the Sire. The Dam was the product of multiple lengthy trips to St. Louis, expensive progesterone testing, AI's etc., plus a purchase price to the breeder of the dam's mother (in addition to the purchase price of the dam's mother). This is before the expenses of showing the dogs, doing health testing, training, and on and on. And we haven't even mentioned the 'usual' expenses for a dog owner of vet bills, food, supplements, toys, beds, chews, treats, etc.
To get an idea of the scope of expense involved to produce a quality pug from health tested, champion bloodline parents, here is a breakdown of some of the expenses (not including food, routine vet expenses, vaccinations, supplements, etc.) with low end estimates on travel expenses and not including cost to whelp the Dam initially.
Example of costs from a litter of 3 puppies:
$3,000 to buy pick of litter back from dam's mother's breeder
$50 AI
$2,500 C-section
$175 X-ray #1
$175 d-ray #2
$180 Ultra Sound
Progesterone Tests (3): $80x 3 = $240
Brucellosis test $125
Re-stock of supplies: Oral cal, Benebac, Saline, Feeding Tubes, Lactated Ringers, Oxygenator, Incubator, Whelping box, blankets, heating pads etc.) ca. $1,000 (not including food, bones, goat milk etc.)
COSTS OF SHOWING DAM (this is a low-end scenario ... in other cases, there were things that cost more money .....when cars broke down, when a reservation was wrong and couldn't be canceled so we had to pay 3 times what was appropriate for a last-minute place to stay ... or when friends say "let's go out for dinner" instead of eating that peanut butter jelly sandwich for dinner etc. This is a very low estimate and doesn't even include the meals and treats and expensive shampoos and products, scissors, getting grooming shears sharpened, treats, toys to distract the pug, massages to relax the pug and so on. Yes, we have to spend money on all those things. So, in reality, factor in several more thousand).
64 nights hotel: $6,720; gas/mileage: $5,280 = $12,000
40 entries $1,400
Cost of Sire: $6,000
Trip to pick up stud/sire: $1,800 (we had to stay for a period of time waiting on the breeder)
COSTS OF SHOWING SIRE:
13 trips: $3,120 +$5,775 = $8,985
Training classes: $450
29 entries: $1,015
Puppy culture protocol materials: $800
Health tests: $1460 (OFA hip and patellar testing $550, PDE/PkDef $170+, spinal Xray and shoulder $320, $300
OFA eye/ophthalmologist; cardiac test $120)
Vet wellness visit: $145
C-section: $2,500
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
All this BEFORE actual pregnancy/whelp = $44,000
$44,000 divided by 3 puppies $14,666.67 per puppy
Cost of Puppy
Cost of 1 puppy to Pickwick Pugs $14,888.89
Individual Puppy’s Expenses (low estimate) $ 839.00
Dewclaw Removal: $84
Deworming/Vet Wellness: $160
AKC Reunite Microchip: $67
Temperament Evaluation: $45
AKC Registration and Pedigree: $88
Misc (Clavamox, probiotics, tube feeding supplies, xrays etc.) (A previous litter would have included the price of expensive equipment such as incubator, nebulizer, oxygenator, and other equipment which cost several thousand dollars)
High-Quality diet ($600 easily, dependent upon litter size; organic raw goat's milk
N&D Ancestral Grains, Raw Bones, Raw Meat, Treats, Vitamins, Collostrum,
Calcium, Esther C etc.)
Cost to breeder of one puppy (had it been a singleton with one litter $ 44,000.00+
Discount from Pickwick Pugs (our contribution toward preservation of the Pug breed): -$40,000.00
Total for puppy buyer: $4,000.00
Or, assuming this dam will have more than one litter with, ca. 3 puppies per litter the math might play out something like this:
Cost to breeder of one puppy........................................................................................................$8,312.89
Discount from Pickwick Pugs (contribution toward preservation of the breed): -$4,812.89
Total for puppy buyer........................................................................................................................$3,500.00
(Singleton Litters are more expensive as they almost always involve a C-section since the puppy grows larger and is usually too big for natural delivery. This does not mean the puppy will be bigger eventually, just in the womb as it gets all the nutrients to itself. Additionally, a singleton litter actually requires much more work due to the added socialization and training needed to counterbalance the lack of littermate who help with training, resource guarding, socialization etc.)
Schedule for individual time with each puppy (assuming all goes as planned an no problems with aspiration pneumonia or other issues such as engorged breasts eclampsia etc. and there are always complications with any litter, so these are low end time estimates)
Weeks 1-3
Whelping: Time varies ranging from a few hours (c-section) to 12 hours – not factored into time as $ of cost of c-section is included above
*NP – Neonate Phase
Weeks 1: Supervision of nursing every 90 minutes (literally, placing mother on back and placing each puppy on teet, aspirating milk constantly to prevent aspiration pneumonia, followed by elimination of each puppy by human and respiratory treatment with sucking out nose, nebulizer, percussion therapy and oxygen after each feeding for every puppy) = approx. 45 minutes times and a daily weigh-in and ENS approx. 5 minutes, and a daily GR gene stimulation approx. 3 minutes, so = 178 hours (16 nursing sessions daily x 45 minutes = 720 minutes plus 8 minutes ENS, daily weigh-in, and GR gene stimulation) = 728 minutes daily x 7 = 5,096 minutes per week or almost 85 hours per week) plus trip to vet for dewclaw removal and checkup so approximately 88 hours, plus administration of worming meds, probiotics, etc. approx. 90 hours
Week 2 = another approx. 87 hours
Week 3 = approximately 90 hours (add sound protocols and other)
Week 4 = approximately 20 hours per puppy minimum (adding training sessions, clicker, barrier challenges)
Week 5 = approximately 20 hours per puppy minimum
Week 6 = approximately 29 hours per puppy plus vet visit for 1st shots (or week 8)
Week 7 = approximately 34 hours per puppy (adding more training sessions and protocols and socialization)
Week 8 = approximately 44 hours (adding more training, protocols, socialization, and temperament evaluations and puppy party)
Week 9 = approximately 38 hours per puppy and puppy party
Week 10 = approximately 38 hours per puppy and puppy party
Week 11 = approximately 37 hours per puppy (and 2nd vet visit and shots)
Week 12 = gotcha day
517 hours per puppy minimum (it's really double this in reality) of individual handling/training/cleaning/grooming etc. x $5 per hour $2,585.00
Purchase Price of a 12-Week-Old Puppy from Diamond Litter:
Reimbursement of Expenses for the Diamond Litter: $8,312.89
Discount from Pickwick Pugs: - $4,812.89
(Pickwick Pug's Contribution toward preservation of the Pug Breed)
Total: $3,500.00
Once again, if this litter had been a singleton, and the dam was not to have, or unable to have future litters, then that one puppy would have cost the breeder $44,000. Not smart math for the Preservation Breeder, but smart math for the future of the pug breed.