On a related subject, after our oldest doberman passed away, we looked online for any doberman rescues. We found many and one was in our state. We adoped an 18 month old doberman whose only problem was his first owners got a divorce. The woman who got him in the divorce settlement could not handle a big dog in her little apartment. We got a great dog for 100 bucks. A doberman puppy is at least 350, and up to 750. Over the years we have purchased 3 dobermans as puppies and the one as a rescue. The last time we needed a second doberman, the rescues were so busy we could not find one to adopt and we found a local woman who had a litter, and was not a mill, she was having her bitch spayed after that litter. We had a bad experience with a breeder once, and got rooked out of 200 bucks. We are very wary of puppy breeders. We prefer to rescue. A cousin of mine wanted a dachshund, and looked for a rescue online, and found a year old wonderful dachshund. He’s the first litle dog I ever liked! Very sweet. So, if you have a favorite breed and need a doggie, you might give a rescue a try. They do ask you to fill out paperwork and a rep. will visit to see your home to see if it suits the breed etc.
Rescues are excellent places to get purebred (or not purebred, I know sometimes our golden rescue does take in dogs who are not quite all golden) pets. And ethical breeders support their breed rescues. Out here, there is much overlap in our golden club and golden rescue, we raise money for rescue and do whatever we can to help.
And of course, there are a lot of people who call themselves breeders, and they range from the family who happens to have a dog and wants to have a litter, to commercial puppy mills, to hobby breeders. They are not all equal in their knowledge, the care taken in finding a suitable breeding or the care of the puppies, and most importantly, what they will do for you after the sale.