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Originally Posted by themoon  I went down to that place myself instead of cancelling. I didn't bring the wife. The two folks I met were actually quite nice and they brought out several different puppies. The one she wanted to sell me ($800) must have been the most high strung dog I had ever seen. I'm pretty sure Yorkies aren't supposed to be wild and chew on everything, right?
The 2nd one she showed me ($1,000) I fell in love with. Was very cute, cuddly, wasn't going wild, etc. It took everything I had to not take her with me. I asked her why the wild price difference between her pups and others in the market, and she said it had to do with size and looks. She said she had a $3,000 pup she could show me, which I promptly wanted to see out of curiosity. It was immediately apparent what a difference the dog she brought out was. It looked like a living teddy bear. He was a sight to behold. lol But in the end, I did leave empty handed from the advice provided on these forums.
Since then I've contacted multiple people from the lists provided here and have had a couple respond. Most do not have any pups for sale or have boys. I was instructed by a super nice lady who has been e-mailing me to not discount the boys as they can actually make better pets. So we may decide on a boy if the girl proves difficult to attain.
Thank you again for everyone's advice, and hopefully we will find our precious pup someday. |
It does sound like the people you met were brokers. They get pups from puppy mill breeders and sell them because obviously no one is going to be allowed into an actual puppy mill to see the conditions. They can get a puppy from a mill for around $100.00 and sell it for $1,000 or more.
A reputable breeder would be able to show you pedigrees and pictures of their dogs at shows, etc. They would not have multiple litters at the same time. A good well bred pet quality Yorkie should not cost you much more than $1200.00 and would have a very good health guarantee. The owners would be checking you out to make sure you were not going to breed the dog or sell it to someone else to breed. A reputable breeder spends a lot of money developing a line of purebreds and they want to protect their investment from getting into the hands of people that you just visited.