I love them all, but would never give money for a purebred, i'd rescue one, YES, but financially support a backyard breeder, would not cross my mind......I think if we all STOPPED buying from BYB, (pups in petstores are almost invariabley from BYB) the AKC sponsored BYBs would stop cranking out sooooo many litters when we HAVE a severe dog-overpopulation crisis already.
80% of AKC purebreds DO come from puppy mills. (not *all* AKC registered puppies are from puppy mills, but the vast majority ---80%-----of AKC pups are born in puppy mills.) 15% of breeders do "some" testing prior to mating.
but yes, yes, there IS the rare breeder----five percent (5%)----- who DOES DO full extensive health testing of the entire family tree of BOTH parents, specifically breeding dogs to help reduce crippling deformities and disorders so so common in many breeds.
LIke the King Charles Spaniel, so hard to find one that does NOT have syringomyelia in one form or another now, (even their top show dogs with ribbons have it)
and it is a horrific disease caused by trying to meet the AKC beauty standard for round heads on a dog.
Or what the latest AKC beauty standard has done to the GSD hip over the last few decades.....just sad, they are all getting crippled so young now. The GSD of even 40 years ago had an entirely different, and better functioning hip.
I could go on and on, but, i won't.
I'm all about dog HEALTH, and have an emotional revulsion to what some of the AKC beauty standards does to the dogs' HEALTH and functionality.
but, i love all dogs. It's not THEIR fault they are being mutated to meet an arbitrary AKC beauty standard...
So far as knowing a personality, the shy dog DOES show up from birth on, you can spot them in the litter box, and shyness can strike ANY breed,
as can the aggressive dog, which doesn't manifest til about 9 months old. Shyness or aggression can strike a dog of any breed at all, and both can be very difficult to work with, but wow, you DO learn a lot doing it though!!
but, it's true, seeing a breed can give you a pretty good idea of their energy level, but, like someone else said above, there are exceptions. But to see a dog's personality, OF ANY BREED, you almost have to wait til they are 9 to 12 months old sometimes, to see if the pup did --or did not---- get the aggression gene. (that is my opinion).