The internet makes it easy to find a wonderful puppy far from home, but it also gives scammers an opening. Here's what to watch for.
Searching for a puppy online opens the door to breeders and litters you'd never come across locally, and for most families that's a genuinely good thing. But that same openness is exactly what puppy scammers rely on. A little bit of caution and a few good questions are usually all it takes to tell a real breeder from a fake listing.
Below are the warning signs we tell every one of our own puppy families to watch for, whether they're buying from us or anyone else.
Healthy, well-bred Maltipoo and Toy Poodle puppies take real time, veterinary care, and attention to raise properly, and that's reflected in the price. A listing priced dramatically below what similar puppies sell for elsewhere (especially one that also includes free shipping) is one of the most common bait tactics scammers use.
A legitimate breeder should be easy to find information about: photos of their actual dogs and puppies, a phone number, and some sense of where they're located. If all you can find is a single social media post or a bare-bones listing with no other trace of the seller online, treat that as a red flag.
A real breeder is generally happy to hop on a phone call so you can hear about the puppy and ask questions in real time. If a seller consistently avoids talking to you directly, always deflecting to text or email, that's worth being suspicious of.
Some sites exist purely to list puppies on behalf of many different breeders in exchange for a fee, without ever having met the puppies, the parents, or the actual breeder themselves. If the person you're talking to can't speak from firsthand experience about how the puppy was raised, you're likely dealing with a middleman rather than the breeder.
Every puppy on this site is raised in our own home, by us, and every photo you see is one we took ourselves.
Have a question about a puppy or our process? We're glad to talk it through with you.
Contact Us