Breeders, Dealers and Pet Shops

When buying consumer items, many people prefer to buy from large reputable chain stores or main dealers, rather than the small dealer round the corner. Following the same principles when looking for a puppy, they make the mistake of going to a large pet shop, or what appears to be a large dealer offering the choice of lots of puppies of different breeds. Unfortunately they often end up with a puppy that has both health and behavioural problems.

The only good place to buy a puppy is direct from the breeder.

If you need any advice on buying a dog, please telephone us.
We would much rather help you to find the right dog from the start, than have to sort out its behavioural problems later on.

Occasional Hobby Breeders
There are good hobby breeders (like us!) who breed an occasional litter at home for their love of dogs. They will study pedigrees and bloodlines and take great care to select a suitable stud dog to mate with their bitch in order to improve the breed. All the appropriate health checks will be done on the parents. The puppies will be kept in the house and the breeder will devote all their spare time to raising the puppies in the best possible way. The house may be untidy, because they will be far to busy with the puppies for housework. These puppies make ideal pets. Hobby breeders are likely to be very fussy where their puppies go and will question purchasers carefully, refusing to sell to anyone who does not meet their strict criteria. They are likely to offer after-sales advice, and will ask you to keep in touch. Prices will be fairly high, but reasonable, representing the time and effort that has gone into raising a well-balanced puppy. 
 

Regular / Professional Breeders
They are likely to have several breeding bitches, often in kennels, and sometimes their own stud dog. They will usually show their own dogs and breed, partly to produce new dogs for themselves to show or work, and partly for sale. Their breeding activities can vary in size from a modest operation to cover the costs of their other dog activities to, at the other end of the scale, a large breeding and boarding kennel business designed to provide a good income for the owner. Most only have one breed of dog, but some may have two or even three.

Standards can vary, but generally some care will be taken to select suitable parents and puppies should be fit and healthy. However the breeder may want to keep the very best puppies for showing and future breeding stock. The rest are sold primarily to the pet market.

Questions will be asked to make sure prospective purchasers are suitable, but a professional breeder is likely to be less fussy than occasional breeders.

As the breeder will often be busy running the kennels and their other dog activities, they may not have much free time to socialise the puppies from an early age. If the puppies are in the house, they should be OK but if they are in kennels away from normal household activity and noises, this could be a potential problem; especially if the puppies are older than the usual 8 weeks when sold.

Older puppies, offered at around 6-12 months, are likely to have been kept as potential show or breeding stock, but rejected because they did not develop into such good specimens as was hoped. Unless they have lived in the house and been well socialised, these are best avoided.
 

Backyard Breeders
These people own a bitch and mate it to a friend’s dog, without any regard to the pedigrees or health checks. The puppies are sold for profit to a man in the pub, or through adverts in Loot or Exchange & Mart as soon as they are old enough, with no questions asked of the purchasers. Once sold, they have no interest in the puppies’ ongoing welfare and offer no support. In any case, they probably lack sufficient knowledge of dogs to give any advice. Avoid them at all costs and don’t be tempted to take pity on a puppy. Breeds popular with these people include Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Rottweilers and similar ‘macho image’ dogs many of which end up in rehoming centres.

Into this category also fall the people who fail to control their bitch when in season resulting in an accidental mating and an unwanted litter of mongrel puppies.
 

Puppy Farmers
They treat dogs as farm livestock, breeding for profit from any bitch they can get their hands on. Large numbers of bitches are often kept in farm outbuildings in very poor conditions, mated at every season and the puppies sold at a very young age, usually through dealers or to pet shops, or through adverts in Loot or Exchange & Mart. Puppies are likely to have health problems due to lack of good feeding and care and will show severe behavioural problems. Following the introduction of laws to control puppy farming in England and Wales, many puppies are now imported by road from Ireland. Pedigrees, if offered, are not even worth the paper they are printed on. If you answer an advert, they may offer to meet you with a puppy at a motorway service area.
 

Puppy Dealers
Never buy from a dealer. No responsible breeder will sell puppies to a dealer. Anyone who claims to have a wide selection of puppies of different breeds available is probably buying them in from puppy farms, backyard breeders and people whose bitches have been mated accidentally. Puppies from different litters can be mixed up and, even if you are offered a pedigree and KC Registration, there is no guarantee that the papers relate to the actual puppy you take home.
 

Pet Shops
Don’t be tempted. No responsible breeder will sell pedigree puppies to a pet shop. Pet shops have high overhead costs and normally take an enormous profit. You should be able to buy a much better pedigree puppy, direct from a good breeder, for at least £200 less than a pet shop would charge.

Crossbreed or mongrel puppies are likely to be the result of an unplanned accidental mating and the father of the puppies may not even be known.
 

Rescue/Rehoming Centres
If you are looking for a rescued pedigree dog there may be one or more rescue organisations specialising in the breed. Often these are small, run by volunteers, and the dogs may be temporarily boarded in foster homes. Try asking the secretary of the Breed Club for details.

The larger rescue organisations such as Battersea, Dogs Trust and the Mayhew have dogs of all types, shapes and sizes. These organisations have a high turnover of dogs, with many being rehomed in a matter of days. You may have to visit the centre a number of times to find what exactly you want. Decide before you visit what type of dog you are looking for. Remember you will have it for a long time and don’t be tempted to rehome something different just because you feel sorry for it - you will regret it later.

Try to find out as much as possible about the rescued dog’s past history. Many dogs end up in rescue because their previous owners could not cope with them and you may be inheriting behavioural problems. Because of fast turnovers, rehoming centres often give dogs no more that a very basic temperament assessment. Whilst they claim to offer follow-up support, our experience is that they often seem to have insufficient time/staff/expertise to deal properly with even fairly basic behaviour problems.

How to Find A Breeder with Puppies Available

The Kennel Club website has a Puppy Sales Register, which lists breeders of of recently registered puppies that are for sale. It will indicate whether the breeder is Kennel Club accredited. However, the litters will not have been inspected.

The secretaries of Breed clubs often have lists of club members with puppies available. Their details can be found at the bottom of each breed standard on the Kennel Club website. Usually they will know the breeder and be able to give some background information.

Good publications such as Dogs Today magazine often advertise puppies from breeders who meet their criteria (although breeders are not actually inspected).