Looking for a Pom

Question
Hi Trish,
  I have been looking to purchase a pom for quit some time now, but I have been unsuccessful. I have looked in newspapers, on the internet, pet stores, and referrals of friends. Although I have still came up empty handed. My question to you is How can I go about finding a quality pom? or One that is within a reasonable price range? I have seen and heard prices from $300-4,000. Which have made me quit unsure of purchasing a pom. Due to the fact I'm not sure if the price are suppose to be of that nature or what. What are some questions or thing I should look for in purchasing a pom? Oh, and Do you know of any breeder or places I can go to purchase a pom. I live in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Yours truly

LaTrina (A want to be forever Pom  Mom)


Answer
There are too many factors to the prices you are finding, to list them all.  Some of the legitimate ones are the value of the Poms-show quality, breeding quality and pet quality.  The difference between pet, breeding and show is that a show quality Pom is a surpreme example of the breed standard, a breeding quality Pom represents its breed standard well enough that it can be allowed to reproduce in hopes of bettering the breed.  And then pet quality just means that it does not come close enough to the breed standard to reproduce.  A lot of the breeders out there, unfortunatly are just breeding pets and producing pets.  Some of the prices are out of greed by unscrupulous breeders selling pets at a huge price and then some are quality breeders selling puppies that someone can have a blast showing and winning with.  Even if you do not want to show you should buy from a show breeder since they are producing pups for themselves and you are more likely to get a dog from healty lines who have been bred for the betterment of the breed-and you don't want to reward those breeding for the wrong reasons and YOU DON"T WANT TO BUY FROM PET STORES-they are supporting puppymills.
Feel free to drop by my links page and check out the information links on Poms.  It is a lot of good info. :)
And you are welcome to contact me if you have any other questions.  The AKC web site will have lists of clubs in your area who can point you in the right direction locally.
-Trish
www.geminipoms.com