Before we bought Tootsie I went to a site
Breeders.NET: Dog Breeders Search Directory On that site you can type in your zip code and see what is around you. What I did was call a lot of them...told them what I was looking for, a female Yorkie that I would have as a pet. I wasn't interested in showing her nor breeding her. Of course any breeder may ask you what your intentions are for their puppy...and I feel that is their right. I would ask them what their price for a puppy was....females are always more expensive than males. If they were close enough to where I lived my husband and I would take a drive out to visit their home. This way I knew I was not getting a puppy from a puuppy mill...and I could also get to see the breeder face to face. In our case the woman was very nice...not snotty...and she told us all about her home and her Yorkies. She told us the lineage of her dogs and she had both parents on the premises. I knew about Tootsie before she was born, so waiting for that three month period was tough. Any breeder should
NOT release the puppy to you before they are 3-4 months old. Once the liter was old enough to show we went back to visit the woman and we chose Tootsie. There were 2 females and 1 male. My husband used to breed Yorkies and Maltese...so he knew what he wanted. That day we brought Tootsie home...it was March...she was born in eary December. Today she is almost 7 years old and such a joy to be around! Tootsie comes from a long line of show dogs...so we were very surprised when we bought her for $800! We were lucky to get her for that...most people I talked to wanted to sell their puppies for upwards of $1500.
Tootise is full grown and we keep her in full coat...she just looks better that way. Her coat is the silky variety...meaning it is much easier to manage than a cotton coat. She gets tangles rahter than matts. Tootsie's hair on her back parts naturally...and I don't think on the cotton coat it does that. I'm not sure about that though..someone else may have more experience with that. We get a lot of comments about her when we take her with us. She weighs 7 pounds..what her Mom did. Her Dad was 5 pounds.
I agree...you do need to talk to the breeder and meet them face to face...very important. Make sure the area where the puppies are is clean and it smells clean...make sure the puppies are clean. Look at the parents...ask questions, such as their temperments. Play with the puppies to make sure they are active. I heard the phrase baby doll face too...and my husband would say there is no such thing as that..and we would leave. Take your parents with you to look..it will be their dog.
Good luck!
Rita