Would you buy?

I think  you need to make smart choices about your breeder... Like meeting them in person and interviewing them... asking the right questions. I personally don't think a breeder should be judge solely based upon if they belong to a breed club or not.
Here is why... for almost 20 years i showed dogs (pugs, danes and Akitas) in conformation and obedience, and i enjoyed it but was sickened by what i saw and heard. Many of my fellow competitors where dying their dogs coats and even putting the dog under the knife to win the ribbon. Are they suppose too? NO but it happens. I found that some judges care more about a dogs pedigree then being a good representative of the breed. Some breeders even when showing don't practise ethical breeding practices, I have found doing pedigree research one breeder who won AKC breeder of the Year, had bred one of her bitches from her first heat to the age of 11 years ( she died whelping) Some years she put out 2-3 litter a year. This same breeder in a 25 year period had registered over 10,000 pups!!!! I have had to console more than 4 person who have purchased some of this breeders linage who have died from a fatal genetic diesease (usually kills within first 9 months) Breeding for looks can't be our main focus, first we must have a healthly foundation to build upon.
 
I do NOT belong to my breed club PDCA because :
 
1) they do not supporting a genetic database that is open to the public.
2) they are NOT helping the public understand how to buy a dog and what diesease can and should be tested for by the breeder.
3) they do not support and accept breeding for service dogs or therapy dogs ( which i now do, and place pugs in hospital and with childern with CP, MS, and Cancer) Conformation or Obedience is the only acceptable breeding.
4)Members are not willing to volunteer time to mentoring or teaching safe breeding practises.
5) GENETICS until the breed club become pro active in helping us breeders with the many problems Pug have, i will not give them my money.
 
 

If I knew the person and new thier dogs and the health I would. I prefer mutts though. I don't think I would ever own a pure breed.

I might buy from a breeder who is not part of the club.  However, my focus is in a breed that is fairly small (with respect to annual AKC registration numbers).  Most of us know each other at a minimum by reputation  or have direct contact with someone who is knowledgable about the breeder's lines.  The clubs I belong to are pretty committed to health and well being and I venture to guess we have some of the most titled dogs in the AKC.  The terv club motto "A well balanced Tervuren has a CH on one end and UDT on the other."  It is a bit different in the malinois club since there seem to be two distinct sets of folks (working: protection work and companion). 
 
My choice would come down to reputation, my current wishes-needs,  the contract, the lines of the dogs involved.  I would likely start with the breed club and in some cases only with the folks who have signed the breeder's ethics pledge.

It depends on the club's standards and what they encourage in their members.  Many administer a breeder code of ethics and distribute names of compliant breeders.  I like that and we are pursuing this option in the working BC club (USBCC) - the only problem has been hammering out widely acceptable COE tenents for a group of very independant breeders - been kinda like herdin' cats.  []

I think the proper place for a breed club is to act as the conscience of the breed and provide a point of entry for those new to the breed.  If the breed club is effective in these functions, then I'd consider participation essential.  If not, then I'd not make it a huge part of my decision.

I would only get a dog from a rescue.

I do not belong to the PHCA due to the fact that the board members I met were snippy, petty and hmmm a bit snobby as well.  I do, however, believe in their bylaws and the rules that they proscribe on their website.  But it's just as frequent that I see a Ph that is not true to type yet is a finished champion and is being "specialed."  Often times these dogs belong to members of the PHCA. 
 
I have decided that if I am ever to breed, my first rule would be to breed for true type, not to fall prey to the vagaries and whims of the general American breedings.  (ie: to "improve" the dog.)  Even in AKC conformation competition the large dogs are getting larger and the small dogs are getting smaller.  The size differences are making it ever more difficult for the dogs to perform the jobs for which they were intended.  We are losing function for the sake of form.
 
So in a nutshell: Belonging to a parent club tells me nothing really, talking to the breeder and finding out their philosophy for their breedings does. 
 
*steps down from the soapbox*

ORIGINAL: Xerxes

I do not belong to the PHCA due to the fact that the board members I met were snippy, petty and hmmm a bit snobby as well.  I do, however, believe in their bylaws and the rules that they proscribe on their website.  But it's just as frequent that I see a Ph that is not true to type yet is a finished champion and is being "specialed."  Often times these dogs belong to members of the PHCA. 

I have decided that if I am ever to breed, my first rule would be to breed for true type, not to fall prey to the vagaries and whims of the general American breedings.  (ie: to "improve" the dog.)  Even in AKC conformation competition the large dogs are getting larger and the small dogs are getting smaller.  The size differences are making it ever more difficult for the dogs to perform the jobs for which they were intended.  We are losing function for the sake of form.

So in a nutshell: Belonging to a parent club tells me nothing really, talking to the breeder and finding out their philosophy for their breedings does. 

*steps down from the soapbox*

 
 
Very Well said