Finding a breeder is serious business. There are several types out there, with various pros and cons:
AKC Certified Breeders
These are the heavyweights in the industry. Show quality dogs are bred, and championship lineage is the norm. Expectations coming from these breeders, especially for labs is that they've met several criteria, including conformance, eye tests, hip dysplaysia, EID tests, temperament, and dozens more.
By not breeding dogs that show evidence of these criteria, "the breed" is improved and purified, making for fewer health problems, more predictable temperaments, and carefully almost scientifically producing the best possible traits one can hope for.
Puppies that are not of the best caliber are spayed and neutered, and sold off to homes to be had as house pets. The remainder become dams and sires in furthering the breed. If you wan one of these dams or sires, prepare to pay. These start in the thousands, and go up from there, depending on lineage.
Back Yard Breeders (BYBs)
These are the tricky ones...they usually will have dogs that exhibit some of the signs of breed excellence, and they've paid for AKC Certification on their dams and sires, but they don't do tons of testing on pups. Some conformance is done, hip dysplaysia is tested, but eyes often aren't, and EID sometimes isn't even considered.
These guys are often frowned upon because they are not genetically testing as much as they "should" to improve the breed, and while there is some interest there, the main focus is profit off producing puppies. The result is that dams are bred every cycle or every other cycle until their bodies can't take it anymore. This is apparently frowned upon activity, and people who purchase from such ends are also looked down at because it is believed that buyers here are encouraging bad behavior.
The pups from these outfits usually end up in decent enough homes because pricing scales keep out those shortsighted decision makers. Here you'll see prices start at $500 or $600, and scale up to $1500, depending on popularity of the breed, costs of the testing that is done, and the costs of vetting applicants. And yes, of course breeder "greed" is also a factor as well...
Puppy Mills
These outfits are evidently the worst. Registration is meaningless, testing is minimal, and lots of pups are sold at rock bottom pricing so appeal to the mass markets. Owners are not interviewed, and this is often where rescues and a lot of euthanasia takes place because of not only irresponsible breeders, but also irresponsible buyers. Pups here are usually somewhere around $250-$500.
