? for anyone who has purchased a puppy

We're in the UK but my SIL and BIL got to choose their French Mastiff puppy from the breeder.

We've only picked a puppy twice from a breeder (our other dogs were adopted when they were older). Both times, we selected the puppy.

My sister bought a puppy from a popular litter. She gave preferences to the breeder. Her preferences were male and as white as possible. This was a golden retriever. The breeder ultimately made the selection, but my sister did get a white male.
They visited the litter a few times before selections were made by the breeder. I assume the other buyers also visited before being matched with a puppy.

We didn’t get to meet the puppy in advance.

If the breeder takes info from your dd about what type of puppy they want, etc then I’d let breeder pick puppy.

Our puppy most likely came from a puppy mill and the breeder was brokering the puppies. I knew many people who had received puppies from her so I thought she was reputable. We also got the puppy in the height of covid so not driving 7 hours to meet the puppy seemed reasonable.

The puppy bonded with us well. Not seeing her in advance didn’t affect our relationship.

We’ve gotten puppies about half the time and the other half of our dogs have been rescues. Of the times when we got our pets as pups, one wasn’t purchased from a breeder, another one we got to choose from two (one female and one male, I picked the male), another one DH wanted a chocolate male but the only chocolate male in the litter had an injury during birth and had to have a leg amputated so we ended up getting the only other chocolate which was a female, another one was the last pup left from an accidental litter. The rest were from the Humane Society, a rescue organization or directly from people we knew through friends whose pets needed to be rehomed.

We chose our puppy. This was the first time we had used a breeder/purchased vs adopting from the shelter. I've seen it done both ways and both ways have merit. We are currently putting in a bid for another puppy in a year, but I'm not sure how we are matched with the puppy.

I disagree; I think it depends on how long the list of people wanting a puppy was, and how that particular breeder makes those decisions. We didn't get to pick because our breeder gave first pick to people who have had a longer relationship with her.

No "shoulds" in this. It is up to the breeder on how they do business. If you want to do it a different way you will need to find a different breeder. Around here finding a breeder who does not have a long wait list of buyers means most of them select the pup for you.   I wanted a poodle. Every poodle breeder around me had a wait list longer then the size of an average litter. No breeder had a "come see them and choose one" option. I was surprised my chosen breeder even gave me the option of choosing from photos. The only puppies around here you can go pick one is for "oops" litters of unknown parentage. 

The only time I ever got a puppy from a breeder I was allowed to pick. She also let me bring my dog at the time to meet the puppies (after she verified she had all vaccinations, etc.) She turned out to be an awesome dog.

We got our chocolate lab from a breeder. We saw all the puppies (the classic being smothered by pups while sitting on the floor) and narrowed our choice down to two. The breeder made suggestions based on their personalities and what she could see in them. She steered us away from one pup because the dog was tending toward being a hunting dog and if we weren't going to train for that and take her duck hunting, it might not be a good match. I appreciated her insight. We had our pup for 13 when we said goodbye for the final time last September.

A good breeder will definitely make recommendations at the very least. Picking the best choice for your specific situation is not unreasonable. When we got our black lab Lizzy, she wasn't the one I was most drawn to initially. The breeder said emphatically, "this is your dog. She is exactly what your family needs." And she was not wrong. Liz was the perfect temperament and a wonderful, healthy, easy to train, just the prefect choice.

Later, when we got our current male lab for my 3rd son to help in his bereavement after Daniel died, the breeder again was very involved in selection. We hadn't been on the waiting list, so technically weren't in the running to pick a pup, but she had one male pup who was probably pick of the litter and she was considering keeping him as a stud. Most of the people on the list for that litter of puppies were first time owners or wanting a relatively mellow and low energy dog, so she was steering them away from orange collar male because he was clearly strong willed and going to be big and powerful. Because we were experienced owners and my son was going to be spending a lot of time with this dog, she matched us with Sebastian, and again, he's been very good for our family.

I think a breeder who is invested in matches and who offers a strong return policy is a good thing to look for. (Return policy is that for the lifetime of the dog she will accept it back, and if it's possible to resell the dog, she will refund some of the initial cost. But she never wants to see one of her dogs abandoned or put into a shelter. She has some very loyal customers, and once when there was a very sad situation where a death in the family and changes in financial situation made it impossible for one owner to keep a senior dog, the breeder was able to facilitate rehoming that dog with another family that had lost their dog recently but weren't ready to deal with puppy shenanigans.)

It's not a great sign when buyers can't see the litter at all, and they never get to see the mother or the facilities-- those issues suggest backyard breeders who aren't providing a great environment. But puppy matching is not a bad thing.

I definitely agree with this, too!

Yes& no. My Ex worked with the guy who’s dog was pregnant. We had met the entire litter and listed our 3 choices. The breeder made the final choice though due to temperament testing & health issues.

Our dog basically chose us. We visited 3 times and each time he was all up in my lap. He was our 3rd choice because I’d always been raised with female dogs and I just said I preferred a female due to that. The other 2 were females. He was on our list at all because he chose us, he crawled into my heart when he crawled into my lap.
when the breeder heard my only reason for wanting a female dog was ‘because that’s all I had ever had’ they asked if we’d take him and we said yes. He is still 100% my dog and still lays as close to me as he can usually. When he goes to Ex’s house he gives him attitude after awhile because I’m not there. Lol

If the breeder is a good breeder and does proper temperament testing etc then they should be better at placing dogs in the proper homes than people are at randomly choosing dogs based on looks or whatever. There were people who got dogs from that litter without having any choice other yes we’ll take the one your offering though.

If the breeder is choosing without any input from you, politely ask why or what parameters they are using.

Sometimes it’s just that the others are spoken for

Yes we had 8-9 pages questionaire to fill out AND a lifetime return policy

I would not ever buy a dog from a breeder or accept one from a shelter that would not take it back. It’s a bad sign that they have not put enough effort into the proper match or that the dogs might not be healthy or that they don’t care enough if their dogs end up whetever.