by fenella » June 8th, 2011, 6:43 am
I am a fan of rescue, and all of my guys (two dogs and two cats) are rescues. However, I do believe there are many valid reasons for wanting to go to a breeder, such as health testing, etc. I do think that you need to be certain that if you are going to a breeder, you need to make sure you are getting the benefits of a good breeder. I may get slammed for this, but I am going to a breeder for my next dog, since it is a rare breed that doesn't come up in rescue, and there are sports I'd like to explore that don't accept mixes.
I'm not faulting you for wanting to go with a breeder, but there are SO MANY bullies who need homes. If you go with a breeder who isn't doing a lot of testing, isn't titling their dogs, etc., then you may as well go with a rescue...which I encourage you to look again at doing anyway. Is there a particular reason you are looking for a pure bred dog?
For lurkers, I also wanted to add that papers and "pure bred" doesn't mean quality in any breed. All it means is that the parents were registered members of the breed, not that they were quality in any way. I could breed a pure bred lab with horrible defects, hip dysplasia, a bad temperament, etc. to my neighbor's lab with defects, hip dysplasia, and a bad temperament and they would be "pure bred, papered" dogs.