How to Buy a Boston Terrier Puppy
How to buy a Boston Terrier? Find a breeder who doesn’t mate related dogs together, who home raises pups, and who exposes puppies to crate and potty training. Whether you buy a puppy from us, or from other Breeders, it is important that you do your research to avoid Puppy Mill puppies, irresponsible breeding practices, and Scammers. Here are some thing to keep in mind…
Buying for Health and Longevity
Just like with Humans we cannot say how long a dog will live or guarantee how much time we have with them. But we can reduce the chance of health issues and chances of early death by being selective in choosing a good breeder and being careful in deciding how to buy a Boston Terrier Puppy.
Looking for a breeder who knows the health of previous generations can help. You can also look for puppies who do not have any related dogs for at least 3 generations in their pedigree, and puppies whose parents are health tested for known issues in the Boston Terrier breed. The above “Bred With Heart” certification shows a breeder complies with Health testing requirements for the breed as well as other requirements. It is one of the things that can help in identifying high quality breeding practices.
Some testing that should be done on Boston Terrier sires and dams are: JHC DNA testing, OFA patella testing, OFA eye (CAER) testing and OFA hearing (BAER) testing are all vital. Some breeders even add other testing that is not in the CHIC requirements like OFA Heart and DM DNA testing. Any testing that is done can help breeders have a better over-all, holistic picture of the dog and help them to determine what pairings will lead to the best health and structure in the puppies.
Click here to learn more about Boston Terrier Health conditions.
Click here to get info on the OFA database for Boston Terrier testing.
How to buy a Boston Terrier for excellent Temperament
Some dog temperament traits are fixed traits and others are malleable. Finding a puppy with traits that work in your family is an essential thing when considering how to buy a boston terrier puppy.
For fixed traits, choosing Sires and Dams with positive traits is vital. For malleable traits like sight and sound sensitivity, touch tolerance, etc., they will need guidance and daily exposure.
The important thing is for a breeder to start early, teaching and training a puppy so that the things that are changeable can be changed for the betterment of the puppy’s personality. Positive exposure to sights, sounds and surfaces can all help a puppy to be more resilient and less fearful.
Finally, temperament testing is helpful to give you a snapshot of the puppy you are getting, their strengths and weaknesses, and what a puppy will need to work on. This is vital in being able to honor a dog and their needs. Dogs with a more fearful, less resilient nature will need a different approach than a confident, eager dog. The more knowledge we have, the better we can select a puppy that matches our lifestyle and understand them so as to be a better pack leader and trainer.
Why you can't find quality Boston Terrier puppies for sale under $500.
Responsibly breeding Boston Terrier puppies is expensive. As much as we all wish we could find Boston Terrier puppies for sale under $500, it is just not realistic. To produce puppies at that price, some serious short cuts will need to be made, ones that reputable breeders are not willing make. Some of the expenses that go into responsible breeding are as follows:
- Purchasing breeding-quality Boston Terriers as breeding prospects is expensive and can range between $3000-$10000 depending on bloodlines, etc.
- Health testing each parent dog can cost between $300-1000 depending on the area and availability of testing sites. Registering those tests with OFA are an additional cost as well.
- Vetting and regular care for a parent dog can cost several hundreds/thousands before they are even of breeding age.
- Many times breeding prospects fail health testing or do not turn out to be the structure or temperament we prefer for our breeding program. We then have to remove them from our program and replace them with a new dog and the cost for the original prospect is lost. We don’t just breed any dog we own because we invested in them, we only keep and breed the best.
- If using a stud, stud services can range between $500-2500 depending on quality.
- For some breedings AI is necessary. Shipping out of state semen, AI or TCI services and progesterone testing can enter the thousands.
- During pregnancy, there are costs such as Ultrasound, X-ray, etc and can be $100-500
- Many brachycephalic breeds need C-Sections. Scheduled C-sections are usually over $1000 and try as we might, there are occasional emergencies. Emergency C-sections can range between $3,500-5,000.
- Raising a litter in a healthy environment takes whelping boxes, whelping supplies, cleaning supplies, unending laundry with increased water and electricity usage. Toys and enrichment activities, potty substrates, puppy pens. The investment in these items is easily $500 per litter.
- Basic Veterinary care for a litter of puppies can run $250-500. Adding in dewclaw removal or any minor illness that might pop up during raising can increase the cost to over $1000.
- BAER testing puppies before go-home is $75-100 per puppy and can identify any deafness. This is important to test since 5% of Boston Terriers are deaf.
- And this does not take into account the amount of time a breeder spends on care and nurturing. A neonate puppy can take a bad turn in under 2 hours, so we forego sleep and spend hundreds of hours of puppy care in the first 2 weeks. And many more hours after that. If we were to make minimum wage for the hours we spend in care each litter, the cost would be astronomical.
How to not get taken by a Puppy Scammer
Since the Covid shut-downs there have been an unprecedented increase in puppy scammers. They are getting smarter and learning new ways to scam you. At the same time, breeders themselves are being scammed by people posing as buyers who come in and steal their mamas and puppies. Sometimes with violent means. What to do when both sides are mistrustful of outsiders? You may wonder how to buy a Boston Terrier and not be fooled by puppy scammers.
Here are some tips to help you decide if its a scam:
- Is the price too good to be true?
- Is the seller unable to facetime or zoom with you and show you mama and puppies?
- Do the puppies for sale look like they are different ages, have different backgrounds in the pictures, look older or younger than claimed?
- Are there no pictures/video of mama nursing? Are they able to send you pictures and health testing info of both sire and dam?
- Does the seller have a Facebook/Instagram page that goes back at least a year? If they are a new breeder, do they have pictures of the puppy parents posted on their personal profiles going back at least 6 months?
- When you do a google image search on the puppy pictures, does it link to a different website or social media page for a different breeder?
- Does the seller say they cannot get AKC paperwork or Vet paperwork until the deposit is made? Do they insist on a deposit before a zoom or facetime happens?
- Are there many grammatical errors or spelling mistakes in the conversation? Do they say Ma’am or Sir a lot in conversation?
Do not ignore your gut feeling. If you think its too good to be true, it probably is a puppy scammer. We have all shopped around to get a great deal on a pair of shoes or a car. But seeing as this is a family member that you would like to have around a long time, please be willing to shop for your breeder first. Not for the BEST PRICE but for the best breeding practices. When you find one you respect and trust, someone you can see yourself keeping in contact with for several years as you send them updates of your dog as it grows, THAT is your breeder. Then get on their waitlist and use that time to save your money and be ready to get the very best family member you can afford…That is how to buy a Boston Terrier puppy!
If you want to connect with a reputable Boston Terrier Breeder click on the button below.