The number everyone compares is the one that matters least
A Pug costs $30,209 over its life on this site's model. The puppy itself, at our midpoint, is $2,100 of that.
That is 7%. Halving it saves you about $1,050, once, at the start.
Here is what the other 93% contains, using rates measured in Pugs specifically and prices from a study of veterinary costs across all 50 states.
- 72.7%Hip dysplasia$2,350
- 36.0%Elbow dysplasia$4,000
- 13.2%Overweight and obesity$258
- 6.5%Corneal ulcer$722
Hip and elbow figures come from OFA screening, where breeders submit dogs voluntarily, so they describe dogs whose owners chose to test. See the Pug page for every figure with its source and population.
What the discount is actually buying
Health testing is not a formality a breeder can skip without consequence. It is most of why a tested puppy costs more.
Hip and elbow radiographs, cardiac and eye examinations, and genetic panels run to hundreds of dollars per breeding animal, repeated for every dog in a breeding program. A breeder who does none of it has a materially lower cost base and can price accordingly. That is the entire mechanism, and it is not mysterious.
So a puppy priced well below the tested range is not usually a bargain that someone missed. It is a dog whose parents were not screened for the conditions its breed is known for, sold by someone who saved that money and passed a fraction of the saving on.
On 11 of the breeds we cover, the median asking price across the open market sits below what health-testing breeders charge:
At the cheap end, the price signal runs backwards
Where health testing is not being paid for, something else has to justify a premium. What gets used is coat color.
Merle is the clearest example
Merle is a mottled coat pattern. On listing sites it reliably carries the highest asking prices in breeds where it reads as novelty, often several times a standard-colored puppy of the same breed with the same absent health testing.
In several of those breeds the pattern does not occur at all. Merle is not in the Pug, French Bulldog or Chihuahua standards, because the gene is not native to those lines. Where a merle appears in one, another breed entered the pedigree at some point. The buyer is paying a premium for evidence the dog is less purebred, not more.
The gene also carries real risk. A dog inheriting two copies, which is what happens when two merles are bred together, faces documented hearing and vision defects. That is the same mechanism behind the 17.8% congenital deafness rate we publish for the Dalmatian, where pigment distribution and inner ear development are linked.
So at the end of the market where nobody is testing, the most expensive puppies are frequently the ones least likely to be purebred and most likely to carry a known defect.
The same logic, different labels
Merle is the easiest to check, because it is either in the breed standard or it is not. The pattern is general. Blue and lilac French Bulldogs carry a color dilution gene associated with alopecia and recurrent skin disease. “Teacup” is not a size any registry recognizes, and usually means the runt or a dog bred deliberately small. “Exotic” and “fluffy” describe traits no health panel measures.
None of those words appears on an OFA certificate, because none of them is a health finding. Every one of them raises the asking price.
What to actually do with this
Ask for the parents' test results by name and registry number, and check them yourself. OFA and PennHIP results are public and searchable. A breeder who has done the work will hand them over without being asked twice; the claim “vet checked” is not health testing and means almost nothing.
Treat an unusual color as a question rather than a feature. If a pattern does not appear in the breed standard, something else is in the line, and the premium is being charged for exactly that.
And compare the right number. Every breed page here gives the full lifetime figure with the health risks priced in, which is the only comparison that reflects what you will actually spend.