As soon as you want to get involved with dog breeding, there are plenty of questions that will go through your head. You can read our recent and already very popular article on starting a kennel or grab yourself a copy of our comprehensive (300+ pages) bestseller, The Dog Breeder’s Handbook.
Here are a few day-to-day operations all breeders have to deal with.
Licensing
In most countries, dog breeding is totally legal. Not all dog breeding facilities or kennels must get a license with the USDA or in the United Kingdom, with their local council. Each council and state has different regulations in place but usually, dog breeders must get licensed if they have more than X breeding dogs at the same time.
Cleaning
A virus or bacterial contamination can ruin years of hard work, so you must have a precise cleaning schedule and use the best kennel disinfectants out there that will be gentle on your dogs and environment, but tough on viruses and bacterias. Backyard dog breeding is irresponsible and generally gives very little importance to hygiene and the sanitization of the canine areas.
Health & Safety
Having a kennel often means handling chemicals and building specific areas for the dogs to enjoy themselves (pens, runs, whelping boxes) which puts you at risk, so make sure you follow the basic health and safety rules.
Taxes
Whether your dog breeding activity is taxable or not depends on how you are run it and how much profit you are generating, if any. It also depends on the timeshare dog breeding is taking from your daily activities. If you are professional breeding dogs, you may want to consult with an accountant just to clarify a few points. You do not want to IRS knocking on your door to ask you for years of unpaid taxes.
How Much To Sell a Puppy For?
We’ve written an extremely popular article layout out the right strategy to follow when deciding on the price for each of your puppies in a litter. The principle is simple but tedious: sum up all expenses related to your litter and kennel, divide them by the number of puppies in the litter, and work around that starting price.