Greyhound Rearing? Dead or Alive???

Philip82

Hi All, This is my first post on this forum so basically what im trying to do is throw a question out to all greyhound people and especially owners, breeders and buyers. My situation is this,
I have always kept a few greyhounds as a pastime hobby just like most of the greyhound fraternity around and just like alot of people up and down the country I have found myself unemployed and with too much time on my hands after spending most days searching for work and trying to work out whether I will have no option but to leave the country I love. I am lucky here in that I own a few fields around the house here but they are currently making little or no money as they are leased for grass and we dont farm. I was strongly thinking of setting up a rearing complex here with big pens of approx 1.5 acres each all in big sguares with plenty of room for dogs to run in circles naturally and not just up and down on the one track all day. These pens would all lead into an 8 acre field where the dogs can be let into once a day for a good long roam. I have a good source of beef and milk and only good nuts will be fed.
Anyway I know the first thing on everybodys lips would be that I have missed the boat so I want to know honest opinions and if there is many new owners out there anymore looking for pups to be reared. And I know there is very good well established rearers out there that have reared derby winners so I know it will be extremely difficult aswell.
Prices would be around 25 week.
Any information feedback will be extremely beneficial in my decision,

Thanks.

Benny Cake

If your only starting out rearing pups for people, 25 per week is a bit steep. I am currently having two reared by a fella who has reared 2 derby winners and a number of dogs who were subsequently sold for in excess of 20k and he charges 25 per week. From the sounds of it you have an excellent setup, if you are we're charging 80 per month I reckon you could make a go of it! Where are you based?

Philip82

Thanks for the reply, I am based in kilkenny. As regards the price the thing is the cost of feeding is going up the whole time. Beef and nuts are going up this month again.The man that has reared derby champs and for 25 a week is earning very little if you break down the costs and time involved. I know there is plenty that will rear a dog for 60 a month. I personally would never give a dog to somebody for that price because I know he will be fed on spuds. I advise anybody to price beef/quality nuts/fish/oils/additives/wormers etc, and see what your dog should be eating for a week and see what the costs are.

80 a week could be a deal for the first ten pups through the gate though!!!

deuces wild

Have to say I wouldnt give a pup to a fella who was only charging €80 a month,r.ealistically speaking its not enough IMO

Benny Cake

Philip82 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, I am based in kilkenny. As regards the price the thing is the cost of feeding is going up the whole time. Beef and nuts are going up this month again.The man that has reared derby champs and for 25 a week is earning very little if you break down the costs and time involved. I know there is plenty that will rear a dog for 60 a month. I personally would never give a dog to somebody for that price because I know he will be fed on spuds. I advise anybody to price beef/quality nuts/fish/oils/additives/wormers etc, and see what your dog should be eating for a week and see what the costs are.

80 a week could be a deal for the first ten pups through the gate though!!!

This is my point. You're new to the business and your initial goal needs to be getting your pens full for the first 18 months or so. You might only be operating near to break even but if you're doing things right and have a bit of luck on your side it could take off in a big way. You also need to be thinking in terms of economy of scale. Your "cost per pup" will go down the more pups you can get in.
Have you registered on greyhoundnuts.com or greyhound-data? I'd suggest you do so and you will get allot of help from people in the rearing business.
Finally, I'm actually based in Kilkenny myself so we might be able to strike a deal in the future!!

Philip82

Benny Cake wrote: »

This is my point. You're new to the business and your initial goal needs to be getting your pens full for the first 18 months or so. You might only be operating near to break even but if you're doing things right and have a bit of luck on your side it could take off in a big way. You also need to be thinking in terms of economy of scale. Your "cost per pup" will go down the more pups you can get in.
Have you registered on greyhoundnuts.com or greyhound-data? I'd suggest you do so and you will get allot of help from people in the rearing business.
Finally, I'm actually based in Kilkenny myself so we might be able to strike a deal in the future!!

Thanks for the good advice Benny. It could take a while to get everything in order (plenty money to be spent) but I hope we cross paths someday. I just need to suss out if there really is many pups in circulation that havent been bred and whelped by the rearer if you know what I mean. For instance the man that has your pups did you buy from him and he is rearing them on for you or did you buy elsewhere and send them to him??

Benny Cake

Philip82 wrote: »

Thanks for the good advice Benny. It could take a while to get everything in order (plenty money to be spent) but I hope we cross paths someday. I just need to suss out if there really is many pups in circulation that havent been bred and whelped by the rearer if you know what I mean. For instance the man that has your pups did you buy from him and he is rearing them on for you or did you buy elsewhere and send them to him??

In my experience there are very few breeders that have the facilities to rear pups on from 12 weeks to 12 months. This is the most critical phase is a greyhounds development. They need to develop their natural insticjt to chase/hunt and get the best feeding possible. Any mistakes during this period cannot be made up later. I bought my 2 pups from a well known breeder in Limerick but he wouldnt have the space for rearing on. I sent them to a place in wexford, where they will stay until they're 12 months old.