penn hip tech - Page 1

could some explain why some tell you not to use the penn hip technique and also why some breeders give only a 1 year hip guarantee. there was a vet that said genetic hip issues could show up as late as 4 years of age

by 4 years most dogs have already been bred extensively. If its good enough for breeding, its good enough for keeping. Very simple. Or do you want to wait until your dog is 4 to breed it the first time? That is not very practical. The opinions on everything HD vary greatly. 40 years of screening have done very little, other than raise awareness and create a lot of hype. One year guarantees because the SV a-stamp is done at one year of age. The difference between what you see at one and at 2 and at 4 are not necessarily that strong. Between age 1 and 2 and 4 you have vast outside influences to deal with though. When looking at the hips of a 4 year old dog how can you tell what was acquired and what was genetic? You cannot. You can barely do that with a "fresh" hip at age one. PennHip claims to be accurate as yearly as 4 months. So 4 months vs 4 years. Which will it be then? PennHip is not considered perfect either. Some say its the only way, others do not. If you screen dogs with all the different methods available, chances are you end up with different results. Some dogs pass OFA but not PennHip. Some dogs do not pass OFA but pass PennHip. Even if you rescreen under the same method you will get different results, depending on who did the evaluations. Vets and evaluators given the same x-rays again often provide a different opinion second time around. If it was so black and white that should not happen. But it does. If it was that easy or there was a proven solution, be sure that everyone concerned about HD would stick to that.

but it must be that more do not pass the penn hip tech than do because ther have been statments that if penn hip is used that will void the warranty why?

you need to ask the people who make such statements

People have very strong and even emotional opinions on PennHip vs OFA. There are just so many sources out there that go one way or other, it is difficult to take it all in. I use two different vets for xraying the hips of my dogs, and they both differ greatly in which method they think is best! One believes OFA is the only way to go, the other thinks PennHip is the preferred method. They are both very good vets. Each person has to make a decision for themselves. I personally accept PennHip at six months and older to be valid for verifying the hips, and OFA at two years and older. That is because of the number of, and the differences between, the false positives that occur between PennHip and OFA at different ages. This is only in MY own humble opinion, which I apply in my puppy guarantees. I also guarantee dogs up to five years of age against DJD. After that time, I consider dogs to be getting "middle aged", and their bodies reflect their lifestyles more than their genetic predispositions for DJD.

Bigbrother, I have heard one (1) reason why the Penn-Hip exam will void some breeder's guarantees. They feel that the motion of forcing the joint apart will stretch and damage the surrounding ligaments. It this true? I really doubt it as puppies have very stretchy ligaments, but I will not get into an argument about it. Personally, I still prefer the O.F.A at two (2) years of age, or the S.V, at one (1) year of age followed by the O.F.A. at two (2) years of age. My reason? The availability of Penn-Hip in my region, plus the fact that I am still a bit old school about hip examinations. On my guarantee, I state that I will accept findings from the S.V., the O.F.A., or Penn-Hip and specify a time window for the method of choice. I think that most of us agree on one (1) thing; and that is that all three (3) examining entities and methods are but tools to help us determine suitability for breeding, and not a single one (1) is the be-all-end-all for hip examination. My 1.5 cents, Bob-O