If you’ve been on a puppy hunt, you’ve no doubt seen puppy prices all across the board. Some “purebreds” for $300 and others for $10,000+. I once found a local post for a Frenchie that looks a lot like Carl, and they were asking $20,000 for it.

Why the large range?

There are many factors that go into figuring a price for a puppy.

1.) Low-price scams.

These are people who lure in prospective buyers hoping to snag a really awesome deal. Usually they have some sort of sob story about having to sell the puppies really quickly due to a relative’s death (etc.) and if you just send them $300 they will meet you somewhere and bring you the puppy. But you must send them the money first so they can HOLD the puppy.

(If you look, this puppy also has an umbilical hernia . . . do you think they will disclose that information to potential buyers? *I also confirmed this IS a scam, sellers refuse to send additional photos, video and will ONLY ship through a Flight nanny. Also the phone # is registered to another scam business with a fake address.)

Too often, they take your $300 and you never hear from them again. Other times, they take your $300 and the puppy they deliver is a FAR CRY from the photo posted online, and now you are stuck trying to figure out WHAT you bought and IF you plan to keep it.

2.) Dog Care Quality

(Look at the puppy on the far left . . . he is clearly starving.)

Quality is often one of the biggest cost considerations.

Quality care takes MORE TIME and MORE up-front costs. A high-quality, PROPER puppy pen, washable puppy pads that are cleaned regularly and a dedicated puppy space cost MORE to offer.

Quality of food, supplements and formula come at a higher price as well.

What type of training or enrichment does the breeder offer? Unleashing a pile of puppies into the hands of younger children often allows puppies to begin bad habits such as rough play or biting. While on the other hand, rarely seeing a human other than to dump food into their pen can develop a nervous dog.

Potty-training – it takes a LOT of time — that’s why most breeders do NOT offer it, or only JUST BEGIN at 8-9 weeks of age. A puppy with a background in good potty habits more often than not, goes on to train faster at their new owners home (no horror stories of STILL TRAINING at 9 months of age…) MANY of my new families report puppies potty-training in less than a week!

Do the puppies receive time outside in ALL types of weather? It’s not fun taking puppies out in the rain, but new owners have to, so getting puppies used to the idea at an early age allows for a better response with their new families.

Are puppies bathed and nails regularly trimmed?

What commands have the puppies been taught? Have they been taught ANY rules?

What type of enrichment or mental stimulation has been done with the puppies?

Every little bit a breeder does is another brick in making a solid, well-adjusted dog. Building a solid foundation FOR YOU, so you only have to add the finishing touches 🙂

Leaving puppies to scream all day in a pen in their own filth with little interaction costs a breeder NOTHING (certainly no time out of their day). It’s very easy to shoot a few blurry photos and not show the actual conditions . . .

3.) Quality of Dog

Quality of the dog breed GREATLY affects the price, although not always. Many Purebred Frenchie (Or Boston) breeders will on occasion get a VERY ugly puppy born that JUST doesn’t meet any sort of breed standards. These pups still need homes, and are usually sold cheap, often without papers to “prevent” ANY sort of breeding. In my personal opinion, someone who isn’t willing to spend money on a GOOD quality puppy SHOULD NOT BE BREEDING anyway. Nonetheless, they DO, hoping to gain big bucks later – not caring in the least if the dog’s feature’s are less than acceptable, or their genetic or physical health is not ideal.

Since today, many buyers don’t care about their pure-bred puppies having papers, they buy the puppies from the mis-fit parents. Odd-looking parents often make poor looking babies (genetics are passed on). These breeders may try to sell their “less than ideal” puppies for the going rate of higher quality puppies, but often end up dropping the price since they don’t sell well. Too often, the puppies are forced to endure less than ideal conditions since the breeder is more concerned about their cash potential and nothing more.

More often than not, buyers picking up these low priced pups end up paying MORE in both time, frustration and MONEY, trying to socialize an unruley pup, potty train a puppy with NO prior experience of being CLEAN, and dealing with health issues that could EASILY have been prevented through correct pairings of the breeders.

While lowering the price on a puppy who doesn’t meet “breed standards” is not uncommon, these puppies should NEVER be bred, and the information regarding their condition should be disclosed to potential buyers.

