Horse Businesses--Gone to the Dogs?
As a general rule of thumb, my trendometer goes into "Alert!" mode when I catch three people talking about the same thing in a short amount of time. And I've just had my fifth recent episode of hearing longtime horse pros discuss their plans to convert their horse businesses to dog businesses--at least in part. Only one brought up the topic of BREEDING dogs instead of horses. The rest have training, boarding, and other services in mind.
Some of the reasons I picked up on during conversation:
* Lower overhead. WAY lower overhead. (Quote: "I make as much net profit boarding a dog for three days and nights as I do boarding a horse on full care for a month.")
* Good way to repurpose stall and arena space (picture a horse arena turned into a dog agility course) that's emptying out of horses.
* Viable way to convert one set of animal-husbandry skills over to another species.
* Seen as a business with a solid future. Dog ownership is projected to continue growing, while horse ownership...well, we won't go there in this particular post.
Comments welcome.
posted by Juli Thorson @ 5:52 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Wow, that is REAAALLY depressing to hear. I can understand the concept that dogs would be less expensive to raise, train, and maintain that a horse, but I'm not so sure that there's that big of a market for dogs, either.
I had the opportunity a couple of weekends ago to spend time with a rodeo legend. He was telling me that by the time all of his rising expenses add up, he's making about $100/month per horse that he takes in to train.
I hate to say it (please don't shoot me down in flames!), but I honestly think that as times get harder, we're going to be seeing alot of facilities going under. Especially those that are carrying a higher amount of debt.
It is definitely a depression thought, this depression including horses. And here I am, aspiring to be a professional horse trainer! I suppose this is the reason my family is encouraging - no, that's too weak a word - MAKING me continue college! If I can have a career as a high school teacher I might still be able to keep my horses, and hopefully train some as well so other people can also have horses.
We will make it work, somehow. Hopefully those facilities that do go under won't leave behind only low-quality facilities.
Well, that explains it! I have noticed two or three places on my way home that have dog agility courses set up in an area that formerly held horses.
As someone who owns a dog that gets boarded quite often, and ok I admit goes to DOGGIE DAYCARE. I can totally see why its tempting to want to convert to a dog kennel/training facility.
His dog daycare cost is centered around how many days he goes 20 days this month = $400, the less days you go the higher the per day price... he is there to playfrom 7 am to 6 pm- then he goes home, they don't even feed him dinner.
They also have boarding- 3 levels of it from basic indoor/outdoor run starting @ $27/day to premium which includes a picture window, tv and a spring mattress ($75/day). This is addition to ala carte items you can purchase for your dog's stay like bottled water, nature walks, snack time (with homemade dog ice cream), grooming and extra playtime (all at additional cost). They make WAY more money than a boarding stable on the same amount of land could...so it's totally tempting to want to switch businesses.
I've paid $15 to rent an agility course for 30 minutes and it was an outdoor one. Imagine what you could make if you had a nice indoor and could not only run classes and rent the arena, but also sponsor agility, and obedience dog trials where they rent the arena.
It's sad but true, in today's tight time's reducing overhead is way important. Less work and more money. That being said, retrofitting a barn into a decent kennel, building/purchasing quality agility equipment, etc has a high cost and you have to weigh that against the benefits.
I also heard that the permitting process and waste water management plans (gotta hose down those kennels each day!), not to mention water bills (if you aren't on a well) can be a nightmare.
If you all were interested, my dog goes to a place called Dogwood Acres... you can check out exactly what I was talking about if you go to their website: www.dogwoodacres.com
As for breeding dogs? I think that is best left to the pros, who show and title their dogs. The world has enough low end purebreds out there already, and yea you can make a buck breeding but that shouldn't be why you are doing it. You should be doing it b/c you love the breed, your dogs have earned the right to have offspring through shows/field trials and you have a genuine interest in improving the breed.
Just my 2 cents... sorry for the long post!
when I was paying child support, I made ends meet by holding basic obedience classes. There is a tremendous need for them. I've been training handlers to train their dogs for 9 years now. There is .far. less overhead and a .far. greater demand.
I have said for a long long long time, dogs are cheaper and easier than horses. I can load up 2 or 3 dogs in the back of the Jeep, no need for a truck and trailer. Dog food is cheaper than hay/grain ($28 will last me over a month). A good leather dog leash is $30 and you need ONE. A flat buckle collar starts at $5 and you need ONE. Vet care is only sometimes cheaper. An athlete is an athlete with all the minor to major injuries that accompany the activity and level you choose to work at. However, you can FIND a small animal vet (most of the time you have multiple vet clinics to choose from) but we are experiencing a lack of large animal vets which are willing to work on horses. You can find all kinds of venues to participate in with dogs locally. We can only find some things to do with our horses around here. Households that have one dog will very often have more than one. And there is no need to board most dogs out every month. They get boarded only when the owners go away for a bit.
I can totally see why many horse operations are going to dogs instead.
It's sad, but after years of being away from my horses because I can't afford boarding them, I'm getting my compeition fix by training and competing in agility with my Corgi. You'll find a lot of former horsewomen in the agility ring, and those weekend trials can be much more economical than a weekend breed show.
