Adopt a dog before buying from a reputable breeder.
It doesn't matter how good a breeder is. There are a hundred dogs of the exact breed you are looking for being put to death today because there are too many pets.
That's such an americentric statement. There are other countries in the world, you know?
In Germany we have such a small amount of stray dogs, or ones getting surrendered to shelters, that shelters have to import dogs from other countries to fulfill demand. And there have been tons of cases where those turned out to come from puppy mills abroad.
So yes, there are cases where buying from a reputable breeder is a much more ethical option than getting a dog from a shelter
The answer is still to adopt. The dogs are coming either from a shelter or a mill and both are good sources for adoption.
The former means it's still giving a dog a home. It is still a dog that needs a home regardless of which country it originated from.
The latter seems completely nonsense if the German shelters are paying full price and still giving the dogs up for adoption at reasonable rates. They'd be losing a ton of money. And if they're taking the leftovers from the puppy mills for cheap or free, then those are still losses to the mills and are discouraging more breeding. Also, those are still dogs that need homes regardless of source. Just because a dog was born in a mill doesn't mean it deserves not to be adopted.
In either case the answer is still to get a dog from a shelter.
The problem is that 2.9 million of them are Pitbull or Chihuahua mixes, even though the shelters try to pass them off as other breed mixes like they’re keyword stuffing Alta Vista in the 90s. True strays are from unneutered/spayed dogs, and the majority of people leaving their dogs intact, at least in my area, are assholes with “Pitties”.
There are also a lot of dog adoption services that are feel a lot more like revolving clearing houses for puppy mills.
They “shut down” a mill, rescue all the dogs and then a month later do it again. Someone is still making money with petfinder fees.
Damn! The shelters around here want $600 for a mutt with no manners. The last city we lived in had an S.P.C.A. though, and we adopted a little pretty princess for -i think- $79.