A thought just came to mind as I cleaned up the dog puke off the rug. See my mothers on vacation this week and we're taking care of the dogs. They have two ****-Szu's. Anyway how much do dogs cost to maintain? I mean the energy cost to heat a pond over a year is certainly comparable to keeping a dog. Dogs need yearly check-ups and they need to be fed and lets face it dogs wear things out (so do the kids). Dogs become especially costly when they're older. My mothers dog has cost them over $1200 this month! How many people do you know that have multiple dogs!? Vets don't give discounts when you bring in three dogs that's for sure. I love dogs I'm just saying our hobby isn's especially costly.