Price of working sheepdog/border collie Working Dogs

Ahhhhhh!! That type The sort that give all shepherds/farmers a bad name, and whose dogs in all likelihood are the ones that flood breed rescue :-(

A posh collie

I must admit my two current ISDS dogs were free-all I had to do was build their breeder a website or two, even then they would have only cost me £200 & £300 respectively(with 5 years in between !!)

From what I have seen, ISDS registered dogs are going from at least £250, mostly in excess of £300 nationally. The pups cannot be registered unless the parents have been tested for hereditory eye problems.

I would rather go for ISDS reg than KC registered and for some reason KC registered ones are far more expensive than most ISDS registered dogs unless you go to a top breeder and trainer of trial dogs for a pup.

Some farm-bred dogs are not registered but I would want to see proof of health testing of the parents. If the parents are ISDS registered you could do some research for epilepsy.

If you buy an unregistered pup for much less money make sure you see the pup with its' Mum. There are a heck of lot of puppy-farmed collies out there going for a song.

Where have you seen the pups that go for in excess of £300? I have found £150 to be the average for ISDS registered litters.

One of my ISDS reg collies was bought from a top trialler for £200.

In the breeders section on the ISDS website, follow some of the links. There are a few breeders/trainers that have untrained pups going for mega-money.

I paid about £150 three years ago for Polo. They are fetching a lot more now. I was shocked.

Possibly via the grapevine you can get them for less.

I think the average price at a sheepdog sale is cheaper.

We have 3 Border Collies here Sky black and white was £350 just over 4 years ago he is ISDS registered, next I got Sunny a red and white tri boy who is nearly 3 from a Farm about 60 miles from us he came mid December as a mate for Sky as jazz our oldie was on her last legs but she went on another 12 months after Sunny came and just 5 months ago I got my ISDS/KC Registered boy Mistral a split face blue merle boy

No difference form my 2 pedigrees to my farm boy and we love them all

I think you get what you pay for, mine were all bought is as puppies due to the number of cats we have and the cats have trained them superbly

I have been and looked at the majority of links on the site and can't find any prices for pups.

Our last litter were sold 18 months ago and they were £120. They are really well bred and it was a repeat mating as the first litter did so well (in working and trialling homes).

In my experience, it is much of a muchness, and pups at sales tend to go for between £100 and £200.

So, in your experience, you believe the more you pay for a dog, the better dog you end up with?!

I have looked quite recently but possibly got lost in links via links as I agree a lot of the breeders ask you to contact them if interested. But I have certainly seen a few of the well-known breeders advertising their pups for £400+

The Skipton auctions are averaging about £250 for an untrained pup, I seem to remember.

Perhaps I'll have to come to Scotland for my next pup.

This is what I think makes all the difference. It is not about the money, it is about getting a dog for themselves.

yup thats the experience here too. Regular farmer who compeates a little with his dog - £75 for pups unregistered or £100 with papers (cos that means another drive into the town)
Better farmer around £150
Older dogs much much more

and I agree, collies excel at sports imo because they have been bred for something that is far more demanding than sports
If you breed for sports then over time the ability will become less
and tbh I know alot of people with sports bred dogs and there isnt a single one I would want to live with
I know loads of dogs from working homes (some good, some not so good) and I would live with any one of them

Where can you do this ??

My ISDS two come from good working lines & low scored hips !

More ISDS puppies are advertized in the papers than on the ISDS website, some are never advertized at all !

I have no doubt. Erm not sure what links I am allowed to put up re: breeders so erring on the side of caution. I have a friend that has recently lost one of her dogs. Been trawling papers, websites etc. Made a few phone calls enquiring about pups within a 100 mile radius. No luck with any ads that have pups for less than £150 - all sound dodgy. (eg selling for a member of family that lives in different part of the country). Mostly Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland which are too far for him to travel.

I would love to see these ISDS registered pups that are going for less than £200 even :?

I paid £150 for a wsd from Kent 11 years ago, £250 for a sports bred bc 9 years ago and £400 for an isds dog 5 years ago from Scotland. He was from strongly health tested lines so I was more than happy with his cost and would happily have paid more if that had been necessary. I don't always think that spending more gets a better dog as there are some great rescue dogs in my sport(agility) but I was looking for something that was bred to be a high driven worker with thought put into the breed lines so cost was of little importance.

My dogs cost £225 for a show bred boy 13 years ago, £130 for ISDS reg girl 10 years ago, £375 for KC reg sports bred girl 5.5 years ago and the pup I bred cost me about £1200 (all health tests for bitch, stud fee, eye and BAER test for pups, travel fees, extra food, wormers = £2100, sold 2 pups for £450 each)!

My two youngest collies come from the same breeder and are closely related but one is BC and the other WSD. I would have been happy to pay the same price for each of them as I consider that I am paying for the work the breeder has done over the years in achieving such beautiful, well mannered and healthy dogs, as well as for a puppy.