What is the right breeder worth?

[Saeleofu]

the one I'm looking at requires a 3 day visit when you pick up the pup, which I have not heard of with other breeders, but isn't exactly a bad thing)?

Logan's breeder did not require a 3 day visit, although I wish I could have stayed for that long. Hell, I wish I could have stayed FOREVER lol, I miss her and the area terribly. But she did want to either have me come to her or her come to me to meet in person instead of shipping him, which is more than fine. I would want to meet some random person from halfway across the country before I handed my dog over to them, too. Logan is on a show contract and a no-breeding contract - so although he is intact, I am not to ever breed him - again perfectly fine, I have no desire to breed dogs any time soon. Eventually? Yeah. But probably decades away. His breeder can use him as a stud if she ever chooses to do so.

Logan was a VERY reasonable price...about half of what I had planned for a dog. Which is good, because when you add in the costs of shipping/travel, his price doubled anyway

Also I'm pretty darn happy with Logan, his breeder, and his lines. His daddy is a Grand Champion and has herding titles, both parents have their CGC, health testing, etc etc. I was working on putting his pedigreein the pedigree database and I was pretty impressed with some of his lines. Maybe not as many working/obed/herding/etc titles as I'd like in a perfect world, but he obviously has ability, so I think for a lot of the dogs it was a matter of having to pick conformation showing over trials. I'm very happy that he has herding instinct, as do his parents, siblings, etc.