Hi Jackie,
I think you’re making the right decision by keeping on looking. Hopefully as the country recovers from Covid it’ll be easier to find reputable breeders. As I couldn’t view / visit as often as I would have liked a lot of my researching was done on the phone and email. I felt awkward asking for contact with the vet who had seen the litters and for checking out the parent’s health tests but it was necessary to avoid thieves and abusers.
I had a lot of help from the KC, they did not give me any personal info as they can’t but there are ways of asking a question. I nearly bought a pup that had unrelated littermates, the KC told me it was biologically impossible to have a mix of different colours in the litter I had viewed.
The KC had just received the breeder’s Litter Registration, the Health Test certificates belonged to different dogs. The home and people looked plausible. Unfortunately I met worse.
Getting a pup or a dog should be a lovely experience and it is BUT stolen dogs are taken for a reason that decent people shouldn’t be getting pulled into. Please trust your gut, do your research and don’t be afraid to ask the breeder for ID, all paperwork, consent to speak to vet etc.
Good luck.
John.