Labrat just did an awesome post on how to pick a breeder should you decide you want a purebred pup. She did a better job than I did a while back so go read. The comments kinda devolved into a discussion of rescue vs breeder though. And in general I’d agree, going through a rescue to get your new pet is an awesome idea.
However there are some issues. Some rescues are great, some are less than forth-coming about the dogs in question, and then there’s the growing trend to deny the adoption due to some random factor in the household. We ran into this when we were looking to get a 2nd dog. Apollo’s intact, and will be till he’s at least two. We were looking for a young (1 to 3yr old) spayed female. Several places wouldn’t even talk to me after they discovered he was intact. Period. No discussion of the whys, or anything. There were a couple who didn’t QUITE shut up at that news, but the fact that our entire property isn’t fenced was the excuse they used (we have a fenced area, but not the whole two acres). I’ve had other people tell me the same thing, very random things used to disqualify the family from getting a pet. Interestingly enough I ran across an article today on the same subject. At least none of the rescue’s I talked to asked how many steps to the front door we had…..
Edited: we did finally find two that were willing to work with us, and in the end ended up with a puppy from neither since by the time I found them we’d already started the process with the Singer group.