Can you afford a dog?
Dogs can be quite expensive to keep. The purchase price of a dog is almost irrelevant. It is such a small part of the final cost. You are also going to need to payout money each week on keeping your puppy happy and healthy.
Obviously, you will have taken the cost of food into consideration. Modern veterinary treatment has simply gone off the radar. You can fix just about anything these days. No longer is 'put to sleep' the option of choice for most serious ailments. Veterinarians can do open heart surgery, mend complex fractures, treat cancer with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Pretty much anything you can treat in a human, you can now treat in a dog. And the catch? It costs.
You will also need to vaccinate your dog against common canine diseases and this will need to be done each year.
There will be a few other one time costs such as a crate for your home for when your dog is young, another for your car if you will be traveling with your pet, bowls, bedding, collar, leash etc.
If you like to go on vacations or anywhere that the dog can't come, unless you have helpful relatives, you will also need to think about the cost of putting him in boarding kennels for the time you are away from home.
