Tag archives: costs

A yearly NFL tradition is about to take place: the draft. Professional football is big business, with big money involved. In 2013, the NFL topped $9 billion in revenue, and commissioner Roger Goodell has a goal of annual revenue surpassing $25 billion by 2027.

Who a team selects with specific draft picks represents an investment of millions of dollars and can affect their on-field success for years to come. A bona fide star can spur a team to victory, packing a stadium, which increases concession sales, parking revenue and more. When merchandising is considered, a $20-million investment in a player can pay off.

Conversely, when a team selects the wrong player, it can cost them dearly. Not only do they miss out on a game- and franchise-changing personality, the investment in time and money the team makes on the wrong player is lost as well. Reaching for and overpaying a player can continue to impact a team years after the player washes out of the league.

When millions of dollars are involved, nothing is left to chance. College players hoping to break into the professional ranks undergo profiling that would make the NSA proud. The dossier a team collects on ...

The kids might be whining for a puppy, and you might actually be considering bringing one into your home.

But are you actually ready for a puppy?

Let’s see.

It’s not the kids’ dog

You can tell your spouse, co-workers, friends, the kids and even yourself, that the new puppy belongs to the kids and they are responsible for it. But that’s a lie.

This is your puppy, and soon-to-be adult dog. Don’t try to fool everyone else or yourself. After about two weeks, the kids’ attention will shift to something else – school, sports, cartoons, sitting on the couch. If the kids have soccer practice, homework, slumber parties or whatever else, the feeding, exercising, potty-break and clean-up responsibilities fall to you – more than likely that will happen even if they don’t have something going on.

Even if your kids do consistently take responsibility for the dog, you’re probably going to have to remind them to do it. In essence, you’re taking on another child for the next 10 to 15 years. Are you ready for that?

Equipment

Before you bring a puppy into the home, you’ll need a few basics: food and water bowls, a crate and blanket ...

Many people underestimate the ongoing financial burden of responsible dog ownership when considering a puppy, and instead focus on the upfront price of the dog.

The cost of a well-bred dog will be the least amount of money you ever spend on it. In an AKC survey of more than 1,000 dog owners, one-time costs (crate, neutering, bowls, leash, purchase price) averaged $2,100, while ongoing costs averaged $2,500 per year for items such as food, routine veterinarian care, boarding, treats and training. With the average lifespan of a dog being about 13 years, using these averages, you can expect to spend nearly $35,000 on a dog over the course of its lifetime. Even cutting these estimates in half, you can still expect to invest close to $20,000 in your pet.

The difference in paying for a $50 dog or a $1,000 is, in the long term, a negligible difference. Your upfront costs will always be the least of your financial worries.

That said, you should look for the best puppy you can find. A puppy whose parents were genetically tested prior to breeding and that come with a written health guarantee might cost a ...

I recently overheard two people discussing the cost of raising a dog and genetic testing came up. One comment was: “Do you want to pay now for a healthy puppy or pay a vet later?”. She was referring to the cost of the testing versus the cost of paying for the long-term healthcare of a dog with an inherited disease. 

In actuality, the cost of genetic testing may be less than the cost you would pay for a tooth cleaning or other routine, preventative care for your dogs. However, the genetic testing will last a lifetime and shouldn’t have to be repeated. Knowing the genetic profile of your dog will help you plan on whether you put the cost and time into training the dog and whether you eventually breed your dog. Genetic testing can improve the value of your breeding program by insuring the buyers that you have taken an active role in reducing the known genetic diseases in your lines.

Let’s take an example and walk through the health issues and costs. Hyperuricosuria, also known as urolithiasis, is a disease that affects at least 14 different breeds of dogs. Affected dogs develop bladder stones that ...