Of the four main places to find a dog (pet shop, adoption center or shelter, someone’s backyard, and breeders), this resource is one of the first places people look for purebreds. Dog breeders facilitate and monitor mating among specific dog breeds. The main goal of any professional breeder is to consistently regenerate explicit characteristics fit for professional showing or reproduction. As you can guess, professional breeders are the best resource for locating high quality and healthy dogs. The problem many people have is locating ethical breeders, especially since a lot of people call themselves professional without exercising professional methods. Here’s how to find a dog breeder and avoid being duped by breeder wanna-be’s.

Use Reputable Breeder Resources

There are a few reputable sources you can rely on for quality breeder leads. One of those resources is your local veterinarian. Vets come in contact with probably hundreds of dog owners every week, so they’ll naturally have access to the breeders that they service.

Dog shows are great resources as well since everyone who participates in one acquired their prize-winner from a professional breeder. The very nature of dog shows in fact, necessitates the prevalence of high quality purebreds which typically can’t be found outside of the reputable breeder circle.

You may of course learn about a breeder from a friend, from your newspaper’s classified ad section, from your town’s yellow pages, or from even the Internet. However these resources just aren’t as reliable as the ones described above for reasons we describe in the next paragraph.

Avoid Questionable Breeder Resources

Buying a dog from a breeder that doesn’t accompany a professional reference is risky no matter what impression you may have – especially when you consider that dog breeders aren’t required to carry a license or have certification. Anyone can call themselves a breeder and we’ve found that many amateurs and disreputable breeders prey on people who seek dogs from classified ads and the Internet. We don’t mean to suggest that ALL the dogs from these resources are inferior. We simply want to warn our readers that a significant number of problematic dogs come from these resources, regardless of how they’re advertised: “Perfect,” “Award Winning,” and the like.

Search for a Local Breeder

For the very reasons outlined above, we highly recommend that you find a dog breeder within traveling distance. Searching for a high quality purebred goes hand-in-hand with verifying the claims that you’ve heard. You can’t simply take a person’s word and trust that his or her pups are as healthy, pure, or socialized as you might have been told. You must visit the breeders that you’ve contacted and look at the pups yourself. This is the only way that you can ensure you’re getting what you were promised you would get – a feat that’s much easier within your own local area.

Shop Around

To increase your chances of getting a quality dog, don’t stop looking for one at the first breeder you find. Create a list of local breeders and contact each one so that you can screen out the ones who don’t follow good breeding practices. For more information on that, read out article about what makes a good dog breeder and the list of important questinos to ask a breeder. Every breeder has his or her own perspective of why their particular litter is worthy, and chances are you’ll hear some real whoppers. Knowing what to look for beforehand however, you can quickly dismiss that ones that make wild claims and just as easily select one that you can trust.