In my lifetime, and I'm 59, I have seen a roller coaster ride in the horse market. It used to be a cyclical ride with more gentle ups and downs. Within the last ten years it has been a steep and precipitous downturn that shows no sign of recovery... ever. We stopped breeding our Arabian horses 8 years ago, figuring that if we were not part of the solution, we were part of the problem. We stopped competing at the Class A level because of the expense and inherent flaws in the showing system (at least as we saw it) and the lack of concern on the part of our national association for bringing in new people. The Arabian Horse Association has made some positive changes in the past five years, but too little too late, and they still don't "get it" that their system of shows is too expensive and unfair for the "unwashed masses" to compete. They also don't "get it" that they don't need to be offering incentives for people to keep breeding horses for which there is already no market.
A recent rescue in southwest Missouri netted 360 animals (all species from fish to dogs, cats, horses, donkeys) and 8 children from a 62 year old woman who was running an animal breeding operation. The Humane Society of Missouri is now saddled with the expense and responsibility of rehabbing these poor creatures while the owner tries to get them back. If she had a market for the animals, wouldn't she have been able to sell them? As for the children... I find it deplorable that they had the same fleas, lice, and filth on them as the animals, and twice as deplorable that it took the Humane Society to alert child welfare to rescue the humans.
Please say it isn't so that people will be breeding YET more unwanted dogs, cats, even fish...
Nina Sala-Gault
Turn your attention to providing services for dogs if you wish, but please don't start breeding them....there are already too many unwanted dogs, just as there is a problem with unwanted horses.
I own a boarding stable and I really love the work, but with increasing prices of hay, grain, and other necessary items and vet bills, it is very hard to make ends meet. Sometimes boarders don't understand why their board bill goes up because they think that what they pay per month should feed their horse and keep their stalls clean. They only see what they pay. They don't realize that it may only take $10.00 to deworm their horse, but the barn is buying the wormer for 30 horses at a time. That is $300.00. They don't see the bills for feed, hay, bedding, wormers, etc... And some boarders don't understand why barn owners get upset if the board is not paid on time. If your late with your board money, then the owner is late paying the feed bill, or hay bill, and then they can get to be on the feed store, hay supplier's bad list and if they are late with the bills on a regular basis, then there is the possiblity that their horses won't eat. Which makes a bad situation for owners and boarders. I have only had a couple of bad boarders (who thought they could skip months of payment and pay for two months at a time to make up for the one that was missed). That doesn't work when the barn has to pay the electric, water, and phone bills every month. Someone said that after expenses, he only makes $100/horse a month. That doesn't even pay enough to work with the horse if you think about how much some people get paid per hour. He is pretty much training the horse for free.
I can see why people are switching to dogs. They are fairly cheap to feed and don't drink as much water, they don't eat all the grass to dirt when they are turned out so you don't have to reseed the fields. The wood it takes to build an agility course is a lot less than it takes to build bridges, jumps, and other obstacles for horses. This sounds negative I know and I am sorry for that, but if everyone paid on time and took an interest in their horses welfare, most stables wouldn't be going out of business. If they kept up with the rising costs of horsekeeping, then they would be prepared for the rising board bills and understand why some of us have to go up. Not everyone runs the million dollar facilities that you see on TV. My stable is not going under as of yet, but you never know what the future holds. If it does, it won't be a low quality facility that gets left behind, but in todays economy, it will not likely bring the amount that it is worth.
I don't mean to offend anyone, I am just trying to say that as boarders, be on time with your payments. Most stable owners are not going to let your horse starve or go into dirty stalls. They will pay out of their own pockets to take care of your horse and try to recoup the monies spent.
I may go into cat boarding..........
These are all some fascinating comments, and an overall commentary on our times.
On the subject of boarding horses for others: There are far easier ways to earn money! Fine if it's something you LOVE to do, but still--some owners' carelessness/thoughlessness can definitely make one start thinking about cats instead!
Working as a vet tech in animal hospitals and in the horse world for 30 years I've seen it all. Too many neglected animals-dogs and cats in the "no kill"shelters, not enough volunteers etc. Please, dog breeding is not a way to make money! Too many puppy mills. What happens if the female needs a c- section ($1000.00 plus)
What happens to the puppies not sold? If a dog has a litter of 8 puppies it is very expensive to feed housebreak, train and vaccinate these puppies. No puppy or kitten should leave their mom until they are at least 10 weeks old.Will you have time to socialize these puppies?And the patience to screen good homes for them? Are you prepared to take the puppy to the vet if it gets sick before you sell it.What if the new owner decides the puppy isn't a good fit,will you take it back?Puppies,kittens and horses aren't property they are living beings that require care and love and attention.Yep its expensive but worth it.Very rarely will you turn a profit and retire on the income.
as for the person who sends their dog to day care-who spends more time with your dog you or the sitter.Find a neighbor kid or your neighbor to check on your dog a couple of times a day offer them 10 bucks a day donate the difference of your daycare bill to a local shelter or a non-profit rescue league.
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