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I've still got some Google researching to do but a local CKC toy poodle breader just had a litter and my wife and I are interested in getting one. We've got a 2 year old male toy at the moment as well.

anyways, we're going to meet with the breeder in a couple of days to have a look at the pups, the parents, examine any paperwork and/or vet papers for the pups. the new borns are about 4 weeks old.

Are there any specific things we should ask the breeder or anything in particular we should examine?

A few things I'm thinking is obviously to check the parents health and personality/temperament and what type of breeding environment the lady has there.

Should we inquire about the parents paper work/pedigree papers, vet bills, etc?

I'm not familiar with what to look for on the actual dog we're interested in as such a young age so any advice would be appreciated!

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>>Are there any specific things we should ask the breeder or anything in particular we should examine?

-Get ALL health clearance paperwork on the parents- CERF, OFA, thyroid panels, and as many as the breeder can provide. Make sure the papers match the exact parents.
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>>Should we inquire about the parents paper work/pedigree papers, vet bills, etc?
-I'm curious about CKC registry. If that's anything but Canadian Kennel Club, I personally would not go any further with this breeder. Papers and registry are not always an indication of getting a great quality dog, but the lack of propery registry with the American Kennel Club or Canadian Kennel Club is a concern for what else is lacking in the breeding program?
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-For meeting the actual puppy, you are mostly concerned with it being active and healty.

-Parents should also be active and healthy, but often the stud dog is not on the premesis and a good mother dog kind of looks a bit beat up after taking care of puppies for a month. Make sure she doesn't look so unhealthy that you worry she's sick.

-Do some Googling about how to find a Responsible breeder. I personally go to dog shows and ask around- even when looking for a pet quality puppy. Pet quality puppies come from show dog parents. You need a breeder that is breeding to a breed standard and knows what that standard is. A great breeder knows what is is good about a dog and what a dog's faults are. They can tell you both- no dog- even show dogs- are perfect. When choosing which dogs to bring together, the good qualities of one dog are matched with qualities in the other dog to improve in the current dog's flaws. The next generation is to be better than the previous generation.

-For me, more that two breeds of dogs are too many for a person to specialize in. I prefer one.

_Go with your gut instincts. They wont' stear you wrong.

Good luck!
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles www.freewebs.com/performanceshibas

Thanks Chelle.

CKC is Continental Kennel Club. There are quite a few down here in Alabama. Our current toy came from another CKC breeder in our state.

Also, it's probably worth pointing out that I'm aware that the CKC doesn't mandate as rigorous of DNA/Blood testing and breeding standards but we're not looking for a dog to show. Just a well mannered companion for my wife and I and our other toy. He's at home by himself all day and when we take him to visit my in-laws he gets to hang out with their toy poodle and when he's around her or other dogs, he seems a lot more energetic and fun.

I may be reading too much into it but it just seems to us that he's lonely and needs someone else to keep him company.

The couple of AKC breeders in our state usually charge $900 for toy pups and we don't (and probably never will) have that kind of extra cash laying around.

This lady we're going to see sunday has the female at $350 and 2 males for $300 each.

I've never really dealt with buying them new as we got Jack for free from a friend so I don't know if that's a price that's so low to cause concern or if that's a legit price for a well bred dog.

Anyways, I guess simply seeing the breeder/environment for myself and actually using my own best judgement when visiting the pup will be the best information I can get as to whehther or not I think it's a good idea or not but as always, I know there are other specific things to check besides the actual dog.

A puppy needs the proper experiences with the mother and littermates before leaving that home. And a few hundred dollars can go VERY quickly if you get a sick pup. In fact, just vaccinations and other early veterinary expenses for a puppy will raise the price a lot over what it costs to adopt an adult.

Don't try to get a puppy before Christmas. That really is a mistake, and you could be living with it for a very long time.

Talk to the AKC breeders about young adult females they need to place in homes. The price will be better, the expenses will be less, the dog will be better bred (health is what you need to be concerned about, and AKC breeders are more careful), and it sounds like your little male would be happy to welcome a young adult female.

The temperament is also more evident in a young adult than in a puppy. Some Toy Poodles have genetic temperament problems, and some have genetic health problems. Getting the dog as a young adult rather than a puppy helps a lot.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Well, we've got a new addition to our home. For what it's worth, our current toy is CKC and his personality and temperament are great and he's healthy as a horse.

anyways, we went to see the lady and she had all the mothers/father registration papers, vaccinations papers, etc in order, she has two sires she keeps together and 3 females. One of whom was nursing.

She said she breeds each female once a year and it's her full time job.

When I asked her why she wasn't charging as much as other breeders, she said she usually doesn't charge anything. she usually gives them to friends and family and donates occasionally to local nursing homes and hospitals for what I guess is therapeutic purposes. It wasn't until just recently that family medical bills have began to pile up that she's had to resort to selling the puppies.

I got the impression that she truly loved doing that and she actually almost got a little emotional when she was talking about having to resort to selling them off rather than getting to keep them but she was glad to see that one of her babies was going to a good home.

she had the one we took home vaccinated and dewormed with nemex yesterday.

Now, on to the puppy named Coral

She's a beautiful little apricot toy that came from two healty energetic and very well behaved small toys (I'd say each parent was about 7 lbs).

She's very curious and though still lacking a little coordination, she's already crawling all over things, playing with a little stuffed toy and wrestling with it. Our other toy Jack is being very well behaved and docile. He just sort of lays there while she crawls on him and sort of nips at his paws. He doesn't try and fight back or resist. He just sort of gives us this "what is this thing doing to me?" look and shrugs it off.

We've got a small electric blanket in Jack's crate with a blanket over the electric blanket. We turned the blanket on for a few hours on the low setting and made sure it wouldn't be too hot. We also got her a stuffed toy that we tried to find with a texture that most closely resembled her mother's coat and Coral loves to cuddle and sleep on it.

We've already gotten her used to going outside about every 45 minutes also.

We're feeding her Nutro Small bite puppy that we let sit in warm water for about 15 minutes to soften up and then we mash up the bites that haven't totally softened up and then drain the water out... so it's more or less a lumpy paste by the time it gets to her but she chows down. We've been taking a little bit on a spoon outside so when she does her business, we're rewarding her with that saying our "good wet the grass" buzz word. We've also had Jack outside at the same time and we let her watch jack as we give him the "wet the grass command" followed by his reward so hopefully she should pick up on it.

She didn't let us get much sleep last night. She woke up about every 2 hours squeaking the crate. My wife had the night shift last night and every time Coral would wake up, she'd take her outside and said she went to the bathroom every time.

So anyways. That's that. We've got an appointment this afternoon with our vet to have her examined and the breeder said that if they found anything wrong with her simply to bring her back for a no questions asked refund (and though I know people can be deceptive) she said she wouldn't be selling them if there were anything wrong with them. so we'll see what our Dr. says.

Attached is a picture of her.