qustions for those of you who own a kennel and breed dogs.

You can count on not making any money for a several years. For what you are looking for, you need to find a breeder that breeds nice show dogs but also hunts and proves their dogs in the field (and very few do both). If you have been raised around the breed then you know what you are looking for, so you really should go to wherever you are going to get pups from and hand pick them. Getting nice dogo pups here from out of country, you are looking at several thousand dollars.

If you are going to be a responsible breeder, then you need to consider if the dogs don't turn out, you need to cull them and start over. In fact, when you buy a dog like this and are wanting something that will EARN the right to be bred, you should count on culling them because only the best should be bred. You should really count on not breeding or plan on culling if you do not go hand pick your pup.

Once you find a dog that you think will work out, it will take a few years to prove them in the field/show ring. The way this breed is, you will be lucky to get a dog that excels enough in the field or the show ring, let alone both. When I say excels in the field, they should be able to handle big boars by themselves, and be able to stand in their own guts while doing it, they should be dead game. Are you ready to do what it takes to prove that in a dog?

Lets say you hunt the dogs a few times a month as most do, they may be proven in three or four years. So your four years in, $5k in the pair (if the original two pups both work out, which both probably won't), another $2k in vet care/emergencies (to be on the safe side). Thats $7k plus dog food for two dogs pushing 1oo lbs. Then you can add all your fuel and time hunting, all your fuel and fees for dog shows, add in paying a handler if you haven't shown dogs before (I can't really put numbers on that since Im not a dog show person). After all that, we will say $10k (to be conservative), plus cost of dog food, plus time.

Now its time to breed and everything goes well. Your bitch has 8 pups. The runt dies, now you have 7. You keep 7 healthy for eight weeks and get them BAER (hearing) test done for however much that costs. Two are deaf (so you have to cull them), now you have five pups. You do a vet check and give a health guarantee, one person brings a pup back for allergies. When it is all said and done you have sold four (if you don't keep one) pups for $1000 a pop, so after two litters of this, your still not close to you investment.

That is just a conservative scenario of what could happen. When it comes to breeding working dogs, money should be the last thing on your mind. Breedings should be for your personal use and for the breed itself. If your not breeding top dogs, you doing the breed and everyone in the breed a disservice. If your old man has been in the breed this long and his is in it for the right reasons, he probably knows what he is talking about. I would listen to him and soak up every ounce of knowledge you can from him, then one day he may pass down his dogs to you and you can carry on his line.

My advice to you would be to adopt a dogo, hunt the paws off of it, and just learn what it is like to have sole financial, physical, and mental responsibility of a working dog, especially a dog of this size. Its not all about just cleaning the kennels and feeding them. I sent you a pm, just wondering who your old man is. I can point you in the right direction to adopt a dogo as well. I love the Dogo and own two full blood and one dogoXab at the moment. My male is has probably caught close to 100 hogs and many of them good boars and he is only 16 mo old, and I wouldn't consider him proven, just an idea of what it takes to really work on proving a dog.