shouldigetasamoyed – Scotland with Fluffy Wolf

How Expensive is a Samoyed?

By scotlandwithfluffywolf | August 16, 2020

Are Samoyeds expensive/aren’t Samoyeds expensive? I get asked this question or some variant of it about once a week, so I thought it was worth answering in detail for anyone considering a Samoyed (or indeed any other dog).

I get frequent puppy enquiries on Sal’s Instagram (please note: social media is NOT the place to go looking for a dog, instead you are best to contact your local and national breed clubs and rescues). After I tell them I’m not a breeder and Sally isn’t ever having puppies, the next questions invariably include “how much did you pay for Sally?”, and “are Samoyeds expensive?”.

Puppy Prices

The answer is: it depends. While here in the UK most of the reputable breeders haven’t increased their prices as a result of COVID-19, there are few available puppies, and as rare-breed pedigree puppies, yes, they are expensive. Expect to pay £1000-2000 (depending on bloodlines and geographic area) for a KC-registered Samoyed puppy. This seems like a lot, until you factor in the health testing for the parents, the cost of those parents attending breed shows and/or working and agility dog meets to prove their suitability to pass on their genes, stud fees, puppy health checks, ultrasound, extra food for mum and babies, whelping box, puppy packs, KC registration, microchipping and first vaccinations, and all this before you consider loss of earnings for the breeder’s household as someone needs to stay home with mum and the young pups. The breeders I know are lucky if they break even on a litter. They are NOT breeding for the profits. The reputable rescues may ask for £300-500, while some that rescue from the Chinese and Korean meat-trade ask you to cover the astronomical flight cost if you can, so it can end up costing over £5000 (post-Covid flight prices have increased to ridiculous numbers) to rescue, meaning rescue is not always the cheaper route to Samoyed dog ownership.

Running Costs

The real issue is that the 1-2 grand you drop on a puppy/rescue is just the beginning. I’ve heard it said you should have 1-4 times this in reserve in a bank account as you are going to need it by the end of their first year. But it’s all a bit of a dark secret. People with dogs smile knowingly and say “yes they are expensive but they are worth it”. Maybe it’s an attempt to hide the true costs, or maybe they are too embarrassed/scared/shocked to find out. The PDSA tried to work out the cost, first in 2016, and they update every year, but they admit their numbers are an underestimate. They put the lifetime cost of a medium sized dog (such as a Samoyed) at a minimum of £13,000 and that’s not including the initial outlay on buying/adopting the dog.

I Made a Spreadsheet

I’m a scientist and I like facts and numbers. Before I got Sal I tried to make a budget spreadsheet to work out if I could afford a dog, and what her likely running costs would be, I admit I got it totally wrong. There’s some things (dog daycare, groomers) we’ve never really used and others (SALLY SNACKS!) where it’s so easy to go hopelessly over budget. Then there’s things I’m ashamed to say I never even thought about (dog first aid kit/toothpaste anyone?). Plus, there’s ongoing expenses like insurance that will increase year on year (it started at £120 a year, now at over £500 for lifetime insurance and we’ve only ever made one £150 claim) if you decide to insure your pet. Also there’s the one-off cost of spay/neuter should you choose to desex them.

Sally’s Running Costs

In an attempt to break through the veil of secrecy as to what a dog costs, I’m going to list Sal’s “running costs” for a year. I found the puppy fee (£1000, this was 5 years ago) was only a quarter of the cost of our first year. It cost roughly the same again as I paid for my puppy to puppy-proof my house, and buy all the bits and pieces needed for walking, grooming and feeding. Then, my yearly running costs were twice that, over £2000, and that’s without a dog walker, daycare, or grooming fees as I do these myself. In short, this year so far, owning Sal comes in at approximately £6 a day!

Breakdown of the relative cost of the puppy price, start-up costs, and ongoing costs for the first year/one year of dog ownership. I found the saying that you need x4 the puppy price in the first year to be a surprisingly accurate estimate.

I’ve screenshot and I’ve linked my spreadsheet so as you can play with the input numbers and see what the likely cost of dog ownership would be for you. Remember every dog and everyone’s situation is different, so your costs won’t necessarily be the same as ours.

The nitty-gritty of what Sal costs to run. She’s worth every penny but the expenses add up. I include her food costs as if I was buying her complete minces, but she’s currently sponsored by Bella and Duke. Previously, I bought a range of brands (B&D foremost among them) and made use of special offers and bulk discounts to feed her for around £50 a month (not including snacks). After food, insurance is our other large expense, but many people choose instead to bank what they can each payday, and gamble it won’t be needed.

And Here’s That Spreadsheet…

Excel file below:

samoyed-yearly-costs Download

Indirect Costs Not Included

These are only Sal’s direct costs. I haven’t counted indirect expenses such as new boots and waterproof jackets and outdoor clothing for me, or the petrol money, parking fees and bus tickets to take her for walks, nor the cost of repairs after her puppy hobby of home and garden redecoration. I also left out the (one-time) cost of neuter/spay as it isn’t applicable to everyone. Even so, hopefully these figures go some way towards answering the question: what does a Samoyed cost?. The answer to the more important question: what is a Samoyed worth?, is of course – priceless! She’s my fluffy wolf!

