Everyone knows that if you are buying a puppy you should at LEAST meet the bitch. And yet it is actually very common for people to buy a puppy having NOT done this.
You might not be going about this the way we did, you might not find your breeder until the pups are already born, but no matter what you need to meet the bitch. The bitch is genetically half the story of you pup's make-up, and in addition she is raising those puppies for the early weeks and her temperament and behaviour will rub off on them. If she is aggressive they run a higher risk of being aggressive. If she is nervous and scared they will learn to be too. If she is calm and confident they will be calmer and more confident too. So meet her and ask yourself if you'd be happy to live with her.
Dogs should be health tested before breeding. The specific tests depend on the breed but do your research and find out which tests the Kennel Club or breed society advises and familiarise yourself with how results look and what they mean. There's no point in finding out the bitch's hipscore if you don't have a clue what a Good hipscore is. The breeder should be able to show you the results on request.
The breeder was open and friendly and showed me around. Her dogs live in the house with her, which is excellent if you want a dog to live indoors with you, because it means the puppies will usually come home with at least SOME idea of outside/inside when it comes to toileting and that makes house-training a wee bit easier. It also means they will not be horrified and scared by normal house sights sounds and smells, a big bonus in fitting them in to family life.
We are lucky that our puppy's parents were both owned by Arkangel's, so we were able to meet them both, and i went along and did so when the bitch was still a few weeks from whelping (giving birth). The bitch was a little reticent at first sight with me, but friendly after a minute or two and happy to be petted and admired.
The dog was amazing, very confident and friendly, and beautiful. When i met him the breeder was growing his coat out to a full show coat so he looked like a huge black and white lion. I offered to take him home with me! I was that smitten.
After meeting the dogs and the breeder i was 100% sure i was happy with the set-up and the dogs and knew that come what may, we had found the parents of our future puppy. We had already decided, so at that point i let the breeder know, that we'd like a boy puppy, and given how taken i was with them i said i'd love a pup with similar colourings to the parents (who are parti, but heading towards tuxedo in their patterning). So now we just had to wait for whelping.
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