The average retail owner in the US gets on average about $26 an hour. He provides something of value to people who are willing to pay for it.
The average Heating and Air conditioning business owner makes $31 an hour. He provides something of value to people who are willing to pay for it.
According to the results I found just googling average salaries for workers in the US, $21.22 is suppose to be the average hourly wage for 2016. It's what someone needs to make to provide for their family. It might go up for this year.
Have you ever raised a litter of puppies? It does take time and effort if you do it right.
I raise doodles. Those gorgeous, affectionate, smart, sometimes non shedding or low shedding. Dogs who are gentle with children and bond so easily with people. I don't raise them for shows or competitions, although doodles have participated in those. I raise them because they fit so well as family dogs. They have pedigrees, and have had genetic testing and temperament testing. They have been purposefully bred with intentionality and thought. And even though they aren't AKC “purebred”, they have won the hearts of countless families. I know who their mom and dad are, even grandmothers and grandfathers. Aunts and uncles. And cousins. We keep papers on them and know all about each breeding parent.
When I plan a litter, I figure that the momma dog could have five puppies. I would spend at least 4 hours a day caring for them in their first 4 weeks. So in the first 4 weeks, I will have spent 112 hours.
If I spend 8 hours a day for the next 4 weeks caring for them, I will have spent 224 hours.
Actually, those are pretty conservative hours. I'm pretty sure I spend more time than that. But I don't want you to think I am exaggerating, so I will keep it conservative. There are whole nights spent sometimes.
There is a lot of poop involved when you have 5 or more puppies that you have to clean up countless times a day. Lots of social interaction and training. Taking them to the vet. Weighing them. Taking tons of pictures and videos. Adding the pics and videos to websites. Updating families ….
So, if you add the 84 hours to the 224 hours, that is 336 hours spent caring for puppies during at least just 8 weeks that they are under my care. And they often spend more time here before going to new families. If I was paid an hourly wage, I would receive around $7,130 for the time spent raising a litter of puppies.
If I had a litter of 5 puppies and was paid $250 a puppy, I would only receive $1,250. That's like $3 an hour. Not the $7,130 I would earn in a job with similar hours.
I would be such an unfortunate person to work and love so hard for such small financial reward!
This is not even counting the other expenses when raising a litter of puppies!
Below is an estimate for our taxes in 2016 of percentages of expenses in a variety of categories.
There are vet bills, Genetic Health testing, dog and puppy food, supplies, breeding stock purchases, containment expenses, fees, advertising, travel expenses, and I think we added one more category before we sent off our taxes. Of course this doesn't even bring into account the time I spend raising the puppies and caring for the breeding dogs.
That is why I ask about 4 times more than $250 per puppy. I go into debt paying bills related to the puppies because when I don't have puppies, I still have to feed the adult dogs, take them to the vet, buy supplies, fix the house up for containment needs, etc.. it's my job.
But that isn't even all there is to it. Let's bring in my family who have to share their home, inside and out with several dogs. They help me a great deal. Some rooms of our home they can't even use. Part of the outdoor yard they can't use. They live with the busyness of multiple puppies who take over our home. They hear whining puppies, smell poop, and walk around crates, bowls, sleeping dogs.....Of course, I try to keep the poopy smells to a minimum with frequent cleaning. But the reality is that puppies poop. And a large litter poops a lot. Ha ha!
