Puppy prices plunge post-Covid as cost-of-living crisis bites

Several designer dog breeds that were fetching up to $10,000 are now selling for $4000 or less in SA.

Puppy prices in South Australia have plunged since the height of the pandemic, with some designer breeds that were fetching up to $10,000 now selling for $4000 or less.

These include the likes of popular crossbreeds cavoodles, groodles and spoodles.

Prices for pure breed pups have also been slashed.

Jack russells and golden retrievers can be bought on GumTree for $2000, down from up to $6000 when the nation went pet mad during the lockdown days of Covid-19.

Breeders say prices have now largely stabilised back to prepandemic levels.

Sellers are showing signs of the price squeeze, with a majority of advertisements saying prices are “negotiable”.

Connor Richardson, 10, with 4-year-old border collie Sura, Jase Hill holding 13-week-old puppy Fenn, Lorraine Richardson and Maddi Richardson, 8. Picture: Keryn Stevens

A seller in Lewiston has been offering a negotiable $400 price tag for Australian kelpie pups, while another the in Mid Murray region had lowered the asking price for the same breed from $1500 down to $500.

John Wallwork, of Gawler’s Calee Border Collies kennel, said there had been “massive demand” at the height of the pandemic.

But now he has needed to create a website as part of an adjustment to lower demand, and to differentiate his legitimate breeding business from scammers.

Debbie Hawkins from Cute Country Cavoodles in Angas Plains has been breeding for more than 23 years.

She said from pre-Covid prices of $3800 per pup, they rose to $5500 during the pandemic and had now fallen to $4500.

But she still had 142 people on a waiting list and said the business was “set to cope”, as there were still enough buyers wanting to source puppies from ethical breeders.

“It costs a lot of money to be ethical,” she said in response to a surge in what she called unscrupulous sellers on unregulated sites such as Gumtree.

Jason Hill, of Eyre near Penfield,, recently bought 13-week-old border collie Fenn as a companion for their older collie Sura, 4.

“The reduction in prices helped us make the decision,” he said.