Meliora Drents

So you want to purchase a puppy from a breeder – and you want to do so ethically. Whether you are looking for very specific, predictable traits, or you are just in love with a particular breed, whatever your reasons, how the heck do you wade through your options? How do you best ensure you’re going to get a puppy who is physically and mentally healthy and from a breeder who is reputable?

Ask 100 dog snobs, and you’ll get 101 answers to this question. The aprroach also wildly depends on what you want to do with the dog. But at the very minimum – there are 3 things I’ll look for to determine if a breeder is reputable or not.

✅️ Breed Specific Health Testing

We all hope our animals live as long as possible with the highest quality of life possible – which is why health testing is perhaps the number one thing that separates reputable breeders from disreputable ones. While there is always a bit of a gamble in genetics, we have a lot of available tests and screenings in today’s day and age that can screen out issues and ensure a higher probability of healthy puppies. At a very minimum, you want to see health testing on the parents. Ideally, the breeder will have multiple generations’ worth of health testing to show – grandparents, siblings, great grand-parents, previous litters, etc.

When looking for health testing of the parent animals, be aware that a yearly vet checkup is not enough. A dog may be healthy at their annual vet checkup, but later in life succumb to joint dysplasia or genetic disease that wasn’t detectable at the surface level in a young dog. An all-clear from a vet is great, but just scratches the surface.

Depending on the breed or mix you’re looking for, the recommended health testing will be different. The best thing to do is look up the AKC Parent Club for your breed of choice and look around on their website for what health tests they recommend. Examples might be x-rays evaluated by the OFA (a non-profit third party) for orthodpedic issues, genetic testing for heritable diseases, certifiable eye or heart exams, etc.

For purpose-bred mixes, you want to look for health testing based on ALL the breeds in the mix – despite what you may hear about hybrid vigor, that’s not exactly how it works. As much as you can get the best of both/all breeds, you can also get the worst if you’re not careful.

✅️ Proactive Prevention of Shelter Dumping

Breeders get a bad reputation in the public eye largely due to the shelter crisis and “Adopt Don’t Shop” movement. The prevailing idea is that breeding more dogs contributes to the shelter population. But that’s not universally true.

Part of what makes a breeder reputable is their willingness to take responsibility for the animals they produce. What this means is that they select appropriate, trustworthy homes, and do everything in their power to prevent a dog they produced from ending up in the shelter system. This typically looks like a clause in the purchase contract stating that, if the dog can no longer be cared for, they are returned to the breeder – or at the very least, the breeder is contacted to assist in rehoming the dog.

Folks heavily involved in a purebred dog breed will rally around a dog of their breed that has somehow ended up in a shelter. This is especially true for rarer breeds. Breed parent clubs are often affiliated with or directly facilitating a breed-specific rescue operation. A reputable breeder will typically be a part of these networks, providing even another layer of protection for their dogs.

While you may never intend to give up your beloved companion, this kind of proactive effort by a breeder shows that they take responsibility for and care deeply about the animals they produce. If a breeder can sell a puppy and not care enough to know what happens to it, that’s a huge red flag for me.

✅️ Matches YOUR Lifestyle

The high level ideal here is to find a breeder who lives with their dogs similarly to how you would live with yours.  Think about things like the activities they participate in, what environment the dogs live in, and what kind of relationship they have with their dogs. Even better if they have testimonials from previous puppy buyers or can connect future buyers with them one on one.

Think about it this way. If you are looking for a pet who can go for the ocassional stroll around the nieghborhood and then chill on the couch, you’re probably not going to want a puppy from a breeder who uses their dogs for herding cattle. If you want a dog who is trustworthy in the house, you might not want a puppy from dogs who live in outdoor kennel runs. If you want a dog you can train with positive reinforcement based methods, you might not want a puppy from a breeder who bases their training on alpha theory. Etcetera.

That said, this can carry a lot of nuance and situational exceptions. I’ll frequently hear from folks looking for “just a pet” that “I don’t need a show dog”. But it is particularly important that dogs bred to be exclusively companions (rather than working or sport dogs) are evaluated in a conformation show ring. Think about the environment of a show – the dog has to be neutral and tolerant of other dogs, people, strangers, loud noises, handling, grooming, unfamiliar environments, and all the travel to get there. A dog who is anxious, fearful, or aggressive isn’t going to make it in the show ring. Many of the most excellent pet dogs are from “show dog” litters.

In absense of a championship show title or other sport titles/certifications, the buyer will have to do some careful sleuthing to validate a breeder’s claims on what their dogs are capable of doing/being. Titles are a helpful indication, because otherwise people can say whatever they want, but they also aren’t everything. This is why I highly recommend speaking to previous puppy buyers if possible. It might not always be – some individuals may want their privacy, and that’s completely understandable. Meeting the breeder and their dogs in person is also an excellent way to get a sense of how transparent (and self-aware) the breeder is being about their dogs. Some good sleuthing on facebook, instagram, and google can also provide clues.

Closing

No dog is perfect – that’s a HUGE thing to keep in mind, both for the breeding stock and potential puppies. While most folks interested in a purebred dog would do well to be a little more selective, there are individuals on the other side of the spectrum that will hold breeders to an impossibly high standard of perfection that is unreasonable when working with real living beings.

Finding a good breeder, just like breeding itself, is both a science and an art. But if the point of preservation breeding is to faciliate as much predictability in offspring as possible, it’s worth it to do your due dilligence to ensure that probability is in your favor.