If you seriously want a purebred, please consider looking at specific breed rescues. Many breed rescues have websites and you can often find young dogs and puppies. The added benefit is that many of these dogs will have been housed in a foster situation- so they will know a lot more about the dog if it has specific problems- e.g. if it's good with kids, with cats, has storm phobia, etc. I have a rescued purebred collie- he has his papers and anything, but his owner died and there were no family members that could take him so he got put in a rescue.
If you get a puppy from a breeder they're not going to know that information. Not to mention that purebred dogs tend to have way more health problems than mixed breeds, and often you can find a mixed breed that essentially looks purebred.
I'm a vet student, so I'm way biased against pure bred dogs- there are thousands of great dogs (and puppies!) being euthanized every day. In 10 years of experience of working at vet clinics, I can honestly say that often the purebred puppies that people paid bukoo bucks for end up with lots of health problems as puppies due to being crowded, not given individual attention, vaccinated by people who don't know what they're doing, etc.
And as for your comment about adoption fees costing $250 and that being what you can get a purebred puppy for- the ones you adopt will already be dewormed, have their first set of shots, be spayed or neutered and be microchipped. It's a really really good deal and a purebred puppy won't come with any of that.
Just some thoughts from someone in the profession. Best of luck finding your new companion!
rg has some locations
