Dutch Shepherd Forum

I have noticed a few topics about hips and reading your stories / advice has been interesting.
I have been looking for a DS for a while and have emailed a few breeders with the normal query about character etc , but most importantly their overall health including hips and elbows.
So far I have not spoke to a UK breeder that checks their breeding dogs or bitches because ( and I quote) :

a) There are no hip/elbow dysplasia's in Europe in the bloodlines we have that I know of
b) The BVA database does not have any dutch herders on it, so comparisons would be made with the GSD.
c) They (the sire and dam) are now of the age where dysplasia's would be evident and there are no signs

Obviously if a lot of breeders have this opinion we could be breeding with dogs with terrible hips or elbows, and we could be purchasing pups that should not be bred if their parents were checked in the first place.

With the people on this forum, how many have had their dogs checked? Also what was the score to determine a mean average?

Taff

Odin has had x-rays, not for breeding clearance, but rather diagnostic to check if there was anything wrong and to see if he could continue in agility. He came back borderline per my vet. I didn't send them to OFA as he's neutered and I don't know his pedigree. I'll be redoing them in a few months to see how everything is going. I wouldn't take his case as anything official in the breed though as he was likely from a crappy backyard breeder.

If you want real averages, check out the OFA database for the breed. There are 241 hip scores for the breed posted on there, so it should give you some sort of idea. Some are repeats or prelims as they show a total of 234 different dogs were tested. http://www.offa.org/results.html?num=&r ... gin+Search

In the score breakdown, it has come back to
DUTCH SHEPHERD 234 tested 16.7% excellent 9.0% dysplastic 68 tested born from 2006-2010 13.2% excellent 11.8% dysplastic

You could also check with the FCI and SV to see the reported scores for their databases.

Every official hip check should be in there. Also note though that we have PennHip in the US as well, so a few breeders may use that and they won't be listed in the OFA database. I'd personally stay away from any breeder that didn't do the x-rays. Even if they say the evaluation system is flawed, they could get diagnostic x-rays from the vet to show potential puppy buyers and I believe OFA would accept digitals from a foreign vet.

I only had Sadie checked because she was showing odd signs of ouchyness. She was a rescue.