It is very important question because you will buy a friend for many years. You need to understand all responsibility. if you a young couple without children please take under consideration how would you cope with dog, pregnancy and children at the same time. If you do not fell that you would have enough efforts better wait and not to buy a pup at all then in future desperately trying to find new foster home for him…
If you are too busy and do not have enough time for a puppy also better not to buy. Thai ridgeback needs time, training and socialization. Please do not be surprise if you come home after 10-12- hours of absence and would found your flat/house totally destroyed. The dog needs time for walks just to develop his personality and to loose energy which he accumulates through the whole day.
If you are not much experienced with the dogs issues better to read books about dog’s psychology and training. There are a lot of good books now. Of course good to talk with experienced people, especially with breeders, judges, trainers.
Before choosing kennel better do homework. I mean you need to study all web-sites with kennels. On web site’s pages you need to pay attention to bitches and stud dogs. To study their Dog Show results, sport results, health test etc., previous litters. If one or both parents are not much shown or not shown at all at Dog’s Show better ask breeder: why? For me it is suspicious to breed and not to show. Sometimes breeder has excellent dogs but which do not have brilliant results at Dog Shows. Better to know why before you would buy a pup from such parents. I mean such dogs can have problems with aggression or fear or some other problems which you can suddenly observe in your puppy. Better to get as much info about the parents and parent’s relatives before buying puppy. If you just want to buy a family pet (not for dog shows or breeding) please pay special attention to character and temperament and health of parents and their relatives. You would not be happy to buy pup with beautiful head and good body but with allergy, dysplasia or mental problems. Of course even absolutely healthy parents with wonderful show career can produce unhealthy pup but better do everything to avoid such purchase. As I wrote you need to get as much info about parents and their previous pups and the litters from the same or familiar combo as possible. Thus you can at least do everything possible to avoid problems in future.
Better communicate with different breeders and choose one who is better suits to you. You can discuss with him any question and to know more about his breeding program, his achievements, his aims, his attitude towards another buyers and owners of his previous litters. It is general truth that better deal with honest open responsible and experienced breeder who can help in future with the pup.
While choosing kennel you should also decide what kind of pup do you want. There are 3 main categories of puppies. First one: the pet quality pup. This is the pup which has disqualification features: ridgeless, DS, kinked tail, wrong bite, wrong colour or wrong coat. Such pups can be really good friends to whole family but can’t be used in breeding or take part in Dog Shows. Second: normal pups without disqualification features but not very promising for Dog career. Third: the most promising pups. There are few puppies of that third category. And I personally won’t choose brilliant puppy from very bad litter. I mean if in the litter of 7-5 pups half pups would be pet quality, rest — average pups and one — very promising pup. He can be good for Dog Shows but can be really bad stud dog. So anyway I do not want to wait 2 years and see whether I was right or wrong. Also for me very important issue if litter better than their parents. If the breeder manage to exclude minuses and gain pluses of both parents in his litter he is succeed.
Maybe I wrote too much but still not enough to help you in choosing a puppy of your dream. Anyway I wish you good luck in this hard but pleasant process!