Micro
Prices
Micro American Bully Price
The priciest dog in the breed pound for pound, and the one case where the extra money is buying a health trade-off rather than anything you would want more of.
A micro American Bully is usually advertised somewhere between $3,000 and $10,000, and sometimes a good deal higher, which makes it the most expensive dog in the breed by weight. Mine are $700, exactly what I charge for any other puppy, because I am not willing to dress a compression trade-off up as a luxury and charge for it.
What the big micro premium is really made of
Two things, and both are genuine. Producing very short, very wide dogs consistently takes generation after generation of selection, the litters that result are small, and a wide dam on a small frame runs a higher chance of needing a caesarean, which is a real cost and a real risk carried by the female.
So this premium is not conjured out of thin air the way a markup for a fashionable look is. The fair question is simply what it is buying, and the honest answer is a dog bred further along a line where the health risk climbs rather than falls.
What the market asks
| Source | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Me | $700 |
| A small breeder | $2,000 to $4,000 |
| An established micro program | $5,000 to $10,000 |
| A named bloodline | $10,000 and up |
Then stack the first year on top of whichever row you land on, $1,200 to $2,900 beyond the puppy itself. The full breakdown.
What to weigh instead of the figure
Micro is not a class anyone recognises. It is a selling word for a very short pocket, with no height at which one officially becomes the other, which means the label tells you nothing and the dog in front of you has to tell you everything.
So look hard at the parents and put three questions to them:
- Is their breathing quiet when they rest? A dog you can hear while it lies still has an airway problem, and it passes down the line.
- Do they move freely? Watch them walk away and come back. The front end is where compression gives itself away first.
- How did their own litters arrive? If every one was a caesarean, that tells you something real about the breeding.
Micro against pocket in full, which is the comparison most people asking this question actually need.
Micro
Micro
Why mine stay at $700
Because I put a price on the dog, not on the label stuck to it. Holding the figure flat means none of my advice has money riding on it: if a pocket would genuinely suit you better than a micro, I can tell you so and lose nothing by it. A seller charging thousands more for the micro label cannot say that with a straight face.
I don’t screen or certify the parents and won’t claim I do. What I do is have every puppy examined by Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic before it leaves, and the dates go on the record that travels with the dog.
Ask me which of these is genuinely micro
I will give you the accurate word rather than the one that sells, because my answer costs me nothing either way.