What are the most expensive pedigree dog breeds in the UK, and why?

Pedigree dog breeds that are in great demand, very desirable or that offer something out of the ordinary often attract very high purchase prices from puppy buyers, and there can be a wide range of variance between the prices of dogs of different breeds.

The price charged for individual puppies from the same litter or produced from the same two parent dogs can also vary considerably too, as puppies that are particularly good quality and that might have show potential cost a lot more than pet-standard dogs of the same breed.

However, across different pedigree dog breeds, the average prices charged for individual dogs and puppies from new litters can be used to work out a broad norm of the sale prices for puppies, and some pedigree dog breeds are much more expensive to buy than most.

Knowing the averages in terms of the sale price of different dog breeds can help prospective puppy buyers to narrow down their choices and find the right pet without paying over the odds – or falling for an apparent bargain that may be nothing of the sort.

However, finding out reliable information on pedigree dog breed pricing isn’t very easy for the average dog owner, and simply looking at the variance in prices from dog to dog of the same breed isn’t always helpful, as the range can be so large.

Pets4Homes is the largest and busiest pet classifieds and pet advice site in the UK, and this means that we have access to a large amount of data on pedigree dog pricing across different dog breeds, based on adverts for dogs for sale placed here on the site.

We’ve analysed data from our 2018 pedigree dog breed adverts to find out the most expensive dog breeds to buy in the UK at the moment, and in this article, we will tell you more about the five most costly pedigree dog breeds to buy – and why they’re so expensive.

Read on to learn more about the most expensive pedigree dog breeds in the UK.

How we established the average prices for each pedigree dog breed

Pets4Homes accepts adverts for dogs for sale from both registered pedigrees of breeds recognised by the Kennel Club, as well as unregistered purebred dogs and those of recognised breeds without paperwork, and also, dogs of breeds and types that are not formally recognised by the Kennel Club in the UK at the time of writing.

In order to produce a true reflection of the most expensive pedigree dog breeds to buy, we’ve divided up our advert data from 2018 into sub-sections representing the price of pedigree dogs of each recognised breed separately from those for non-pedigrees, as well as the totals for these two subtypes combined.

The rankings in our top five list represent the pedigree dog breeds across which the average advertised price per Kennel Club registered dog is the highest, but we’ll also provide data on the average cost for non-pedigrees of these breeds too, as well as the figures for pedigrees and non-pedigrees combined.

To do this, we’ve analysed our site’s advert data for the whole 2018 year, across all breeds and types of dogs.

To make sure that our statistics represent a true picture of the current state of the market, we’ve discounted pedigree dog breeds that saw less than 20 adverts placed for dogs of the breed in total during 2018, to ensure that our sample sizes provide an accurate representation of the averages for popular dog breeds.

Next, we’ll list the five most costly pedigree dog breeds in the UK to buy, based on these parameters.

Number 5: The Neapolitan mastiff

The Neapolitan mastiff is giant dog breed from the Kennel Club’s working grouping, and is the 108th most popular dog breed in the UK overall. The Neapolitan mastiff is the fifth most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy in the UK, based on the advertised prices of registered pedigree dogs of the breed.

Here’s the figures:

• In 2018, a total of 77 Kennel Club registered pedigree Neapolitan mastiff for sale adverts were advertised on Pets4Homes. The average advertised price for these dogs was £1,377 each.
• During the same period, a total of 51 non-pedigree or unregistered Neapolitan mastiff for sale adverts were placed on Pets4Homes, with an average asking price of £1,333 per dog.
• Combining both pedigree and non-pedigree adverts for dogs of the breed during 2018, a total of 128 Neapolitan mastiffs were offered for sale during this period, at an average cost of £1,360 per dog.

Neapolitan mastiffs are very large dogs with an imposing physical presence that comes from both their height and build, which means that not everyone who wishes to own such a large dog has enough room for them. This is quite a complex breed too, which needs an experienced dog owner to manage and train them, and to provide the appropriate boundaries and control for a dog of this type.

Neapolitan mastiffs are loyal and loving but take a while to warm up to strangers, and they make for excellent watchdogs and guard dogs as a result of this. The health of the Neapolitan mastiff breed as a whole is a point of much discussion within the breed, as Neos have a fairly short average lifespan of around 8-10 years, and there are a number of hereditary health issues that can be found within a reasonable number of dogs of the breed.

They’re also quite sensitive to the heat, and require special care to keep them cool and comfortable during the summer.

Very large and giant dog breeds tend to cost more to buy like for like than smaller breeds, which is partially a reflection of the cost of providing for everything that a dog of this size needs and is in turn reflected in asking prices for dogs for sale.

