Quote Originally Posted by IRescue452
BCKrazy, why must the dog be AKC registered. The AKC registers puppy mills. My cocker is registered and we picked her up at the puppy mill where she was bred. I'd never look for a quality dog just by the fact that they are akc registered. In fact, I'd like to find breeders that don't bother handing out registrations left and right as their puppies go to god knows who. Then the new owners are less likely to breed their pets because the breeder didn't give them a registration. As for cockers, having a 14 years old puppy mill cocker and seeing many many other cockers from both breeders and mills, I'd never buy one from a reputable breeder. I'm not saying I'd flat out support bybs but I'd find one in a shelter or rescue that I knew came from a puppy mill or byb. For cockers, the conformation breeders seem to produce the poor quality dogs in health and temperment, they need to get their heads screwed on right and stop breeding for conformation because they are the ones ruining the breed.
Are you SERIOUS? Honestly, are you?.... Wow, thats awesome advice. Just awesome. Conformation people are RUINING the Cocker Spaniel breed, and Backyard Breeders are striving to improve it. It's the BYB's that are running health and temperament tests on all of their breeding dogs and attaining CGC's before breeding. BYB's also work their azzes off socializing and training dogs so that they can be handled with ease by judges. You are sooo right!!!

I'm not saying don't rescue. Did you notice in my post that I asked her to PLEASE rescue OR find a good breeder?! Buying from a reputable breeder is as good as rescuing, in the sense that buying from a good breeder is not contributing to the overpopulation ~ good breeders have a contract with the new owner stating they get the dog back if the owner wants to abandon it, they also have contracts requiring the spaying/neutering of pet quality puppies and are given a limited registration. As far as I'm concerned, any legitimate registry is absolutely fine, as long as the dog has documentation that it is a purebred dog... I can't even count the number of people I've met who bought "purebred" Yorkie or Poodle puppies from BYB's and later found out that their dog was far from purebred. Anyway, it's kind of hypocritical that your SN is "irescue" and you encourage everyone to go out and buy the first BYB puppy ad they see in the paper! No rescue person that I know would dream of saying that, except with complete sarcasm.