If you are looking for puppies for sale near you, be sure to choose a reputable breeder. Responsible breeders will be happy to provide you with detailed health information and will make the mother available for viewing alongside the puppies.
Avoid pet stores that purchase their animals from mass breeding facilities (puppy mills). These places only view puppies as a source of profit and often sell them too young or in poor condition.
Check the Pup’s Training
Puppies like the cute little puppies for sale need attention and care, especially young ones. They also need plenty of exercise, stimulation, and training to be happy and healthy dogs. This is a lifetime commitment, so make sure your lifestyle can support a puppy before you buy one.
Responsible breeders will ask about your lifestyle and want to see other dogs or cats in your home. This will help ensure the puppies go to good homes and prevent them from ending up in crowded shelters.
Puppy mills may sell their puppies at pet stores, where buyers are often misled into buying unhealthy, ill-bred animals. These animals are often too young to be away from their mothers and often have health and temperament problems that could be passed on to the new owners.
Ask any potential breeder if they will allow you to visit their facilities and observe the living conditions and access to food, water, and veterinary care. Also, ask how they socialize their puppies – this is important for their future development and interaction with humans.
Look for AKC-Registered Puppies
The American Kennel Club provides a valuable service by verifying pedigrees and registration documents. Reputable breeders should be able to supply you with these papers at the time of sale or adoption.
You should also be able to ask the breeder about health checks specific to the puppy’s breed. These checks help identify potential genetic diseases and other conditions that may affect the dog’s quality of life.
If a reputable breeder is part of a breed club, this is another good sign, says DiNardo. The clubs uphold traditional breeding practices and have a code of ethics that breeders must abide by.
In addition, a breeder that is part of the AKC supports professional and volunteer canine search-and-rescue organizations nationwide. This is a fundamental reason to purchase puppies only from AKC-registered breeders. Puppies from backyard and commercial breeders flood the market, which makes it harder for dogs in shelters and rescue groups to find homes. This overcrowding causes more dogs to be born into uncaring conditions, resulting in the deaths of many pets each year.
Check the Breeder’s Reputation
Finding responsible breeders is essential if you’re looking for puppies for sale in your area or want to adopt one. A good breeder will always happily provide references from previous puppy owners. They may ask questions about your lifestyle, family, and home to ensure their pups go to suitable homes.
Puppy mills are commercial breeding facilities that mass-produce dogs for sale in pet stores and classified ads. These breeding operations often ignore health and socialization requirements, and they can even sell puppies that are underweight, sick, or unvaccinated.
Backyard breeders may use pets as bait to lure unsuspecting people into their store, but these animals are rarely screened for diseases or placed with responsible homes. Instead of supporting these questionable breeders, ask your local pet store to promote shelter animals for adoption or adopt from a reputable rescue group or animal sanctuary near you. This will help reduce the number of pets that need to be rescued from puppy mills, backyard breeders, and other questionable sources. It will also free up shelter for other animals needing loving, permanent homes.
Check the Pup’s Health
When you visit the breeder, observe how the puppies and mum interact. Are they healthy-looking and happy? Puppies that are well-socialized and confident around people will be more likely to adapt to a new environment. How they behave around their littermates will also indicate their general temperament and how they may behave with you as their owner.
A responsible breeder will test their parents for any inherited conditions common to their breed, making this information available to prospective puppy buyers. They will also regularly outcross their breeding stock to avoid genetic diseases that may be passed on through inbreeding.
Ask whether the breeder has health clearances for the sire and dam and how many generations back these clearances go. This will indicate the genetic health of the pups, although the risk can never be zero, and environmental factors are also essential to consider. A good breeder will have copies of these results for you to see, along with a copy of the mother’s pedigree.
Check the Pup’s Environment
Puppies can be bred in various settings, from private homes to extensive breeding facilities. Look for a clean environment where the mother and puppies are well cared for.
Be sure to visit the breeder in person to see the pups and mother up close and how they interact. This will give you a good idea of the puppy’s temperament. Also, observe how the pups interact with their littermates, as this can indicate how they will react to other dogs and people in the future.
You should be able to ask the breeder questions about the puppies’ health and vaccination history. They should be able to tell you how many shots they have received and when their subsequent worm treatment is due.
Avoid buying a puppy from pet shops, online, or under suspicious circumstances (such as being offered at a car boot sale) because these puppies may have come from unreputable sources such as puppy mills. This type of breeding puts profit ahead of the animals’ well-being.
