this is pulled from the newfie forum that i'm a part of. It still applies to you or any other breed of dog.
Part of being a good breeder is, understanding each puppy's personality and each new owners expectations/lifestyle. A good breeder needs to know just as much about you, as you want to know about them. You need to be prepared to share where your going to keep this puppy, who is going to be its primary caretaker and if its more than one person, what is that plan of communication. Who is your vet, and where are you going to go for training? If you don't currently have a vet, or trainer, you need to be interviewing to find one before you get your puppy. Do you have a stable home environment? Are your children well behaved? (Families who have ill behaved children have ill behaved pets and that is not a winning scenario for the lifetime commitment to a Newfoundland)
You also need to know what all the health clearances mean! Just asking if they have them and getting it confirmed is not enough. You need to understand why those particular tests were done and what makes them so important for the breed of your puppy. Some Newf breeders are testing eyes even though that is not a common problem with Newfs, but it would absolutely be a MUST for a Cocker Spaniel. Some breeders may have something in particular they test for in their lines where other breeders don't.
Do you know what your selected breed was originally bred to do, and does the breeder? Does the breeder do those activities, and/or do any of their puppy homes do those activities? Are their dogs capable of doing what they were bred to do? Some well-known Newfie lines can't swim well. IF you want to do a lot of water work or are a water enthusiast, then you probably should not get a pup from those lines. If you don't like the water then that may not bother you. How long has it been since the breeder showed in any event? If in the U.S., do they compete in AKC shows?
Someone SAYING a dog fits the Standard but they do not compete for a Championship or having two or three Championships (CH) in a pedigree three or four generations back means nothing. Someone SAYING a dog is trained for Water/Draft/Obedience/Agility is nothing unless it has achieved those titles. So listen carefully what is advertised and how it is written. Contracts offering a one or even two-year guarantee of crippling dysplasia, is just that! CRIPPLING Dysplasia, meaning the dog cannot walk and will usually need to be put down. IF your dog is Dysplastic in any other way, you are not guaranteed anything back according to the contract. IF you intended to show this dog and it limps from Dysplasia, according to the above contract, you get nothing because it is not crippled, it’s considered lame.
Read the pedigree and try to understand where the lineage comes from. Look for a common prefix name meaning those dogs were bred under the same person with some consistency. Many BYB, and Puppy mills have pedigrees with no consistency. You will find names like 'big John', or 'black Lilly', or every generation is a totally different name, meaning every generation a puppy was sold to someone who bred it, who sold it, who bred it and the cycle goes on with no thought to structure, temperament, or type. Just breeding registered dogs.
How many dogs does the breeder have of breeding age? I was on a BYB's website just yesterday and saw that she has 13 breedable female Newfoundlands listed. I know for a fact that this particular person does not breed for anything other than to produce Newfoundland Puppies, and ships all over the U.S. and advertises all over the Internet, Dog World, etc.... Her website looks good till you do the math.... realize she has never shown any of her dogs, they never go anywhere off the property just for fun, she does her own shots, the vet comes there when needed, the Newfs live in the kennel, and produce puppies.... the dogs are breeding stock, if they don't produce then they are sold/given away. Just talking to this person over the phone you would think she is a wonderful breeder and you are going to get a wonderful puppy from her because she LOVES her Newfies. Yes, she works hard, but is she just working to produce puppies for money.... Nothing else.
There are A LOT of Newf breeders, and there are more all the time so buyers must beware. Just because someone can talk the talk and does the health checks does not mean they have the best interest of the breed in mind. A good breeder has an image in their mind of what their perfect Newfoundland is, and it may be to your advantage to ask what that image is. A good breeder does not hesitate to compete or to show off their dogs, and to refer you to multiple people who either have puppies from them or from where their breeding stock comes from if their new breeders.
Many back yard breeders are organizing through the Internet and share dogs and information. So don't be surprised to find a whole network of individuals breeding Newfs in their barnyards and selling to anyone who has a fast buck.
On the Internet:
I watch for the pictures of breeding stock..... And by 'stock', I mean just that.... someone standing out in the yard/field holding a Newfoundland in kind of a show stack, although the dog is not in full show coat and looks unclean. Advertising about how big or little these dogs are and how big or little the puppies should be, is not a good top priority for breeding purposes either.
Look at the eyes.... a healthy Newfie should have bright eyes, and if you don't know what that is, then keep looking because your not seeing it in the dogs your looking at. Look at the background in photos provided on the Internet.... is it junky, or unkept, or is it just the side of the barn/kennel/truck, or are they cropped so you can't see ANYTHING. Breeders should be proud to display their Newfs in an appealing environment enjoying life. Their dogs should be clean, happy, and healthy looking, unless, of course, they just finished playing in the mud!
Okay, I'm done lecturing, this is a huge topic and it all comes down to human honesty and the way the genes combine when put together. Contracts are great but only as good as the people signing them, and Genes can only be controlled so far. You try and lessen your odds by selecting an honest, ethical breeder and then roll the dice hoping they have made the right choice for you to get the healthiest puppy possible.
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