Seeing the mother: what you are actually looking for

Everyone is told to see the puppy with its mother. Far fewer people are told what they are supposed to be looking at once they get there, which is why the advice is easy to satisfy with a staged front room and a borrowed dog.

Why it matters at all

The rule exists because of third-party dealing. Under Lucy's Law a commercial seller may not sell a puppy or kitten under six months old unless they bred it themselves. Seeing the mother, in the place the litter was raised, is the check that makes the rule real - a dealer can produce paperwork, but they cannot produce a lactating bitch who obviously lives there.

What a genuine set-up looks like

The mother is relaxed with the litter, and with you. She may be protective, and she may be tired - a bitch eight weeks after whelping usually looks it. What she should not be is fearful of the person showing her to you, or indifferent to the puppies.

The puppies go to her. Watch for a few minutes rather than picking one up straight away. In a real litter the puppies orient to the mother constantly: they cluster near her, she cleans them, and she reacts when one squeaks.

They resemble her. Not identically - the sire contributes half - but a litter of chunky merle puppies with a slight, plain-coated "mother" is worth a direct question.

The room smells lived in. Puppy pens are not spotless. A room that smells of nothing at all, in a house with no other sign of dogs, is usually a room a litter was carried into.

Questions that are hard to fake

• Can I see where they sleep? A breeder rearing indoors will walk you to the pen without thinking.
• How was the mating arranged? Someone who bred the litter can tell you about the stud, usually at length.
• What have they been eating, and how often? Anyone hand-rearing a litter knows this to the gram.
• Can I come back next week? A breeder wants you to visit twice. A dealer wants you to decide today.

Red flags that end the visit

Meeting anywhere other than the home. The mother "at the vet", "at the stud's", or "just gone out". Several breeds available at once. A pen of puppies with no adult dog anywhere in the house. Pressure to leave a deposit before you go. Any of these is enough on its own.

If you think you have found a dealer

Walk away without buying. Buying "to rescue" one is the thing that funds the next litter - it is the hardest advice in this whole subject to follow, and it is still the right advice. Then report it: to us if the advert is here, and to the local authority licensing team where the seller is based, who are the people who can actually do something about it.