You can get puppies from the humane society as well, as for temperament mutts usually have a better temperament than pedigrees. You can just make more money off of a pedigree.
Dont buy. Dont buy. Adopt a dog at any number of animal shelters. Check the phone book.
There are any rescue places around that are either affilliated with the humane society, or it s own non-profit. I d recommend there first.
Check out this site. The Pixie Project there was a little pamphlet in last weeks weekly on the pixie project non-profithttp://www.pixieproject.org/
The Portland Humane Society.