Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about using the directory, getting listed, and how our ratings work.
General Questions
How Our Rating System Works
The star ratings you see on each listing come directly from Google. Each rating reflects that breeder’s public Google Maps / Google Business profile — the same star score and review count you’d see if you searched for the business on Google.
- Where it comes from: ratings are sourced from each breeder’s Google reviews, shown as a score out of 5 stars alongside the total number of Google reviews (for example, “4.8 stars (1,445 Google reviews)”).
- Filtering & sorting: in the Directory, you can filter by a minimum rating (e.g. 4.5+ stars) and sort listings so the highest-rated breeders appear first.
- Listings without a rating: some breeders don’t yet have a public Google rating. Rather than showing a made-up score, those listings simply appear without a star rating.
- A point-in-time snapshot: ratings are captured when we compile our directory data and are refreshed periodically, so a breeder’s live Google rating may differ slightly. For the most current score, check the breeder’s Google profile directly.
We show Google ratings to give you an independent, at-a-glance sense of each breeder’s reputation — but we always recommend doing your own research before placing an order.