Your greatest chance of getting a healthy, well-socialized puppy is to buy from a breeder who's primary motivation is to produce the finest dogs possible. Ethical, responsible breeders prove their dog's quality by taking part in conformation shows and obedience competition. This gives the owner an objective opinion of a dog's strengths and weaknesses.

The best breeders usually have a waiting list of potential buyers before they breed. Some show breeders sell their show prospects only to competition minded owners. If you are serious about wanting a dog for the conformation show ring, you must put a great deal of effort into finding a qualified breeder. Depending on the breed you want and where you live, this might involve traveling a great distance. There are websites with information about show dates, field trial dates and locations. Search for the best breeders. Look for someone who has dogs that are winners and champions. Talk to competitors who show the breed you want. Learn what the breed's top bloodlines are and who shows and breeds those dogs.

A show breeder will proudly tell you about any titles and championships their dogs have won. Reading a pedigree can tell you about these things too. A pedigree tells you which ancestors in each generation are champions. When a dog wins conformation or performance titles, abbreviations for those titles are included as either a prefix or a suffix to the dog's official registered name and recorded on the pedigree. "Ch" in front of a dog's name means it is a conformation champion. "FC" means it is a field trial champion. When a dog has earned a "Ch" title and also an "FC" title or an "HC" - a Herding Champion title, it may be designated as a Dual Champion with a "DC" prefix. Abbreviations such as "CD" following a dog's name, are obedience and performance titles. For example..."CD" - Companion Dog and "CDX" - Companion Dog Excellent are obedience titles. "AX" is an agility title, "TD" is a tracking title. For more about titles and abbreviations, see What Do All Those Abbreviations Mean?

Check the names on a pedigree, looking not only for titles, but for a name, or names, that appear more than once. Line breeding is the mating of dogs that are related by a common ancestor - perhaps cousins or even farther removed relatives. To consistently produce dogs with uniform desirable traits, breeders practice line-breeding frequently. Inbreeding, more controversial than line-breeding, is the breeding of close relatives, separated by no more than a single generation. To read more about these breeding practices, see....
In-breeding, Line-breeding, and Out-breeding  -  What is Line Breeding?   -   Line breeding, Inbreeding, and Outcrossing

Even in the best breeding programs, every puppy in every litter will not be a show prospect.
As you read in The Right Dog For You, Part Two - Choosing a Dog, there is nothing "wrong" with a dog sold by a breeder as pet quality. A puppy might be considered pet quality, for very minor things like markings, eye color, hair thats wavy where it shouldn't be, etc, etc. It does not mean that it is a poor example of the breed, nor does it mean that a puppy is genetically unsound in any way. Responsible breeders give the same health guarantee to puppies sold as pet quality as they give to puppies sold as show quality.

The written contract will have other differences, however. To discourage breeding of dogs sold as "pet quality", responsible breeders sell their puppies with spay/neuter agreements. To help prevent overpopulation and to assure that the dogs they are offering as pet quality are not used for breeding, spay/neuter contracts are now very common. With a spay/neuter contract, the puppy buyer will get no AKC paperwork until the dog has been spayed or neutered and the breeder receives written proof that the surgery was performed. With some breeders, a pet quality dog will have a "limited registration" by the AKC. This means that the dog is AKC registered but no litters produced by that dog would be eligible for registration. Dogs with limited registration are not eligible to compete in breed conformation shows. They may, however, compete in Obedience, Tracking, Field Trials, Herding, Agility and other licensed performance events.

Most people are perfectly willing to wait until they reach the top of a reputable breeder's waiting list to get the best pet quality puppy possible, but not everyone who wants a purebred puppy is prepared to wait for an indefinite period of time. Depending on the breed, the chances of finding what they want in rescue or at a shelter are small. Breeders who do not show their dogs might be a source to consider for someone who wants a purebred puppy and hasn't been able to find the right one after a reasonable amount of time. It's a better alternative than a pet shop, or surfing find-a-puppy websites and buying from someone with puppies for sale - year round - 6 weeks old and up - in the breed they want plus a variety of other breeds.

Many show breeders consider anyone who breeds, but does not show their dogs, to be backyard breeders, and puts them in about the same class as a puppy mill operator. "Backyard breeders" are people who breed for dollars and really don’t care what happens to a puppy after it's sold. They buy a female, or they might even find one in a "free to a good home" ad. They mate it with their own "stud dog" or the first "stud dog for hire" they can find. Backyard breeders do no genetic testing because their dogs "look healthy". They're either unaware of, or don't care about genetic defects associated with the breed. Although it is quite true that there are many typical, uneducated, backyard breeders to avoid, I personally don't believe that everyone who chooses not to exhibit their dogs is automatically a bad breeder.

