We all have the option of breeding to a $1,200/1,500 dog or not. Keep looking if you feel you're being taken advantage of. But also think about how few and far between the good ones are. Think about the years and years of breeding that the stud dog owner did in order to finally have that truly special one and all the ones that washed out before him. I don't think that they have spent any less than those of us with bitches and whelping expenses. More people keep less than stellar bitches and hope to breed up. You don't do that with a stud dog. He has to be at the top from the very beginning and I think that their owners have a right to charge anything they want. We bitch owners have the right to either use them or not.
There is a lot more work standing a dog at stud than you would think.
The bitch owner makes 8 to 10 times the money a stud owner gets for there work when they sell the litter.
A stud with a sought after pedigree does a lot to make a litter saleable.Many sell there puppies on the accomplishments of the stud dog or his pedigree.