Do you really need a puppy? Although you should do research on what kind of dog would best fit into your lifestyle, bringing a puppy home is like bringing a child home. Adopting from a shelter or from a breed rescue should always be your first option. But if for some reason you are determined to get a puppy from a dog breeder, than here is how you go about finding the best dog breeder for you.

Places To Avoid

Avoid all pet stores that sell puppies and allon the internet puppy brokers that sell puppies 365 days a year and offer to ship puppies anywhere in the country. A good dog breeder would never sell their puppies to a pet store because pet stores cannot guarantee good homes. Internet sites that sell puppies 365 days a year are merely fronts for inhumane puppy mills.

Never buy a puppy without having seen the animal first. It is also essential to visit the breeder’s home or kennel in order to see how the dogs are treated and what their character is like. If the place smells foul or you see dogs living in stacked crates, make a polite excuse and get out of there.

Places To Search

You can find breeders of the breed you’ve chosen from going to local dog shows and meting breeders and their dogs there. You can also ask trusted friends, family and business associates who have dogs of the breed that you want where they got their puppies from. You can also check the breed association to find any contact information of breeders in your area.

Things To Look For

Good dog breeders make you work hard to prove that you’re good enough for one of their puppies. They will pelt you with questions about what you want in a dog, what your experience with dogs is and who your vet is. They might even require letters of character references from your vet and dog groomer (depending if the breed needs to be groomed or not).

Good dog breeders will have contracts for you to look over, including limited health warranties and health certificates for both parents. A good dog breeder will be eager to show you their dogs and their kennel and never try to force you not to visit. An excellent dog breeder will insist that if you have to give up the dog no matter how old the dog is that you can give the dog back. (You won’t get any money back, but at least the dog will have a home).

I often encounter the question “What breed is my dog?”, which is an almost impossible question to answer. Technically speaking, the ONLY way of determining if a dog is purebred or not, is if it has registration papers. No papers, and it can’t be called a purebred.

A dog can look like a purebred, you can have DNA blood work testing done, you might even know who itsMom is, but unless the dog has proper registration papers it can’t legally be referred to as a “Purebred”. Plain and simple.

Being a purebred does not mean a dog is a quality dog, it only indicates the dogs parentage. Those parents could be good quality, they could be champions, or they could be the bottom of the barrel. The only thing a dog needs to be purebred is registration papers with a recognized breed registry, such as the AKC, UKC, CKC, and so forth.

Most dog breeders have their puppies tattooed before they go to their new owner. This tattoo indicates who the breeder is, what litter the pup was from, and what number that pup is within the litter. If an animal shelter finds a stray dog who is tattooed with a breeder tattoo they can easily find out who the breeder was, and eventually who the current owner is. This tattoo also links the dog to its registration papers, assuming the dog was registered.

Most countries have laws regarding the marketing of pedigreed (registered animals). For example, it is usually illegal to refer to a pet as a purebred if it does not have registration papers, and it is usually illegal to offer pets at one price with the papers, and one price without.

You can try to determine the breed of a dog by having a veterinarian do anCostlyDNA test, but unless you can trace the dog back to its breeder and it was a registered dog, with registration papers, it can still not be called a “purebred”. As such most owners just guess what breed, or mix of breeds, a dog is simply by looking at it. If you are not familiar with dog breeds, ask your vet, or dog groomer to make a guess. Consider what breeds are common in your area.

A dog does not need to be purebred to be a good dog, many purebreds are riddled with health issues. One advantage of a purebred is that since you know its parentage, you know which health issues run in that genetic line, so know what to anticipate and watch out for. Keep in mind, that being a purebred does not mean the dog is a quality dog. To determine that, a person must take the dog to shows to prove its quality, or research the pedigree to see what Champion Ship titles its ancestors hold.