How does one find and select an reputable dog breeder?

[Porcupineintherough]

Guidance please. After a lot if thought dh and I are looking at getting a puppy this autumn. For various reasons we have decided that the breed we want is a border terrier and that we want a puppy rather than an older rescue dog.

It's been a good long while since I last had a dog and when I did you heard none of the horror stories you hear today about puppy farms and the like.

So how do I find a reputable breeder and/or a puppy? I'm not after a show dog but we are looking for a pure breed with a good temperament (from parents with a known good temperament). Gumtree and the like are obviously out.

I looked on kennel club and champ dogs but also Pets4Homes even though people will say not to use that site but you’ll know a good breeder when you find them

if they don’t ask you a lot of questions they don’t care about the pups imo

Contact your local breed club for guidance, they will let you know who is reputable or not

I'd start by ensuring you do not buy from anyone who sells dogs on the internet. I'm sure plenty of reputable breeders use internet sale sites but so do puppy farms.

I contacted breeders registered with the KC who had waiting lists. I then waited a year for a litter to be planned.

I met mum and am in contact with Dad's owner. I was on a secret Facebook group from a few weeks before the birth. I got updates everyday. I saw the puppies in the breeder's home. I had confidence the breeder wasn't running a puppy farm. She approved me as a owner too. She doesn't sell to just anyone.

When I bought my pup I was charged the KC recommended price and signed a contract that stated the breeder would take the dog back rather than see him rehomed.

Hope that helps a bit, I think patience is the key if you want a reputable breeder.

How would I find my local breed club? Do I lit type "border terriers, S Yorkshire " into a search engine?

@FairyCakeSprinkles point taken, yes happy to be patient as required.

We used champdogs. You can sign up for a year (around £10) to get alerts when a new littler has been registered. You can select which breeds you want to be alerted to.

Yes that's exactly what to do

Search Your area and border terrier

That's always the first port of call, local breed club.

I used ChampDogs to find our breeder. You should expect to have to contact a few, and try to get on a waiting list. Good breeders will usually want to meet you and ask lots of questions about your lifestyle, house, family etc before accepting you on to a waiting list for an upcoming mating. No genuinely good, caring breeder will just hand over a puppy to whoever turns up with the cash.

Look for health test results - not just a vet check, but the relevant genetic/DNA testing for inheritable conditions in that breed. Just because you want a pet dog rather than a show dog doesn't mean these tests should be skipped. Show breeders are often more likely to have done testing than someone just breeding from their pet.

There should be a contract, which will usually include the puppy being returned to the breeder if for any reason, at any time, you are no longer able to look after it - this is for the lifetime of the dog.

You should definitely be able to meet the dam, possibly the sire unless he is a stud dog from elsewhere, but you should have his KC details to check up on his health tests. No good breeder will mind you asking lots of questions!

Ours is our first puppy from a breeder (always had rescues before) and to be honest, the difference really showed, she is so well balanced, happy, confident, and I put that down to her excellent breeder and the hard work she put into the litter in those first 8 weeks before we got her (handling, grooming, exposure to lots of different noises and experiences etc), and in her knowledge of the lines she was breeding from. We had daily photos and videos starting before they were even born!

ChampDogs is a good place to start but even then you need to ask some probing questions. As a PP says, you can find good breeders on Pets4Homes, but you'll have to be a bit more cautious. Ask about why they're breeding the dam, how and why they chose the stud, what their views are on temperament and inbreeding (look for a litter with a low coefficient of inbreeding - it's better for long-term health).

With health tests, if the check is for a disease that is a simple recessive, so long as one parent is proven to not carry it, the puppy won't develop it.

Plenty of perfectly good breeders don't have waiting lists - I've seen really good litters on ChampDogs.

Another vote for Champdogs. You can check the amount of health and DNA testing that breeders do.

contact the breed club, I’d also go to shows and look on champ dogs. I found a stud dog that I liked the temperament of and their owner put me in touch with the owners of bitches who were using him and then when I found one I liked and they liked me I went on the list for one of their pups. It’s then easier to find second and third dogs when your in that world.
id look out for pups that come from health tested parents, are KC registered and come with breeding and export endorsements and a contract saying in the event anything happens and the pup needs to be rehomed then they go back to the breeder (these are all signs that they are behaving properly)
a good breeder will ask you lots of questions- if they don’t be concerned

I have a border terrier, I found the breeder through the kennel club but I was also in contact with NORTHERN BORDER TERRIER CLUB.

I waited a year for my girl . She's such a friendly dog , and brilliant with my children . The breeder kept in regularly contact and didn't charge me ££££ for her . So glad I waited that year . She was well worth it .

Sorry, I probably sound like I'm lecturing or teaching you to suck eggs with 'be patient' because I know it's hard. We had such a dog shaped hole that there were a few times I found myself nearly folding and browsing through Pets4Homes.

My experience was the same as @beeswa though. My dog is perfect.

Thank you all. I will def start with the northern border terrier club and start from there. And no, not lecturing at all. It's useful in these days of instant gratification to remember that dogs shouldn't be commodities to acquire on a whim. It's taken 20 years for me to be ready for my next dog, I can wait one more.

Great advice to start with the breed club. Good luck finding your border terrorist (not a typo!) puppy OP.

You can find lists of breed clubs on the Kennel Club website with their contact numbers for the secretaries. Most popular breeds have more than one club.
Get in touch with the secretaries & get onto the grapevine of members who mostly are show people. You’ll usually then get passed along between them as they often know who’s planning a litter. Most never need to advertise.

DD found one by joining breed specific forums/chat rooms and asking. She was eventually put in touch with a localish lady.

I have no idea how long this took as it was all done behind my back. I was only told about it a puppy from a litter she was first reserve for became available due to the buyer backing out. She then had to tell me despite paying for the dog herself as she needed our tenancy agreement and the contact details for all people living in the house. We were all contacted and asked if we were on board with a new puppy and I was grilled as if I was adopting an actual child.