After figuring out what dog breed fits our lifestyle, realizing that a dog can be a 15 years commitment, and knowing that we can afford caring for one, we started looking for a dog, especially a puppy. We have fostered a puppy before and realized the challenge of crate and potty training, and didn’t mind it. We’d like to be able to grow with a puppy and help it learn about the world in a kind way.

We decided we’d have a cockapoo, which doesn’t appear very often in local shelters. The shelters are amazing if you’re looking for a larger dog, ones that are or grow to be 50+lbs. So we looked for a good breeder who happened to also have a litter that is ready in several weeks. We looked into various websites, and ended up searching for a puppy on gooddog.com. We tried to search for reviews and insights about this website, looking into whether it really tries to only feature good breeders. The general feel I had about it was either neutral or positive, so I looked into various breeders on the site and looked for them online out of the gooddog website, whether they had a website, a facebook webpage, or anything that could help us find out the living situation of the puppies. What I looked for:

• The website you’re looking for breeders on is not in this list.
• The breeder doesn’t have several unrelated breeds available. My understanding is that usually a breeder focuses on a specific breed, which hopefully also means they’re very knowledgeable about that breed.
• I can see from pictures that the puppies are loved in a home situation instead of in questionable dirty kennels. The breeder obviously is passionate and loving about the puppy litter and their parents.
• The available date is no less than 8 weeks after the litter born date.
• The breeder has good information about the parents, like their weights, their personalities, their ages, etc.
• The breeder sells a litter at a time (instead of one single dog of breed A, one single dog of breed B, etc), and are interested in knowing about our lifestyle to know whether we are a good fit for the puppy. Vice versa, they can answer any questions we have about the puppy or the parents.
• The breeder retires the dames after 3 pregnancies or less. The dog is not seen as a product from a factory.
• The puppy would have its first round of puppy vaccination before we receive it. It also would also have been microchipped. At least 1 year of health guarantee (genetics related) is provided by the breeder.
• The site features breeders, not individual puppies. Dogs are not products.

After we’re in contact with a breeder, these were the questions we asked:

• What is the litter like? How many puppies? Which date were they born? When would they be available for pick up?
• Where are they located and what delivery methods do they have for the puppy?
• What are the parents like? What size do they grow to be? How are they around kids and other dogs? How do they walk with a leash? Do they have information about their health?
• How many previous pregnancies have the dame had before this litter?
• What is their term of payment?
• Which dog food is the puppy on before pickup? We continue using this exact product, having it ready before the pickup date. From experience, I found that an abrupt change would cause an upset stomach, causing diarrhea and probably other problems, so I’d like to avoid that.
• What kind of vaccine will the puppy have before pickup? How about microchip? Does the breeder have a year+ health guarantee? Will the puppy have a final vet exam before the handover?
• Can they send some updates of the puppy once in a while until pickup?