"Professional"breeder ??? do you mean someone whose only income is from the sale of puppies ?? I would never buy from someone whose "profession"was dog breeding. Simple as that.

"Responsible"breeder as in all breeding animals fully health tested & all dogs registered with the KC, ISDS, SV or other "real"dog registry & also all dogs bred being"fit for function" ?? Then yes I would only buy from such a breeder.

I would never"buy"an unregistered puppy or dog I have "acquired"unregistered dogs as rescues, but I would never pay money to a breeder for such a puppy/dog.

All my dogs are pets first & working show dogs a distant second.

Really so Shar Pei can trace their pedigrees back to William I ??? Didn't know that Europe was aware of China in the 11th Century & that the Chinese kept detailed pedigrees that are still available now in the 11th Century

For me it would all come down to the health tests done on the parent dogs.

Without evidence of the relevant health tests having been done, I would walk away.

I would be unlikely to buy at all - most likely to rescue
But if I was going to buy I would be so concerened about puppy farmers that I would spend a VERY long time finding a good breeder
registered/unregistered - hmm well it depends on the breed I guess, if I knew the breeder and knew they were not hiding multiple litters then I dont really care about papers
For example friends of mine have a collie from a hill farmer, they could have paid the extra for him to drive into town and register the litter - but they didnt care either way about it
we know the farmer and the landowner pretty well from visiting and holidaying several times a year for a few years

The reasons why the dog was bred (he needed a new working dog) the health and temprament were more important than a bit of paper

i have a friend who researched the breed she wanted and found a KC registered breeder, phoned up the lady, really nice on phone, made appointment to have a look at her last 8 week old bitch puppy, women was very nice, answered my friends questions, friend was smitten with this puppy, she said to the breeder that the pup looked quite big for 8 weeks, then the breeder said that it was actually 12 weeks ( i would of walked), she also said im sorry you can't see the mum, she's at the back of the kennels and the lights don't work, puppies were only seen by the breeder and her daughter, were not brought up in a house environment, now this 5 year old dog is very skittish with people it doesn't know and i have been worried sometimes about it slipping its collar and running off when it is walked, the KC registration in this situation isn't worth the paper its written on, i would of rather bought an unregistered dog from a breeder who does the health checks and actually cares about the pups welfare

My boys came from a top show kennel with the advantages that brings but as they were white and do not conform to breed standard they were not registerd...
Half the price of their litter mates though...

personally..i would of ran a mile,all sounds too dodgy for me!!

it has nothing to do with being kc registered though

Wot she said

We have a couple of unregistered collies - but we do know the breeding of both. We do prefer to have collies that are ISDS registered though, and the few litters we have bred have all been registered. Did the farmer of your friend's collie eye-test the parents? That is something I would always insist on when getting a working collie pup.

Whether I wanted a pet or show dog (they would still be pets) I would only buy from a breeder that registered their dogs with the KC, AND health tested their stock.

What ever my reasons for buying a puppy, the main concern would be its health and temperament, and by buying from reputable breeders will raise the bar.