warranties for hips - Page 2

cont... If the owners keeps the dog in the house and has slick floors, they must ensure that pup has ample time each day on natural ground cover. If they crate the dog, crate has to be large enough with adequate soft bedding, and dog has to have enough time outside the crate. If owner kennels the dog, they have ensure that the young growing body has a draft free and dry living envinronment all year round. Ideally bedding has some give to allow for body contours, ie shavings. Make two vet checks mandatory after vaccinations are completed. At every vet visit (incl those for vaccinations or any other occurrance) the dog is checked for overall health and condition, with height and weight recorded. Best to require check ups around 6 months and 9 months. At 6 monhts the vet can also check if teeth are coming in correctly and if baby teeth are all gone, and if ears are up, testicles down, dog is growing at an normal/abnormal rate, is too heavy, etc. At 9 months dog can also be prescreened for HD and ED. Make it mandatory that you are informed about health concerns within 24 hours. Ie if the dog has been limping for 2 months it may be too late to be doing anything about it. This board is a good example that people to not take their dogs and pups to the vet when they really should. Seems like a bit much? Sorry, I don't think so. Buyer wants a guarantee so he better make sure he goes for regular "service intervals" and does EVERYTHING pup needs to get the best chance to grow up sound and healthy.

Good points, D.H. I also have the food stipulation written into the agreement as well. I also demand at least an O.F.A. preliminary examination bewteen nine (9) and twelve (12) months of age, or the warranty is void. I will accept the "a" stamp at one (1) year of age with a one-month window of opportunity. Bob-O

My husband just asked me a great question this morning. Q. Did I get a warranty with my son Taylor? ( he has a cleft palate) and I said no. Then the light went off. How can you give a warranty? Like it was said before " A-stamp and OFA exe. good dogs can produce HD. I agree with the food but most people are not willing to do that. And they are still going to exercise the dog even after telling them the don'ts and not good and all that. I had good friends that still jumped thier dogs in the back of the SUV trucks, fed poor diets, and dogs were over wieght. Needless to say we are no longer friends and I am the "bad dog breeder" cause thier dogs had mild HD. OFA says that there is a 87% of staying execellent or good or mild serve at the age of 4-6 months has anyone done this and had good results? Is it worth the money doing it this way? Thanks

If people would choose their mate with the same scrutiny that they demand from their dogs, the human race would quickly become extinct. Not only do people not ask their prospective mate about possible genetic concerns, but just wait for the day when children start to sue their parents beause of "poor mating practices". It will come... and then people offering other living being will start to sing a different tune. EK, for those friends who take little care about their dogs upbringing, they do not derserve your friendship nor your concern about the pup they have been entrusted with.

How bad are stairs on a pups hips? I've heard things ranging from no problem to bad news. Any advice? -Calvin

I have seen OFA Fair prelims go OFA Good at 2 years, OFA Good prelims go OFA Mild dysplasia at 2 years...C hips at 1 year go OFA Good at 5!!! OFA Fair at one year go OFA Fair at 2 years....I do think that you cannot change the actual skeletal conformation, but you can exacerbate and worsen the whole assembly if you are not cautious or careful with pups. Like I said - no one does a breeding and TRYS to get HD in their pups!!! In the US, people - even pet people - are so much more paranoid about it than in Europe I think....I know I looked at a couple of potential breedings, and was afraid to do them because I felt that they were too high risk for poor hips. the OFA Good to mild dysplasia above was from the male I looked at, and I felt that cross was too high risk too. A friend from Europe suggested that I do the breeding, keep the best pups, and just put down the dysplastic pups at 6 months - he felt it was worth the probablity that there would be HD to get pups from the combo of lines.....I did not feel the risk was worthwhile.

D.H I have to agree with you on the mate thing If that was the case I would of NEVER married my first husband (eager to please just was not there!!!! LOL). also Thank you for the kind words. I have met a lot of great people though the German Shepherd bred but you always come across a few bad apples every now and then. Kougar I hear you on the prelimb, I had to learn that the hard way myself. Thought you could go off that and bred!!! BOY WAS I WRONG!!!, only after breeding and having the litter turn six months old did I find out mother was mild! Not only did I have to admit I made a mistake (which took a lot to tell 9 people but also ended up replacing or paying back everyone that came down with HD. For anyone who thinks ONLY pre-limbing is needed better think again. I have a question for you'LL (yes, from the South) Why is it that breeders are not open about problems with thier lines? I mean we all have something. I am very honest about the problems I have or had with my clients and they say " I never heard any one admit they had problems" I just think it would do miore good if we knew what we were up against. My opinion.

<<>> I agree with this statement Bob, My dog (Brisko vom haus weinbrand) was a CRAZY puppy... I could not stop hip from running and jumping and falling on his sides (hitting his hips) he would jump up and down all the way up to my head (im about 6ft tall) when he got excited, he constant ran and jumped over the last 4 or so stairs... I cringed everyday he did something... I tried to "control" him doing this but it was hopeless :-) lol but he is 'a' normal and OFA excellent... in my not so expert opinion, if HD was from mostly environmental he would of had HD... However he did have a great diet, good breeding, and was kept lean... so that could of helped too... Jessica Gainer

Kougar, With only 3 dogs in the OFA database and only a few litters, (the first being sired by a male with no titles and no OFA rating) you make it seem as if you have extensive experience.

It's not always a simple thing to find specific dogs in the OFA database. MY OFA dogs are listed on on 3 different pages. It depends on the accuracy of the spelling; leave out or add something as simple as an apostrophy and the name will not come up.