OFA -- PENNHIPP - Page 1

Which method do you prefer, and what are the pros and cons of each in you opinion

You might want to search the archives.  This topic has come up a few times already in the past with some lengthy discussion.

The answer is simple at face value. The ONLY US rating recognized by the AKC and other dog organizations is the OFA rating. Personally, though you will read a lot of complaints on forums like this about ratings given by OFA, it is the best method. Thousands and thousands of x-rays are read, but three different vets. If a rating comes back that one thinks incorrect, it is simple to re-submit. Also, I have found the OFA vets very easy to talk to and find out exactly why they gave any particular rating. There are some people who would argue that PennHip is better, but it has been around for some time now and no organization has recognized it as a legitimate method of certifying hips, so despite what one's opinion is, it is essentially moot. As SchHBabe mentioned, there have been discussions here on this topic before that you can probably find by searching the message board.

Hodie, SchHBabe  Thanks to both of you , I'll search the forum, although Hodie gave the info I was seeking.

research.vet.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Penn Hip is relatively new. The medical database and network are nothing like OFA. 

People who don't plan to breed dogs do Penn HIp, people who do plan to breed their dogs do OFA. Breeders that do both are more serious with breeding techniques. I noticed this.

You can also go to the University of Pennsylvania's library and study the scientific analysis of participating breeds. This was useful when I research the Malinois .. there was less than 15 recorded on the micro, now there is 26 ..

So to mention Penn Hip @ face value ..  it's not a breeding tool like OFA. It's the complete opposite when it comes to diagnostics .

JMO.

Personally, I like Pennhip and disagree with some of the things said above. 

People that are diehard OFA people use OFA and some people prefer Pennhip.  I use both tests as I feel that both tests have their strong points and weaknesses.  For example, I find OFA subjective (i.e. resubmit and hope to get a different rating) whereas Pennhip gives you a quantitative value to work with within your breed and breeding goals.  With that said, OFA's been around longer and with that comes more results to compare to.  In my own breeding plans I will accept dogs that are tested with either method. 

I would note that some breeds tend to use Pennhip more than others.  In my breed it is not unusual to use Pennhip and the ACDs tested is well into the hundreds for Pennhip and this is quite a bit considering the relatively small size of the breed.  For my breed, Pennhip is a valuable breeding tool because many other breeding dogs are Pennhip'd so you can work towards getting better distraction numbers when selectively breeding. 

Bottom line for me is this boils down to "to each their own" .  Hell, I am just happy to see people get hips evaluated these days :-)

I've posted this comparison before but figured I would throw it up again:

http://www.workingdogs.com/ofa_penn.htm

i prefer A stamp , OFA will cert anything, i dont like that ,i dont know much about penn hip.

Bea, where do you get your information from?

I advise you to be present when this "procedure" is done.  At least you will know what happened to your dog if something goes wrong.  It can go very, very wrong.  My dog was lucky to almost entirely recover from the injury.

He was PennHipped in 1994.

My dog Shadow lived into his 13th year and his hips were just fine.  He did OFA.

The idiot PennHipper pulled his hip out of the socket with the "distractor".  I will never forget that he couldn't sit for a week and the smell of vomit on his chest.

I don't really care to go into the details yet another time.  Do a search, it's all there.

Michele

i have heard about bad  penn hip as Michele has said, i wont even go there.
 

i have my own bad experience with OFA , grading xrays not even close to the way they should be poistioned, i would think they should say to retake , but they did not and i have others say the same thing, from now on i know what they should look like to get a good xray , when this happen to me i did not know what they should of looked like, also a vet who knows what he is doing also helps.
 

atleast A stamp will tell you to retake  even if they are a little off, i have had very good experince with  the A stamp program.