Factor in the cost of health testing, breeding, and the reasonably short lifespans of dogs of the breed, and couple this with the fact that a breed of this type isn’t suitable for the average first-time dog buyer, and this goes some way towards explaining the reasonably low number of dogs of the breed offered for sale each year.

This does of course mean that puppy buyers who have decided that a Neapolitan mastiff is the right fit may have to travel some way from home and potentially join a waiting list for a new puppy, but even though demand for the breed is somewhat limited, the relative scarcity of the Neapolitan mastiff helps to keep prices high.

You may have noticed that there is actually less than £50 difference between the average asking price of pedigree Neapolitan mastiffs compared to non-pedigrees, which may indicate that pedigree status is not hugely important to all buyers, and/or that litters of Neapolitan mastiffs for sale are so few and far between that choosing a non-pedigree pup doesn’t reflect a very large price saving.

Number 4: The Chow Chow

The Chow Chow is a medium to large-sized dog breed from the Kennel Club’s utility grouping, and is the 47th most popular dog breed in the UK overall. The Chow Chow is the UK’s fourth most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy, based on the average prices for Kennel Club registered pedigrees.

Here are the average advertised prices for Chow Chows for sale on Pets4Homes:

• In 2018, a total of 270 Kennel Club registered pedigree Chow Chow for sale adverts where placed on Pets4Homes. The average asking price for KC pedigrees during this time was £1,454 per dog.
• In 2018, a total of 473 non-Kennel Club registered or non-pedigree Chow Chow for sale adverts were placed on Pets4Homes, with an average asking price of £1,051 per dog.
• The total number of Chow Chow ads places in 2018 combining both pedigree and non-pedigree dogs was 743, with the average price across the breed of £1,197 per dog.

Chow Chows are smart dogs that tend to form strong bonds with their families, and that are very loyal to the people that they love. They often make for good watchdogs, and can be a little speculative and stand-offish with strangers until they get to know them.

The Chow Chow appearance is very distinctive thanks largely to their coats, which are incredibly dense and composed of several layers, giving the dog a very well-padded and fluffy appearance, which has resulted in them being referred to by many as “lion dogs.”

They aren’t particularly heavy shedders as the loose hair that does detach gets tangled up in the rest of the coat, but this does mean that they need a significant amount of brushing and grooming, which can be quite onerous to keep up with.

Chow Chows also have a bluish-black tongue, which is one of the signatures of the breed.

As well as being pretty expensive to buy, Chow Chows are also relatively costly to keep as well, which combined with their high purchase prices, can mean that not everyone who would like to buy a Chow Chow can afford to do so.

This breed is relatively popular, but they’re not so common that there are more dogs of the breed available than homes that want one, and this helps to ensure that the pricing for these unusual and distinctive dogs remains reasonably high.

Number 3: The Japanese Shiba Inu

The Japanese Shiba Inu (also known as the Shiba Inu or simply the “Shibe”) is a small dog breed from the Kennel Club’s utility grouping, and the 105th most popular dog breed overall. The Japanese Shiba Inu is the third most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy, based on statistics from adverts placed in 2018.

Here are the price averages for Japanese Shiba Inus for sale:

• In 2018, a total of 65 Kennel Club registered pedigree Japanese Shiba Inu for sale adverts were placed on Pets4Homes. The average asking price for KC pedigrees during this time was £1,469 per dog.
• In 2018, a total of 67 non-Kennel Club registered or non-pedigree Japanese Shiba Inu adverts were advertised on Pets4Homes, with an average asking price of £1,225 per dog.
• The total number of Japanese Shiba Inu ads places in 2018 combining both pedigree and non-pedigree dogs was 132, with an average price across the breed of £1,345 per dog.

Japanese Shiba Inus make for a good middle-of-the road dog for many different types of owners, because they’re quite versatile and have a lot to offer. They’re small enough to fit into most smaller homes comfortably, usually get on well with children, and need a moderate but not onerous amount of exercise.

However, they do tend to shed quite heavily, and need a reasonable amount of brushing and grooming to keep this under control.

Shiba Inus are very cute and appealing looking dogs, and they are very affectionate but certainly not lapdogs. The breed is also one that has achieved a reasonable level of attention on the internet as the subject of funny memes, which has helped to spread the word about them and raise awareness amongst dog lovers.

However, the Shiba Inu is not one of the most common or popular dog breeds in the UK overall, and demand for dogs of this type usually far outstrips demand; in 2018, there were only 132 dogs of the breed in total advertised on Pets4Homes, which helps to keep sale prices high.