High quality dogs COST MORE. Much of the time, these dogs are fully genetically tested, or have been carefully bred to be free of most health issues. They were specifically selected by the breeder for having certain desirable traits and the breeder was WILLING to pay the money needed to acquire those traits. This takes time and research. The resulting puppies may even be tested. These dogs, due to their higher cost at the start, are treated with a great level of care. More vet visits, higher quality food, high tech nurseries and breeding programs to ensure frenchie/frenchton puppies have the best start at life. All of that “extra” costs more, and often french bulldogs require C-sections and artificial insemination, driving the price up. It’s not just dollar for dollar, but also dollar for time involved. Frenchtons fortunately, do NOT require C-sections if they have been correctly chosen by their breeder.

4.) TIME.

Frenchies and Frenchtons BOTH require massive amounts of time involved with them. Their short faces mean they may have issues nursing. Their more sensitive digestive systems mean they may suffer from bloating and constipation as small pups. Their wide array of personality characteristics means a more docile puppy may get pushed aside and not receive enough nourishment, so a good breeder will weight the puppies regularly to ensure proper weight gain, and take steps needed if gain is not sufficient.

The mother require extra care to ensure her body is handling the additional load if they produce more than 4 puppies. Because Frenchton puppies grow so quickly, milk fever can be a major concern in lactating females, and the breeder needs to know what symptoms to watch for and how to treat it.

Frenchton puppies are smart and require extra efforts to keep them mentally stimulated.

In SHARP contrast to most other breeds such as boxers, which require monitoring for the first 4 days and then are easily kept and monitored by mom. With boxers the only work I had to do was socialize the puppies when they got to be 6 weeks old so they were ready for their homes.

Frenchton puppies however, CRAVE LEARNING. They love to discover the world around them, be close to their humans and learn right from wrong. The more chances they receive as puppies to expand their small brains with various stimuli, the better adapted they will be to their new homes and adapt to them without issue.

Eventhough Frenchton puppies are quite fragile when young, by 6 weeks of age they begin to toughen up, and will grow into those hardy, “tough as nails” dogs that we have come to love!

4.) Rare Features VS Common features

Frenchies these days are exploding in the genetics world. Thanks to recent advancements in genetic testing, new traits are being discovered and bred to see what will show. One of the most expensive and least common is the “Fluffy gene”.

Fluffy Frenchies fetch an extraordinary price, upwards of $50,000. And you thought $5,000 was expensive!

Color plays a large part in price too. Common colors are common (happen frequently) and thus are not as costly. Uncommon colors are typically recessive, and therefore don’t happen as frequently and are thus more expensive. Uncommon colors are also higher in demand because they are less common, lol.

What are “common” colors?

Fawn, reverse brindle, cream and pied. Those are the only colors accepted by the AKC and thus very common. Anything other than that will cost more. Boston Terriers are even more color strict, with black or brindle being the two only allowable colors.

That’s why the number 1 Frenchton color you see is brindle, number two being pied. Both are dominant colors/traits. Now, thanks to recent advancements in genetic testing, Frenchie breeders are breaking away from “standards” and breeding for unique colors. Frenchton breeders WILLING to fork over the $$$ for unique Frenchie genetics are rewarded with stunning colors and litter varieties in their own puppies.

Keep in mind, most Frenchton breeders are breeding for the love of the breed, not because they can’t afford a Frenchie. Fancy Frenchie color genetics are worth MORE MONEY as purebred frenchies, and NOT as Frenchtons. In other words, if you spend $10,000 on a good quality, rare colored frenchie, you would make MORE MONEY breeding it to another frenchie, instead of using it to produce a Frenchton litter.

Let’s do a bit of cross comparison for high quality Frenchie vs Frenchton in pricing . . .

Our most expensive dogs are our blue Harlequin merles. We charge $5,000 for a BHM with blue eyes. A Full blooded frenchie would START at over $10,000.

Our solid “blue” pups run at about $3,000. Full Blood frenchies would run $6,000.

Our brindle puppies are $2,000-$3,000 . . . Full Frenchies are $4,000-$6,000

From a technical standpoint, Frenchton Bulldogs are MUCH MORE RARE than french Bulldogs, and therefore SHOULD be higher in price. Yet thanks to better quality breed standards which allow natural insemination AND natural birth as well as better quality of life overall, Frenchton breeders don’t have to spend a small fortune to keep their dogs alive, and have no need to ask such large amounts of money for their efforts. Keeping in mind however, their genetics DO still cost a pretty penny, and those Boston terrier lines and French Bulldog Lines will cost cost them $3,000+. Hence why the baseline price is usually $3,000 for GOOD genetics.

In the end though, whether full frenchie or frenchton, quality and color will determine the price.