What does a border collie puppy cost? (UK average prices) 

If you’re looking to welcome a border collie puppy to your home, then one of the first questions you might have is how much does a border collie puppy cost? Well, you’re in luck, because I’ve done a little bit of research into this topic and a broken down the average costs in the UK for a border collie puppy.

I should say that of course there are a lot of factors that go into the price behind a border collie puppy, but I will do my best to give you some hard figures. There’s nothing more annoying than reading pages and pages of an article only to understand the answer is “it depends”.

The average price for a border collie puppy in the UK

The average price for a border collie puppy in the UK is approximately £750. This figure hasn’t just been plucked out of thin air, but it’s based upon the median price of boredom collie puppies on the pets4homes.co.uk website.

To find out this figure, all I did was a nationwide search for border collie puppies, sorted by price, and navigated to the middle pages of the listings.

However, before you run off and start searching for your border collie puppy with that price in mind, it’s important to understand a few things.

You see, border collies come in all different colours, and will have a variety of pedigrees and backgrounds.

As a result, you’ll find that there are border collie puppies out there for less than £750, and you will find that there are border collie puppies for sale for in excess of £2000.

So so why do somebody border collies cost more than others?

Put simply, like all things there are two factors that pretty much determine border collie pricing.

The first is the time and effort that has gone into a particular litter of border collie puppies.

Breeders who are properly licensed perform healthcare and background checks on puppy parents and who make sure to breed responsibly, obviously put a lot more time and effort into ensuring that their border collies won’t have health issues.

The second main factor that affects the cost of border collies is their coat type. 

Border collies obviously come in lots of different coat colours and coat types. You have rough border collies, smooth, black and white, copper brown, and merle. The list goes on even further.

In terms of the thing that actually affects the price of a border collie puppy, these tend to be centred around the coat colour rather than the coat type.

And the general rule of thumb, the more common the colour the less expensive the puppy.

This rule, kind of confusingly, applies within litters of puppies as well. 

For example, if a breeder has a litter of tri-colour puppies, but one of those has slightly rarer colours or more distinctive markings, then you can expect to pay more.

Personally, I think basing the price on the rarity of a dog’s markings is a little bit silly. I think it’s much more important to base the cost of a new puppy on the quality of the breeder. 

That said, I get it: scarcity drives demand.

How much do border collies cost from specialist breeders?

In the above, I’ve gone over what it costs to purchase border collie puppy in the UK, using a popular but generic pet advertising website as my main source.

Of course when it comes to specialist breeders who are registered with the Kennel Club, and are breeding from show-level parents, then the pricing becomes a little bit harder to give an average figure for.

However, generally speaking, for this caliber of border collie, you can expect to easily pay north of £1500. Depending on their markings, the price could even rise up to around £2500-3000. 

What’s the difference between “specialist breeders” and adverts from “general breeders” you may see on listing websites? 

Well I see it a bit like car brands – let’s say Kia and Porsche. Both will get you from A to B, and both have their pros and cons, but Porsche will cost more because they’ve got both more “brand appeal” and because they’ve (I’m assuming here) spent longer designing and fine-tuning things. 

It’s much the same (kind of) with dog breeders. The Kias in this example might be a local hobby breeder who has done all the necessary vet checks etc. but isn’t too bothered about tracing ancestry or breeding for specific traits. The Porsche would be your specialist KC registered breeders who will be breeding for specific traits, markings, and temperaments. 

Of course, sadly, the cheaper you go the more likely you are to come across the “dodgy used car” examples. By this, I mean breeders who don’t care about the parent’s (sires and dams) medical history and breed from the same mother more than they should. 

Generally, these aren’t great people. 

And then there’s the straight-up “stolen car” breeders – people who couldn’t even be called a breeder, who import puppies from puppy farms and pass them off as their own litter. 

I’ve written a list of questions you can ask a breeder to help you avoid these horrible people and check that everything is above board.

So, how much will you need to budget when buying a border collie cost (in total)?

Now we’ve covered the actual price of a border collie puppy in the UK, you may be wondering how much in total you can expect to pay. 

By this I mean, how much money you’ll have to hand over in the first few weeks of puppy ownership.

So, first things first, when you choose your border collie puppy, you’ll generally have to immediately pay a 10-15% deposit. 

If we assume that the puppy you want is at a mid-point price between hobby breeders and specialist breeders (so, approx. £1100), then this deposit will be somewhere in the region of 110-160). Don’t worry though – this gets taken off the final amount you pay.

After this, you’ll of course need to: 

• puppy proof your home. This will most likely cost around £40. 
• buy a crate, bedding, food bowls, leads, and toys. Easily around £150. 
• pay for vaccinations. Again, it varies, but expect to pay around £60 for this. 
• buy in some of the dog food your breeder has been feeding your puppy. Budget around £50 for this and this should get you enough food for the first month. 
• Then there’s pet insurance. You’ll probably get the first 4 weeks free, but after than expect to pay around £15 a month. 

There are probably more things here that I’ve missed, but the above covers the main costs you’ll most likely need to account for. 

In total, then, on top of the cost of your border collie puppy, you should expect to budget an extra £300 on basic first-month essentials. 

So, in total, the cost of buying a border collie from a hobby breeder, as well as these essential items, will add up to £1050. 

The total cost of buying from a standard specialist breeder with these items included might total approximately £1900. 

Of course, these figures are approximate and will fluctuate over time, but hopefully, they give you a good idea of what it costs to buy a border collie puppy in the UK. 

Summary 

Hopefully, you found this article useful. If there’s one thing to take away from this, it is that if the costs I’ve set out for you seem too high, then please, please think carefully before purchasing a border collie puppy. 

The costs of owning any dog really do stack up over time, and sometimes they can be unexpected. For example, you may find your collie has some food intolerances and you need to switch to a more expensive brand. Or, you may return home one day to find that the rug in your living room has been nicely… chewed. 

If the initial costs of owning a border collie strike you as too high, then you can either: 

• make sure you can comfortably budget for food, insurance, and toys/treats each month and look to adopt a rescue collie. 
• Wait a little while longer until you’re in a position where you can comfortably afford to keep a border collie. 

But, whatever you do, don’t be tempted to buy a border collie puppy from a breeder charging suspiciously low prices. Like the used car/stolen car analogy above, this is likely to cost you far more in the long run – both through vet bills and heartache. 

Again, if you’re looking to buy a border collie puppy, I really recommend reading my article on what questions you should ask a breeder. Hopefully, it will help you to avoid the dodgy ones out there.