Number 2: The Pomeranian

The Pomeranian is a very small dog breed from the Kennel Club’s toy dog grouping, and the 12th most popular dog breed in the UK overall. The Pomeranian is the second most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy, based on data collated from adverts placed on Pets4Homes in 2018.

Here are the average prices for Pomeranians for sale in the UK:

• In 2018, a total of 1,007 Kennel Club registered pedigree Pomeranian for sale adverts were placed on Pets4Homes, with an average advertised price of £1,536.
• The number of non-pedigree or unregistered Pomeranian for sale adverts placed here in 2018 totalled 2,588, with an average advertised price of £887 per dog.
• The total number of pedigree and non-pedigree Pomeranian adverts combined placed in 2018 was 3,595, with an average price across the board of £1,069 per dog.

Pomeranians are excellent little lapdogs and they’re in great demand all over the UK, as is reflected in the large number of dogs of the breed offered for sale throughout the year. This means that people looking to buy a Pomeranian puppy don’t usually have any problems finding one for sale, and yet despite the large number of dogs of the breed for sale, prices remain consistently high.

There are also quite a large number of hereditary health problems and conformation defects that can be found within the breed as a whole, and health testing of breeding stock and the secondary costs of providing veterinary care and looking after dogs that are not of breeding standard all has to be factored into the sale price for litters, which helps to contribute to the breed’s high sale prices.

Number 1: The English bulldog

So, what is the most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy in the UK? It’s our native home-grown favourite, the English bulldog. The English bulldog is a medium sized and very muscular dog breed from the Kennel Club’s utility grouping, and is also the 7th most popular dog breed in the UK overall.

Here are the price averages for English bulldogs for sale:

• In 2018, a total of 5,311 pedigree English bulldog for sale adverts were placed on Pets4Homes, with an average advertised price of £1,690 per dog.
• During the same period of time, Pets4Homes hosted 2,977 adverts for non-pedigree or unregistered English bulldogs, which had an average asking price of £1,466 per dog.
• The total number of English bulldog adverts placed on Pets4Homes in 2018 was 8,288 individual dogs and litters, with an average advertised price across the board of £1,610.

English bulldogs are very popular in the UK and also a very common sight on our streets and in local dog parks, with thousands of dogs of the breed produced every year to meet the high level of demand for them from puppy buyers. Despite being the most expensive pedigree dog breed in the UK, prices remain very high – buy why is this? The answer involves multiple different elements, which all add up to contribute to the high average sale cost for dogs of the breed.

Everything about owning and breeding English bulldogs is costly, even compared to breeding most other pedigree dog types, and we’ll cover the main factors that contribute to those high English bulldog prices below.

First of all, English bulldogs sometimes require assistance to mate or artificial insemination, as the hips of dogs of the breed are quite narrow compared to the rest of their build. The vast majority of English bulldog litters also require delivery by caesarean section, again due to the narrowness of the dog’s hips, in this instance compared to the large size of the puppies heads.

There are also a large number of hereditary health issues that can be found within the English bulldog breed, as well as a variety of conformation defects that can in their turn result in health issues associated with the physical features of some dogs of the breed; such as overly flattened faces and short muzzles.

Undertaking pre-breeding health screening, removing unsuitable dogs from the breeding programme and caring for them for life all costs money, as does of course providing veterinary care for dogs that have hereditary or conformation defects.

English bulldogs tend to produce small litters as a rule too – often just two or three pups, or even one. Even if a litter is small in size, the fixed costs of producing it remain the same, which in turn means that the prices of each individual puppy for sale are higher than they might be for dog breeds that generally produce larger litters.

Additionally, the Kennel Club places limitations on the number of litters any dam can have within her lifetime and also, within any given year, and only four litters produced from any one dam in her lifetime can be Kennel club registered. However, if a dam has already delivered two litters by caesarean section, no further litters can be registered either – which means that as most dogs of the breed require caesarean delivery, the working limit on the number of litters that can be registered is, for many English bulldogs, just two.

All of these factors combine to make breeding English bulldogs very costly, with no guarantees that a profit will be made on any litter. This in turn means that English bulldogs reliably command high sale prices, despite a large number of breeders serving the market, and this is what helps to make the English bulldog the most expensive pedigree dog breed to buy in the UK overall.

If your looking for more information on the popularity or average prices of various dog breeds in the UK, you can use ourPets4Homes Dog Breedssection which displays all 244 dog breeds in order of popularity and includes the average prices for the past year of each dog breed.