Any good rescue should know the issues their dogs have, and be willing to openly discuss them with you, and to help you find the RIGHT dog for your situation.  

Getting some mileage out of this pic today. lol.

Some dogs come from neither rescue nor shelter, these are word of mouth, friend of a friend that had oopsy dogs.

I present Shih Tzu Basset Hound Mix, they were friend of a friend that I think these dogs probably wouldve ended up at a shelter had they not able to get rid of them. All 7 pups found homes.



Another buddy got 2 pure breed Shih Tzus for free, they were oopsy dogs and the lady actually said its a pain in the ass to get them AKC certified etc, So, she gave them away.

Here are the puppies at 5 months old. The yellow Lab was a Craigslist Rescue, poor dog lived its life in a crate, I know ppl say their pets are special, but there is something about that Lab that seems extra ordinary, very intuitive to the owner.

We have 7 now and have had a pack for many years.





Over the last 30 years we have done both. My parents were breeders that raised Bearded Collies. I spent a lot of time in the show ring. The dogs from breeders tended to die from breed specific defects. We have had Bearded Collies (hip problems), Borzois (gastric torsion), Golden Retrievers(Brain tumor), Cocker Spaniels and ACDs (seizures).





The rescues have all lived long happy lives and died of old age. The best dogs have one parent that is a working breed. These dogs focus on you, are smarter and center their world around what you are doing and your property. Hunting dogs will go hunt. When their brain switches to that mode it is hard to interrupt it.
 

I am a HUGE fan of mutts.  I think more people should embrace the mutt label with pride.

Unfortunately, mutts aren't healthier...at least not any more.   Most mutts today are just a generation or two away from a purebred.  If your take a Maltese with all sorts of health problems and cross it with a Bichon with all sorts of health problems you get....a very unhealthy dog.  The people who are most striving to select for and test for and produce the most healthy example of a specific breed are the people who are least likely to let their carefully planned and tested dog get knocked up by the neighbor's dog by accident.  


Back 100 years ago, mutts were healthier because of natural selection.  Less healthy mutts died.  Survival of the fittests was in play.  This didn't apply to just stray mutts either but also mutts owned by the lower-middle class hunter and the lower-middle class farmer or rancher.  If that dog can hunt well, catch rats well, run cattle well, the frugal farmer and hunter didn't care that it wasn't a purebred (they couldn't afford a purebred), but if it failed at those tasks, it wasn't kept for long.



Finally, hybrid vigor.  Hybrid vigor is the concept that for a trait normally the offspring of two different breeds will fall between the two different breeds, (example 60 lb sheep x 100 lb sheep -> expect 80 lb adult weight for the hybrid).  But there are times when the hybrid surpasses both it's parents (example 60 lb sheep x 100 lb sheep = 120 lb from the hybrid).   Hybrid vigor shows up strongly when certain lines/breeds with a species mix and doesn't show up hardly at all when other species have their lines/breeds mix.  


Dogs don't show hardly any hybrid vigor at all.  


Additionally, until it is discovered through crossings, who can say what traits are going to benefit from hybrid vigor.  Maybe it's size, maybe it's night vision, or hearing, or aggression, or shyness, or running speed.  And these 'improvements' may not always equate healthier.  If hybrid vigor makes the progeny even bigger than either of the parent, this can exacerbate the stress on joints, or how well those joints fit together, which may mean worse cases of hip dysplasia.  Maybe whatever is causing improved night vision in a hybrid exhibiting vigor on that trait ends up being light sensitive during the day.



Anyways, when you realize that hybrid vigor can in theory show up in any trait of feature...both good and bad...maybe it's good that dogs show so little hybrid vigor.

 
I'd stack the UKC over the AKC as 'reputable'.  But a lot of single breed or small groups of breed registries are more reputable than either the AKC or the UKC.




The AKC will register anything that comes from two purebred parents of the same breed.  There are many registries that don't even require that, which would register a cat as a purebred labrador if you paid them the registration fee.


 

We were considering a puppy. We wanted to get one from a rottie rescue, but purebred rottie pups are very scarce. So we started looking into breeders. In the end we couldn't do it in good conscience. We brought this guy home on the 4th of July.



2 - 2 1/2 years old owner surrender. Housebroken, crate trained, basic obedience, gets along with other dogs. He's still got some puppy in him and gets a little animated when overstimulated. Nothing a little time and training won't fix.

Great dogs.  My parents have a Collie.  Best dog I have ever seen.

Typical family dog, a mutt from the shelter, etc... is fine and will suit 99 % of people.

For hunting/working dogs, I get them as a pup from a breeder.

I don't think I have it in me to explain myself and my living situation to rescues. I think I'd rather pay my money and maybe submit some letters of reference and deal with a capitalistic exchange. Not unless I already had a relationship with the rescue. The only adult I could see going for anyway would be one who I already know, not one on a foster parent's advice. I'm just really done with adult rescue dogs.

Breeder for me. If I'm going to get a large breed dog like a GSD, I want a pup to train. A lap dog who cares where it comes from. It can't eat me.  

Rescues all the way, there are plenty of incredible dogs that aren’t even at the pound or at a rescue. It’s sad how many are just abandoned and left fending for themselves. We’ve got six currently but have rescued and had up to ten in the last year. Two of the most notable are:

Michonne the GSD showed up at my work before and after.



Bridgett we had to trap she was also in the same critically poor shape as Michonne.

All of my dogs are rescues - real rescues; off the street, out of the woods, abandoned on a logging road, ...  How many?  15 since 1997; 8 are still alive.  The others died from old age, cancer, heart disease.  

Sometimes it's hard @ $500/month out of our retirement pay but we still have 8 dedicated fans who never fight or fuss even when they're all eating within 5' of each other every day.  

Rescues are the way to go.

reputable breeder.


lots of paper work to adopt, pre and post adoption. almost as much as adopting a human child.

-dogs are good.  Period.

Breeder, but I was looking for a bird dog and could only have one so I needed the best odds of a getting the attributes I was looking for.

Adopt/rescue save a life

That's a bit of a stretch. And a reputable breeder is going to have a similar application/contract as a reputable rescue.

All but one of ours have been rescues (or from a neighbor's dog), with the exception of our wolfdog that came from a breeder.

We have also been foster care givers for rescue dogs, so we got to see how different they all can be. From this, we also had the chance to foster a female that gave birth in our house...we kept one of the pups too.

The pup we kept has been our best dog, not that the others were bad, but he has never known any other home and sticks to us like glue. He will be the one I miss the most when he's gone (now 10 years old).

Wow what a great trasformation for Michonne!  She is beautiful and confident looking now, instead of that poor starved terrified pup!

Thanks she is a great dog and is truly one of the best looking GSD's I've seen. I was fortunate that she had a fan club on here. Plenty of people helped donate to her cause. She had contagious mange so I had to buy a big kennel and cover some vet bills. I did a rescue thread about her here.

Michonne

The other dog Bridgette was just as bad with mange and almost hairless, her coat now is incredible. She is also the dog I would want when the SHTF, her nickname is Carol.

Thanks.  I have no idea what he is, but his face/ears and coloring kind of looks like a rottweiler.