PennHips - Page 1

Hi.  I am new to this forum. I have a 6 month old DDR shepherd that I plan to do obedience and tracking with. This is not the first shepherd I have trained, but it is my first puppy that I have purchaced with specific goals in mind.  Previously I have retrained rescued shepherds.  This is new territory for me but thus far totally an awesome experience since I got him at 8 weeks old.  Any ideas or suggestions on which xray type to go with, penn hips or OFA.  I'd rather not pay for both.

We have done OFA and Penn hip. You get more info from Penn hip. Plus there are 3 xrays with Penn hip. The Vet has to be specially trained to do this procedure.Penn hip does have a website with a Vet locater.

Thanks Janette.

I suspect many are not aware of this method of hip/elbow x-rays.  I live in the DC/Maryland area and have several options as the vets are trained at the relatively closeby  Univ. of Penn.  I appreciate your reply.

Alot of breeders are aware. Some just dont want to change. Others IMO are just afraid of Penn hip method, as you really cant hide too much from 3 xrays! None of my dogs have ever had any problems with this procedure. I drop them foff in the morn and pick them up in the afternoon. The earliest age we have done Penn hip is 1 year due to the breeders guarentee. Also if you are going to use Penn hip method and there is a guarentee on the hips make sure you get the ok from the breeder...in writing.

interesting.............

I agree that either method is fine, but I still use the O.F.A. and the S.V.. I do like the more thorough examination done by the PennHip method. The only drawback that I see regarding PennHip is that the results may not be used by the A.K.C. (please correct me if I am wrong) when making a printed pedigree. Of course it would not be used by the S.V. at all.

If this is not important, then PennHip should provide much greater detail as to the TRUE quality of the hips. I am sure that some day the results will be incorporated into the A.K.C. pedigree format-just not sure how many years that will be. If the dog/bitch examined by PennHip is to be used for breeding, there might be quations from potential puppy buyers regarding how "good" the hips are. We are so used to seeing O.F.A. for the A.K.C. pedigrees and the "a" stamp rating on the S.V. pedigrees and ignorance is never truely bliss.

Good Luck!

Bob-O

I like the idea of Penn Hip.  Your dogs hips will be only graded against GSD hips. I do not think it is as subjective as OFA and more scientific rather than opinionated.

Your correct Bob-o, AKC will not, at this time put Pennhip on pedigrees. I guess the same for SV. Hopefully some day soon they will reconize Pennhip as a good hip evaluation tool. I heard rumor that Pennhip was going to have an open database. I havent seen that yet. I always give copies of my parents Pennhip results with paper work I hand out with my pups. I would request a copy if I was to buy a pup from Pennhip parents.

B. Andersen, That was a couple of the things that we like about Pennhip also. And who need opinions anyway. A more scientific approach seem the right way to go.

Wanda,

I would go with PennHIP if I were you.  There is a lot of data that shows how PennHIP is a much better predictor of hip quality at a young age than OFA.  With OFA you have to wait until your dog is 2 yrs old to get "official" results.  With PennHIP you can get a good evaluation at 6-9 months old.

I used to do OFA but I'm done with them.  The last GSD I owned prelim'ed fine with OFA at 1 year of age but turned out dysplastic at 2 years old.  I wish I could have seen that coming! 

Another great positive to PennHIP is that ALL results are sent in.  There is no option to just take the Xrays and say "hmmm not so good, never mind".  The data in the OFA database is therefore skewed.  With my own dog, all of the dogs from the sire and dam in the OFA database were at least OFA Fair, and all the puppies out of my dog's dam were OFA Good or Excellent.  So did I get the one unlucky pup, or did a lot of folks just not bother to send in their Xrays?  I'll never know.

Do your research, and make up your own mind.

Yvette

Thanks all.  I am going with Pennhip, probably when he is closer to 9 months.  It does concern me that the so called 'best  looking' xrays are sent in and not all of them for OFA.  I understand people want the best rating for their breeding stock, but I would rather have a scientific evaluation made with the maximum amount of information provided without selecting out those that may show some tendency toward dysplasia.