Mastiff Budgeting- How Much Should You Expect To Spend In Year 1?

Life on our own or with our families is fine most of the time, but we can’t deny that it’s just so much better with dogs in it. If you’re a dog-less dog lover, surely, dog parks and grooming centers make you stop and marvel at the display of delightful pureness covered in various coats of fur. When you visit your friends who have dogs of various breeds and sizes, you probably spend half the time carrying and giving belly rubs to the smaller ones like Pugs, Shih Tzus, and Pomeranians, while you spend the other half playing tricks with the bigger ones like Golden Retrievers, Great Danes, and the mightiest of them all, Mastiffs! While all of our friends’ dogs have their own distinctive charms and unique personalities, most will consider Mastiffs to be a stand out. Other than their size and majestic stance, they’re noticeably livelier and smarter than all the other breeds. Their built make it known that they can withstand cardio-heavy games and dog sports. Their unparalleled loyalty showcases their trainability and their pedigree as the first domesticated dogs known to aid humans from civilization to civilization.

For sure, you have already asked your friends who have Mastiffs what tricks their dog can do. They might have even shown you. But have you ever asked them how much it costs to get one? For a variety of reasons, many people don’t. What if you really want one though? Should you just take the risk and be a happy dog owner who can barely afford your pet Mastiff’s dietary needs? Of course not, because you won’t be a happy dog owner at all if this is the case. Worse, you wouldn’t even be a responsible dog owner for not thinking about the potential and seemingly insignificant costs owning a Mastiff. To avoid this, we will answer the questions you cannot seem to bring yourself to ask about the cost of owning a Mastiff in the first year.

The truth is that bringing home a Mastiff is much like moving into your very own unfurnished house for the first time. When moving into a new house, you can’t just live in the dark; you will have to buy bulbs and lamps, pay for the installation of switches, and then pay for electricity bills. You can’t just sleep on the floor; you will have to wait for your African blackwood bed frame to be shipped while making yourself productive by shopping for the best mattress to put on it, and then sheets to cover it with. As we can compare, the cost of bringing a Mastiff into your home goes far beyond the already expensive adoption fee costing about $3,500, with additional expenses for taxes and shipping fees if you’re adopting a Mastiff from another country. This is because we are setting a base and investing in the foundation by which they will grow to be happy and healthy Mastiffs. Excluding these initial fees, the cost of bringing a Mastiff into your home can burn thousands of dollars from your savings. Here is a breakdown of the average first year cost of Mastiff ownership.

4. Here Are 14 Typical Mastiff Expenses

1. Food: $1,500
2. Bowls: $110
3. Treats: $55
4. Toys: $60
5. License: $15
6. Pet Health Insurance: $225
7. Initial Medical Exam and Shots: $300
8. Monthly Flea and Heartworm Prevention: $240
9. Bone and Joint Supplement: $200
10. Sturdy Leash and Harness: $65
11. Crate: $180
12. Training Classes: $210
13. Toiletries and Grooming Products: $385
14. Professional Grooming: $280

Total One-time Costs: $3,160

As you can see, having a Mastiff can cost you over $3,825 in the first year, more than half of which will need to have budget allocation again in the next year. Depending on the quality of food we choose to feed our Mastiff, grooming, other dog socialization classes, memberships, and unexpected medical expenses, costs can be much higher. These ballpark figures include pet health insurance, which many pet owners do not have. Not having pet health insurance is risky especially in the first year of your puppy Mastiff. If it contracts a disease and you don’t have an insurance to cover for a chunk of the vet bills, this can burn another several thousands of dollars in areas of your savings that are not allocated for pet expenses. Despite having pet insurance though, prospective Mastiff owners should also always have emergency money for dog medication and hospitalization for sudden expenses. It’s important to plan ahead as pet insurance will not cover everything in the bill if our dog unfortunately needs to be confined for observation and recovery.

Prices of services and products indicated in the table above may change depending on the neighborhood you’re in. On top of the initial purchase price, a responsible prospective owner of one Mastiff should allocate budget between $4,000.00 and $4,500.00 in the first year. It helps to have a separate bank account for our projected expenses for our Mastiff where we can put the allocated budget; Because it’s irresponsible to spend money you don’t have in non life or death situations, it helps to regulate spending by only transacting with cash for dog related expenses. So, credit cards should be avoided even if it’s to pay for check-ups and shots. If you already have a new puppy Mastiff and you have to use a credit card in paying for these, you and your new fur baby are better off parting ways because it means that you just can’t afford to take care of it. If your big furry baby falls severely ill, you wouldn’t be able to pay for its treatments and medication. In the long run, you’ll be depriving it of a long quality life even if you don’t mean to.

You can’t just convince your Mastiff that it won’t fall ill and command it to health; you have to anticipate a crucial vet bill you might not be able to afford before it happens. You shouldn’t have to choose between paying your month’s rent over paying for your puppy’s vet bill.

It’s not impossible to prepare a budget for a Mastiff though. You can visit pet stores, websites of veterinary clinics, and dog training centers where you can see the amount you need to save up for. You can then compare it with your annual earnings and ask, “If it takes 2 years for me to earn 1 year of budget just for a Mastiff, is the dog going to live comfortably for years to come?” Most probably, the answer is still no. It’s not enough that you have enough money for your Mastiff’s first year with you. You should also have the capacity to earn more than half of it for the next year. If you earn an extra $4,500 annually and ask, “Do I have the capacity to cover the expenses for a Mastiff in its first year and for several years to come?” the answer is yes. When it comes to expenses for a Mastiff’s first year, it’s best to anticipate the worst case scenario; other than the foundation purchases that we discussed earlier, they are also more prone to contracting diseases like parvovirus as puppies because they’re still in the process of building a strong immune system. To help in your computation of all possible expenses in your Mastiff’s first year in your home, you may utilize resources available online such as pet budget worksheets you can use to help you estimate pet ownership costs.

With our projected expenses for a Mastiff’s first year, we can learn that owning one is a huge financial responsibility; it’s not just as simple as getting a plant and figuring things out along the way. We can learn that planning is the key; just because we make an extra $4,500 every year that’s not set to be spent on other things doesn’t mean that we’re good to go. We can’t just wing it and spend what we have all on food bowls and training courses for our puppy. We have to be able to budget that $4,500 and make the right allocations to make sure that our puppy’s holistic well-being is taken care of. If this means skipping high-end brands for toys and harnesses in order to have extra cash for emergencies, as long as we’re still getting safe and quality products, then so be it. If this means we can’t throw a party for its birthday, it’s okay. We can learn that we can’t predict the exact costs of owning a Mastiff. Because the exact costs are unpredictable, it’s best to expect the worst. Having extra cash that we can include in our budget for our puppy’s second year is better than being hundreds of dollars short for medical emergencies. Finally, because prices vary per neighborhood, we can learn that we actually have to do our homework. This means that we really also have to visit our local pet stores, well-reviewed grooming centers, and trusted vets and list down the probable products and services that will be needed by a puppy Mastiff we’re dying to own.