Quote Originally Posted by mrxmrx22 View Post
just curious as i am ignorant and new to a lot of this. we went to puppy world to look at some dogs and it was major concern of ours that we didnt buy a dog from a puppy mill. i had asked where they get there pets from. and they said they get them from a network of small certified breeders. They come with papers etc and before i could mention it she said they don't deal with any puppy mills. so my question is what is the real story and since they come with papers doesn't the association that issues the papers check up on the breeders yearly? Has anything been proven that shows that they do get there dogs from mills? we never ended up getting our dog from there but before we saw this we were considering getting another one from there.
To be able to tell if these pups are really from a puppy mill, ask the following questions:

Could I contact the breeder to meet the pup's parents?

Have this pup's parents have their hips/eyes certified?

I understand the breeder might not want calls from random strangers so you cannot give out their number, sure, could you have the breeder call me?

I would not feel comfortable getting any pup without knowing its origins. No store employee will say "oh, sure, they are puppy mill pups," but they will say they are purchased through a broker, or something like that that is a red flag.