What do you think? Did the costs of dog ownership come as a surprise? Would the costs put you off getting a dog? As always, feel free to leave any questions, comments, or stories about your experiences. Remember you can come say hello on Sally’s Instagram too @scotlandwithfluffywolf. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Why a Samoyed? What’s a Samoyed?

By scotlandwithfluffywolf | July 13, 2020

Why I Chose My Fluffy Wolf

Before I tell my story, this short checklist is for anyone who’s stumbled on this page as part of your deciding “should I get a Samoyed?

Yes, if:

You are home most of the day or can take your dog to work.
You have access to a park or garden where they can exercise.
You are willing to put in 1-3 hours exercise/walking a day once they are adults.
The hair EVERYWHERE doesn’t alarm you.
The barking doesn’t bother you/your neighbours (Sal is reasonably quiet, but Samoyeds are talkers).

Samoyed History

Samoyed dogs (can be pronounced Sam-o-yed or Sam-oid) originated with the Samoyedic/Nenet nomadic people of Siberian Russia. Their dogs were used to herd reindeer, hunt small game and deer, pull sleds, guard campsites, snuggle up and keep people warm at night, and watch out for the children. They are very much a “do anything and everything” medium sized dog.

They are high maintenance with their thick double-coated fur (which can be spun into a warm wool much like angora) and high energy; they need plenty of physical and mental stimulation and/or a job to do to avoid boredom (and trust me the last thing you want is a bored Samoyed, they excel in house and garden re-decorating).

*Sally modelling a skein of yarn “chiengora” spun from her undercoat. Samoyed fluff makes a strong, soft, warm, fluffy textured yarn.*

They are a very ancient dog breed descended from arctic wolves. They were first “discovered” by western Europeans in the late 1880s for use on the polar expeditions of the late 1800s to early 1900s before they became a popular pet breed. The original Samoyeds were any of white, black, brown, or parti-coloured – see W.E. Mason 1915 “Dogs of All Nations” but the snowy “arctic” dogs proved the most popular with western dog fanciers and today’s breed standard only allows for white, cream or biscuit (light sandy brown) dogs.

*The entry for “Samoyed” in W.E. Mason’s 1915 book “Dogs of All Nations”. The dog is recognizably a Samoyed, albeit one with short “working style” hair.*

The closely related Siberian Laika comes in all the ancestral colours, and dark and parti-coloured Samoyed-type dogs are still seen today in their ancestral home of Siberia. There are some (myself included) who would like to see these dogs permitted in the show ring, and so increase the genetic diversity of what has become a rare breed.

*Sally’s friend Mishka the beautiful Siberian Laika. Mishka’s coat has all the colours that have been described for these two breeds.*

I first fell in love with Samoyeds as a child when I met two that belonged to a friend of my mother. When I was looking to get a dog of my own, I had forgotten the breed name (if I ever knew it), but luckily googling “large white fluffy dog” and “polar bear dog” easily found what I was looking for. My mother set a simple rule when I was a child “you can have any pet you like as long as it lives in a cage, you clean and feed it, and I don’t have to walk it – that means no dogs!”. I stretched this definition to the limit, first with fish and then breeding hamsters, mice, cavies and cornsnakes, before finally adding two cats (cage-free) to the menagerie, but what I really wanted was a dog. Not surprisingly, one of my first jobs was in the education department of a zoo!

Five years ago, I graduated from my PhD. To get me through the final year (anyone reading this who has or is doing a PhD will know exactly what I mean) I made a pact with myself that after graduation I would get a dog. I tried the dog rescues first (having been made aware of the #adoptdontshop lobby), but understandably the reputable rescues didn’t want to rehome to someone who lived alone and worked full-time (albeit with a good support network and options for doggy daycare). I went on to have a bad experience with the (in my view) less than reputable end of the dog rescue business that made me realise that if I wanted a dog I’d have to find a puppy.

I’d known several huskies and GSDs, and although I’d read about the similarities and differences between the various northern and working breeds, I wasn’t at all expecting the Samoyed personality quirks.

They are loving, affectionate, needy (you’ll never pee alone again), stubborn, difficult to train (unless they see what’s in it for them), talkative, pull like sled dogs, need a huge amount of training before being trustworthy offleash (some will never be trusted), high energy but thankfully most (including Sally) have a good offswitch too, hairy (the fluff gets everywhere) and have a low boredom threshold. If you aren’t providing enough stimulus, they will make their own entertainment and you won’t like the results: interior redecorating and landscape design are frequent hobbies.

Would I have another breed now? Probably not. Will Sally be my last Samoyed? I hope not. But they are hard work. Please, if you are considering this breed go talk to breeders, but also to pet owners, and try to visit and walk with as many as you can. You’ll see they all have their own personalities, but you’ll also see the behaviours general to the breed. Would I recommend a Samoyed as a pet? As I said at the start, it depends on your lifestyle, if you have the time and resources and aren’t too bothered about talkativeness and hair on everything, you’ll find them the most loving companions.

For me, once a puppy was on the cards, my thoughts kept returning to those polar bear dogs. I read up everything I could on Samoyeds, and I was lucky to find a knowledgeable breeder relatively close-by, and even luckier to find out they had a litter (they only breed every 1-3 years). I went to see them to learn more about the breed. Sally walked over and plonked herself in my lap and licked my face. And the rest, as they say, is history. I’d found my fluffy wolf.