Some pet breeders have many years of experience with a breed. They know it's history, it's good points, bad points and health issues. They're willing and able to offer expert advice on house breaking, socializing, training and health care. Their "kennel" is their home and the dog they've bred is their pet. Their puppies are usually well cared for and well socialized. Some will breed their dog only once or twice before they have it spayed. Others might have a few dogs that they breed about once a year. Judge a pet breeder by the same standards as you would judge a show breeder.

Even without the expense involved in showing, if they're breeding responsibly, there will be expenses for genetic testing and certifications, prenatal care, health care for the puppies, quality pet food, and other related expenses, so don't expect a bargain. Expect nice pets with good temperaments at a fair price. Like all pet quality pups, they should still be good examples of their breed. Like all pet quality pups, they should always be sold with spay/neuter contracts.

Pet breeders should be realistic about the quality of their puppies and never make misleading claims. A breeder that does not show dogs shouldn't try to sell puppies as show prospects at a premium price. Show prospects should come from show breeders.

There are other disreputable breeders, who, while they are not full scale puppy mills, there's a very fine line between the two. Avoid a breeder who always has litters of puppies for sale. Avoid anyone who has multiple litters of puppies for sale from a variety of breeds. Even if they are running a home-based business, no one with so many puppies to care for at one time can give them the home-raised attention that a responsible breeder gives a single litter of puppies. There's often no handling or human contact beyond feeding, watering, and cleaning cages. Breeders that mass produce like this, do no screening for genetic diseases or anything else that cuts into their profit. These breeders are clearly in it for the money. They run regular ads on "Find a Puppy" type websites and also in newspapers, merchandisers, and on their own websites.

Their ads frequently have selling points like these that are meant to attract an uninformed buyer....

• " vet-checked"
  This is not the same as genetic testing of the parents. A Veterinarian can't determine a puppy's chances of inheriting a genetic defect by looking at him or by doing a physical exam before giving puppy shots.

• "good hips" or "pups OFA reg."
  Hip dysplasia does not show up in young puppies. Pups cannot be registered with the Orthopedic Foundation of America. The OFA certification is an evaluation of the x-rays of their parents.

• "farm raised puppies"
  This probably means that they were raised in a barn or someplace other than a house.

• "papers available"
  What papers? It should go without saying that AKC registration papers come with an AKC registered dog. The breeder registers the litter of two AKC registered parents and gets an application for permanent registration for every puppy in the litter. These blue slips should be signed by the breeder/breeders and be given to the buyer of each puppy, along with a copy of the pedigree, at no extra charge.

• "purebred, no papers"   -   "pedigreed, no papers"   -   "full blooded, no papers"
  While, AKC registration, as mentioned in previous articles, is no guarantee of quality, someone who is buying a purebred puppy expects it to be just that. Be very suspicious that a dog is not even purebred if a breeder makes excuses for not having AKC registration papers.

• "champion background"
  Champions listed on a pedigree, more than a generation away, prove nothing about the quality of a litter. A breeder who uses this in an ad as a selling point is trying to capitalize on something he knows nothing about. A pedigree that only has champions a few generations back really emphasizes a loss of quality.

• "priced to sell"
  This probably means they have too many puppies so they're having a puppy clearance sale. Responsible breeders will sometimes have an older dog that they will let go for less than the price they charge for a puppy - to a screened and approved home only. Pet quality puppies are sold for less than show prospects, but good breeders don't advertise this way.

• "puppies available year round"   or   "puppies available, 8 weeks old and up"
  Again... beware. Breeders that always have multiple litters of puppies for sale are clearly breeding for dollars.

• "will ship anywhere"
  Good breeders are very particular about where their puppies go. Some might consider arranging to send a puppy to a buyer that satisfactorily answers their questions and has good references, but they would never use this phrase as a selling point in ad.

• "extra large"   -   "teacup size"   -   "one-of-a-kind"   -   "rare"
  These are terms that usually mean traits that vary from the breed standard. If you want a purebred dog, shouldn't it look like the breed is supposed to look? Someone who wants a variation might as well get a mixed breed.

• "USDA licensed"
  The United States Department of Agriculture regulates the care and breeding of stock such as cattle, chickens, and puppy mill dogs. If a breeder requires a USDA license, it's because that breeder mass produces dogs and also sells through brokers and pet stores. The USDA licensing requirement for dog breeders comes from the Animal Welfare Act, first passed in 1966. Breeders who raise and sell dogs on their own premises and sell them directly to the new owner are exempt from having to obtain this license.