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Pet Costs

Shih tzu cost calculator

Work out what a shih tzu costs over its whole life, not just what the breeder asks. It is a small, long-lived dog with a coat that grows continuously, so the food bowl stays gentle while the grooming line runs every few weeks for as long as the dog is alive. The calculator totals the purchase, the setup and the years of keep, then prices the question the ledger hides: what the groomer charges for an hour of the work, and what it costs you to do it instead.

§ 01 Your numbers

Change anything. The answer updates as you type.

What a breeder asks, or a rescue fee. This is the figure people quote when asked what the dog cost, and it is the line that swings hardest between one buyer and the next. Our default is ours and editable: put in the quote you have actually been given.
The one-time start, before the dog has cost you a single month of keep. A spay or neuter is often priced by weight, so a small dog sits at the low end of the sheet. The puppy first-year page breaks this stack out line by line if you want it itemised.
Our default is a planning horizon, not a prediction about your dog, and not a lifespan figure we measured. Set it to the number of years you want to budget across. Every line below except the purchase is multiplied by it.
A full groom for a small dog with a long double coat: bath, dry, clip, face, feet and nails. Ring two salons near you and put in what they quote, because this is the line this page is built around and a local number beats ours by a mile. The dog grooming page works through what moves a quote.
A shih tzu's coat grows continuously rather than shedding out, so it arrives at a schedule you set rather than one the dog sets. Six weeks is our default for a coat kept long. Stretch it toward ten or twelve with a short puppy clip, which is the dial owners reach for when this line starts to bite.
Bath, dry, clip and nails, start to finish, including the setup and the cleanup. Our default assumes a cooperative dog and some practice. Your first few will take longer than your tenth. This box and the one above it produce the figure this page was built for.
Shampoo, blades, brushes and the clipper amortised across its life. Doing the coat yourself is cheaper than a salon in cash, but it is not free, and this is the line that says so. Set it to zero only if you genuinely already own all of it.
Your number, not ours, and deliberately not your wage unless you would actually be working. This is what an hour of your Saturday is worth to you. We use it for one comparison and we keep it off the ledger, because your own time is not money leaving your account.
A shih tzu is a toy breed and eats like one. This is the line that would be double or triple on a large breed, and it is part of why the keep on this dog is gentler than people expect.
Optional, and worth pricing before you buy rather than after. Zero if you plan to self-insure by saving instead. The pet insurance page works through that decision on its own terms.
Flea, tick and heartworm prevention is dosed by weight, so a small dog sits at the low end of the dosing chart. Plus toys, poop bags, and the eye wipes this breed's face tends to want.
The yearly checkup, vaccinations, and dental care over time, averaged into one annual figure the calculator spreads across the years. Routine only: a one-off procedure is its own conversation with your vet and is not on this ledger.
Estimated cost
$33,890

Typical range $25,630 – $33,890

  • Purchase or adoption$1,000
  • Puppy setup (one-time)$900
  • Professional grooming (14 yr)$9,100
  • Food & treats (14 yr)$5,040
  • Pet insurance (14 yr)$7,560
  • Prevention, toys & extras (14 yr)$5,040
  • Routine vet (14 yr)$5,250
  • Total$33,890
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$24,000 to $36,000 is a breeder puppy, a groomer on a schedule, and insurance running the whole way. This is where the defaults land, and the grooming line is the largest thing on the ledger after the years themselves.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

THE DEFAULTS ARE OURS; THE BREEDER, THE GROOMER, THE INSURER AND YOUR VET SET THE REAL NUMBER.
Every line here is priced by a person: a breeder's asking price, a salon's fee, an insurer's premium, your vet's fee schedule. Where you live moves all of them. We have put in figures we think are reasonable starting points for a small, long-coated, long-lived dog, and made every one of them editable, because your quotes beat our defaults. Nothing on this page is drawn from a federal statistic, because a breed's lifetime cost is a budget rather than something anyone measures.
THE FINDING IS AN HOURLY RATE YOU ARE ALREADY BEING QUOTED, AND IT IS NOT ON THE INVOICE.
At our defaults a $75 groom that takes 2 hours to do yourself means the groomer is charging $37.50 for an hour of this work. That is not their wage, and we are not presenting it as one: their fee also carries the room, the table, the dryer, the insurance and the years it took them to get quick at it. What it is, is the price of buying one hour of this job back, and that is the number that makes the decision. Put your own two quotes in and read what your groomer charges per hour of coat. Then decide whether your hour is worth more than that. We know the arithmetic; you know the Saturday.

The coat is the line that separates this breed from the small dogs it sits next to on price. At our defaults it runs to $9,100 across fourteen years, which is over nine times our default purchase price and the largest single line on the ledger. A coat that grows continuously arrives on a schedule rather than a whim, and the schedule is the part people do not price when they are shopping the purchase.

Doing the coat yourself is cheaper in cash and it is not free in either sense. At our defaults it trades $9,100 of salon fees for $840 of supplies, a gap of $8,260, and it asks for about 243 hours across the dog's life. Those hours are real and they are why the hours box exists. They are also why we keep them off the ledger: valued at our default $25 an hour they come to $6,075, and a total that quietly billed you for your own Saturdays would be inventing an expense you never actually pay.

THE WEEKS BOX MOVES THIS PAGE MORE THAN THE PRICE BOX, AND IT IS THE ONE PEOPLE LEAVE ALONE.
Our default purchase is $1,000, paid once. Our default grooming is $650 a year, paid for as long as the dog is alive. Stretch the interval from six weeks to twelve, which is roughly the difference between a coat kept long and a short puppy clip, and the salon line halves without anything else on the page moving. That is a bigger swing than shopping a breeder, and it is available to you every six weeks for fourteen years rather than once at the deposit.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a shih tzu cost?
Two numbers answer that, and people usually only ask for the first. The purchase is what a breeder or rescue asks, once. The cost is that plus the setup plus the years of grooming, food, insurance and vet bills. At our defaults the purchase is a small share of the lifetime figure and the grooming line alone is several times larger than it. The calculator above totals both from your own numbers rather than ours, so put your quotes in and read your figure.
Why is grooming such a big line for a shih tzu?
Because the coat grows continuously rather than shedding out to a length and stopping, so it needs cutting for the dog's whole life on a schedule you choose. That makes it a standing appointment rather than an occasional one, and a standing appointment multiplied by a long-lived breed's years is what produces a figure in the thousands. Our defaults put it at $650 a year. The two dials that move it are the fee and the interval, and the interval is the one under your control.
Should I groom a shih tzu myself?
Do the division before you answer, because the useful figure is not the fee, it is the fee per hour of the job. At our defaults, $75 for a groom that takes you 2 hours means paying the salon buys an hour back for $37.50. If your hour is worth more than that to you, book the groomer and stop feeling bad about it. If it is worth less, and you would enjoy the job, the same defaults say doing it yourself keeps $8,260 across the dog's life for about 243 hours of work. Both answers are respectable. Only one of them is yours.
What does a shih tzu cost per year?
Set the calculator to your figures and read the per-year line. For a healthy adult it is grooming, food, prevention, insurance and one routine vet visit, and at our defaults grooming is the largest of those. The years that break the pattern are the first, which carries the purchase and the setup, and any year with a procedure in it. Averaging across the whole life smooths both, which is useful for saving and misleading for planning.

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