Dog breeders who perform all the recommended health tests for their breed
Puppies that can be viewed with their mother present and, if possible, the father
Parent dogs and puppies that are clean, healthy, friendly and confident
Owners who train their dogs in every day obedience
Breeders who are knowledgeable about their breed and happy to talk to you
A breeder who asks you questions about your suitability to own a puppy
Avoid:
Puppies that cannot be seen with their mother
Cold, smelly, dirty or frightened puppies
Breeders with many breeds of dogs
A breeder who is happy to sell you a dog without asking you any questions
Breeders who become defensive when you ask sensible questions
Health Tests
A reputable breeder will perform the health tests recommended by the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and the Kennel Club on all dogs that they breed from, male and female. The majority of dog breeds will have recommended tests and the Kennel Club website includes a database that lists these tests. The purpose is to identify health problems that are passed on from parent to offspring through a dog's genes and minimise the risk of this happening. A good breeder will be happy to discuss these tests with you and will have evidence of the results. Your vet will be able to discuss tests and what the results indicate with you in more detail.
Note that these health tests do not only apply to pedigree dogs. The increasing popularity of crossbred dogs such as Cockerpoos; Labradoodles; Cavapoos etc., had led to many breeders producing these dogs without doing the appropriate health checks. The parent dogs should have had the appropriate health checks for their breed. Do not accept that the health checks are not required because the dogs are not pedigree and are crossbred.
The most common health tests are probably hip and elbow scoring. Some breeds of dog are prone to developing joint problems where the joints do not develop correctly, known as hip and elbow dysplasia. This leads to lameness and discomfort as the dog ages. In the worst cases dogs as young as six months may have to be put to sleep because of chronic pain due to badly formed joints. Hip and elbow scoring aims to alleviate this risk by x-raying breeding dogs' hips and elbows. A vet evaluates the x-rays and gives them a score. Hips are scored out of 53 for each hip (106 overall) and each hip is given a score. You will see a score written as 5:5; 3:4 or 12:8 and so on. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) provides an average hip score for each breed of dog. The score is given as an overall which means that if a dog had a score of 5:5, the score would be 10 overall. No dog should be bred from if it has a score over the average for the breed. Symmetry is also important, for example, a score of 5:5 is more desireable than a score of 8:2, even though the overall score for both is 10. The difference in the 8:2 score indicates that one hip is less well formed than the other, which may lead to an imbalance in the way the dog moves and perhaps uneven wear and tear, possibly leading to problems with lameness as the dog ages.
Elbows are a less complicated joint than hips and are scored out of 3 for each elbow (6 in total). In the UK, breedable scores are 0 and 1. Dogs with scores of 2 and 3 on either elbow should not be bred from. Elbow dysplasia affects many old dogs and is it a very painful and distressing condition. If it can be avoided, it should be.
Socialisation and Habituation
Breeders are responsible for ensuring that the puppies they produce receive socialisation with people and, where possible, other animals and habituation to every day household sights and sounds during their first eight weeks of life. It is not acceptable for breeders to not make efforts to do this. Ask your breeder what they do to give the puppies a good start.
Parents' Temperament
You must meet the mother of any puppy you are interested in. Check that she is clean, healthy-looking, happy and friendly. Mother dogs of very young puppies are often wary of people coming too close and this is normal but when the puppies are older, she should be more welcoming. Avoid puppies from mothers who are nervous or very aggressive as this trait may be passed on to the puppies. Not all dogs will make a big fuss of you but they should be friendly enough. Beware of breeders who bring the mother in the room, hold on to her tightly and then put her back out of the room again. If you can't approach the dog at all, then this is a reliable indicator that the dog's temperament is not good.
Puppy Temperament
A breeder should be able to talk to you in detail about each puppy's personality and should guide you in choosing a puppy that is suitable for you and your household. Whilst all breeds have particular traits, all puppies' personalities are different. Within the same litter there can be cuddly hooligans and more passive puppies. Breeders should be engaged and enthuastic about the puppies they bring into the world and should take an active interest in ensuring that you and your puppy are the best fit.
Feeding and Care
Reputable breeders will be able to advise you fully on feeding and caring for your puppy. Some breeds require specialist care for their coats and your breeder should be able to help you with his.
Training
It is perhaps desireable that breeders should train their dogs to an acceptable standard before breeding from them. The Kennel Club Good Citizens Scheme provides a realistic benchmark. The reasons for training are two-fold. Firstly, the Kennel Club awards act as a temperament test. In the UK, breeders are not required to have their dogs temperament tested, although this is commonplace in European countries. For a dog to have passed the Good Citizens Gold award, it is a fairly reliable indicator that he or she has a good temperament. Secondly, if the owner has trained their own dogs, then they will be able to help you if you encounter a problem at some point, they cannot do this if they do not have this experience themselves.
Avoid Puppy Farmers or Dealers
Be cautious of breeders that advertise lots of breeds of dogs or adverts in newspapers that appear similar but have different phone numbers for each advert (usually mobile numbers). It is not uncommon for some reputable breeders to specialise in three or four breeds but you should check out anyone breeding from a lot of different dogs very carefully. Never buy a puppy if the mother is not available when you go and view the litter. Do not accept excuses that the mother is out for a walk, or at the vet, or tired. Say that you will come back later, when she is available. If the mother is not available, this probably means that the puppies have been sold to a dealer and the mother has stayed with the breeder. No breeder who genuinely has the interests of their puppies at heart sells to a dealer. Breeders who do this do not treat their dogs well, the mother dogs breed litter after litter, are not loved pets and the puppies do not have a good start as they are not fed properly, socialised and are often taken away from their mother at too young an age. Puppies should not leave their mother before seven weeks. Some breeders or particular breeds of dog may sell a six week old puppy to an experienced home but this is not generally the norm. Never buy a puppy from someone who insists that they deliver it or wants to meet somewhere like a service station or car park. Of course, if you are buying a puppy from a long distance away, the breeder might agree to meet you - but no decent breeder would sell you a puppy without meeting you at all, so at some point you would have gone to visit the puppy at the breeder's home.
Never buy puppies from pet shops, no matter how glossy the set up is. The puppies are often mass produced by dubious breeders with little care and research is beginning to show that puppies bred in this way develop serious health and behavioural problems. No breeder who cares about their puppies would dream of selling them to a pet shop. Puppy farmers do not necessarily sell their puppies from farms! Puppy farmers sell on to dealers, or direct to puppy supermarkets and pet shops.
If you want a well bred, happy, healthy puppy you will need to do some research, perhaps be prepared to pay a premium (but not always) and be prepared to wait for the right breeder to produce a litter. You should be ready to answer lots of questions because breeders who care about their animals will want to make sure that they are going to the best homes. In the same way that you have to be wary about finding the right breeder, the breeder has to be sure that you are the right owner. It really is worth going to trouble to find your perfect dog.
The websites listed below have some upsetting images and information, so be warned before you look at them, but it is important that people buying puppies are aware of the pitfalls.
Socialisation and Habituation
Feeding and Care 