From the Border Terrier Club of America website:
That’s where I found my first Border’s breeder 
My second was word of mouth
Yes, breeders have to apply to become Breeders of Merit. I would assume the same for HEART program. My older dog’s breeder has been breeding for 30+ years and she is not a BOM. She could easily be one, but she doesn’t need that on her resume.
Lots of breeders do not list themselves with AKC and even more do not use the Marketplace to sell their puppies. Markeplace is just advertising for a current litter, and some breeders only want to sell their puppies through word of mouth and reputation, and don’t want to deal with people who aren’t even familiar with the breed.
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I think this was a bit my point in a reverse direction. Feels a bit to me like a potential puppy owner is being pointed to AKC perhaps thinking that AKC tracks all this stuff rather than a breeder having to be pro-active to participate in having their name/kennel in one of the lists. Maybe no other way to handle it and maybe I just don’t see AKC through a pair of rose colored glasses
I was envisioning the prospective owner of a purebred that maybe locked onto a potential kennel or breeder at a show and wanted to do some independent research on that breeder.
I know that my breeder did utilize some of the AKC services for my boy’s litter. The puppy registration stuff is how I was able to register my boy and even give him the name I wanted him to have without having to rely on the breeder. Last night I did try to use the link above to finally find where I could do a lookup for BOM and that functionality wasn’t working (got an error).
I think pointing prospective buyers to the AKC puppy finder is a good resource but if I was pointing someone toward a breed, I’d suggest they read about the breed both on the AKC site as well as the national club site. When I was educating myself on the Borders (and Cairns) I did look at the national breed site and at least for the Borders, on the main page there is a link at the top of the page Is a Border Terrier Right for You and Your Family. I think the national breed clubs have more of a vested interest in making sure their breed goes to the right home. IMO, AKC is interested in registering puppies
Yes, because they are a breed registry. I tell people this all the time; that is their job. That and sanctioning events for titles, and tracking titles. Puppies and referrals are not really in their wheelhouse.
But you are right, most breed clubs have a breeder referral or directory and should be the first place a puppy buyer finds to learn about the breed and find a good breeder.
Except my breed club - we don’t have a breeder directory because they think it is too much of a legal liability. Not that they have actually gotten legitimate legal advice on this matter, though.
They are a bunch of idiots.
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:lol:
FWIW, my first Border I found off the BTCOA directory. Silly reason to pick a breeder but she was fairly close to CO and sounded like she did performance as well as conformation (I was interested in the performance side, not conformation).
Contacted her with what I was looking for and she had a dog that checked all the boxes but one - not house trained (he’d lived in a kennel all his life, never been in the house 
). I purchased him. He wasn’t conformation suitable as smaller that what was/id pinning in conformation. She sent 2 copies of the contract (one to sign and send back to her) and was going to look for his litter registration info. Took a little bit to house train but once he got the memo and read it, he’s been very reliable and loves sleeping on the bed cuddled up next to me
Suffice it to say that she never asked for the signed contract back, never found his litter registration and basically quite answering my emails :mad: even when I asked her again how old he was (I forgot when she said his birthday was).
He’s now PAL registered, no kennel name in sight. I just looked through the current directory and didn’t see her name in the two states I think she’d be in. Oh well. I personally believe that my last Bouv wanted to make sure I was in good hands after she left and directed me to find Kirby. His call name was horrible (Mouse, who calls a terrier ‘Mouse’?). On his way from TX to CO, he told me what his name was and he was right, he walked out of the crate the first time I saw him and responded to his new name. Maybe corny but I don’t think so.
My second Border can via word of mouth from my old trainer who knew of a little coming up. Filled out the 5 page interest questionnaire and waited to see if I’d made the cut I almost didn’t but I did and he’s my second Border. 3 1/2 years alter, his breeder is still interested in how he’s doing and answers my emails She is BOM but doesn’t put her pups on the Marketplace (if I was a breeder, I wouldn’t).
The good breeders are there with many avenues to find them. I do the AKC registration thing so I can show in Scent Work but other than that… AKC was good for the breeder standard and characteristics and then, for me, pretty much done other than tracking my Q results in Scent Work
Interesting your breed doesn’t have a directory but certainly their choice. Word of mouth to me works because it lets me check out the breeder and lets the breeder check me out. All my Bouvs save the first came via word of mouth. First came from a local breeder. I’ll hold my opinion on that one 
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It’s not really a “choice” - the group of old folks that have a stronghold on the BOD are terrified of anything new, lest they lose control of “their” club, which is losing members hand over fist. It’s incredibly frustrating.
My first dog was literally seen on the streets of our capital city - a breeder bringing it to the puppy buyer and brought the other 2 with him. My ex-DH saw them on the way to work and there was still one available…long story short we got one. 2 years later brought him into a grooming shop to get a haircut and the owners were breeders and had shown this dogs sire. Talk about small world. One of the most well-known breeders in the country just happened to live near me, and helped me show that one, bred my now 8 year old, and helped me have him bred which is where I got my now 3 year old.
Once you get into a breed, you realize quickly that there is a very strong network out there. I probably know or know of the better portion of the breeders on the East Coast, and lots across the country.
The way to really get into a breed is to join a breed club - once you are known by a breeder/owner or two, you can make connections and get inside details about planned litters, etc. If anyone wanted a Brittany - I could steer them in the right direction pretty quickly. They may have to wait for a litter, but probably not that long if they had good references and wanted to compete with the dog in at least one venue. What good breeders want most of all is great homes with owners who are interested in doing things with the puppies, especially competing them in show, field or performance.
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I have to ask, how did you spend $2,000 on getting rid of parasites?
There were two threads on this topic, and the details are in the other one. There were ongoing issues with anal glands as a result of parasite load, apparently.
