Hi, we are wanting to buy a puppy lab, however the mother has a hip score of 5/13. Owner says she got tested at 3 years old and when she was first pregnant so this could have impacted on her score. The father has a score of 4/5 and both kc registered. Mother has a lovely temperament and beautiful however should I be worried about her hip score or could this be down to when the test was done? Thanks in advance.
Hi and welcome! I'm not an expert but have been doing a lot of my own looking. There's a reason most breeders have their dogs tested as early as is permitted. I have heard that hip scores degrade with age as environmental factors can have a serious impact. So for example, if you let your dog jump into and out of the back of a high car, the hip scores may be higher than if you hadn't allowed that behaviour. So short answer - yes, the hip score could definitely be down to when the test was done. Especially as it's lopsided in this case (5/13), that could point to environmental vs. genetic causes. However, of the litters I've looked at so far, I've not seen such a high overall score and it would give me pause. It would be good if the dam or sire has already had litters who have been scored to see how they fared, or to look several generations back. If you like everything else about the litter (breeder's way of raising them, temperaments) it would be worth checking out. Also the KC's score reporting tends to skew to the low side. I found this chart useful that compares UK to German scoring standards. Like the UK, Germany has a good rep for having an accurate health database. But you'll see that what would be considered on the high side in the UK, is "normal" in Germany. There are much better pedigree/health score professionals here on the Forum, so they may weigh in, too.
Thanks for the advice, this will be her first litter so can’t look at previous unfortunately. The sire I know is from very good and respected breeder and he has had lots of pups before and is a 4/5 himself. Don’t know if that will make a difference or look at mothers family line and medical history might be best to see.
It is always best to look at related dogs, parents, siblings, progeny, rather than just an individual dog. The UK kennel Club has got a great facility called MyKC where you can look up hip and elbow scores and all other relevant health tests a dog and all its relatives have had. You can also look at the EBV (estimated breeding value) of each individual dog.
Also have a look if any siblings have been hip scored. Just click on 'siblings' and then on 'compare health tests' on the right hand side in MyKC and it will show you all the health tests and results litter mates have had.
I note that the hips were only x-rayed once the dam was confirmed pregnant so it would seem very little thought and/or preparation was taken for this litter. Does dam and sire have current eye certificates? Elbow scores? Have any of the other available DNA tests been done to rule out potential health problems?
