Hello, I am potentially buying a male pup from KC registered breeder. I have his license and certificate. The puppy is 19 weeks and all injections done bar one thats due next week. He has the mother line in his breed and his done for over 40 years. Information on Sire/Dam below. Please can you offer some feedback on the below? I personally look at these as good scores? Not sure what the 2019 BVA figure is for hips but any help would be great. Sire: 3/3 Hips 0 Elbow Clear Eye Cert Dam: 3/5 Hips 1 Elbow Clear Eye Cert Both parents clear on EIC, SD2, CNM and PRA. Thanks!
Hi Jack, The last time I looked into it, the Breed Mean Score for Labs' hips was 12. But that was several years ago! Even weighting is more important than total score in some ways, so the parent with 3/3 is fine but I'd be slightly more hesitant over the one with 3/5, although it's by no means terrible. You can read more about hip scores here: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-hip-scores-faq-2/ The dam's elbow score gives me pause, as i've only ever seen elbow scores of 0 on breeding dogs. I believe, although i'm not certain, that any numbered score of elbows means some degree of dysplasia and that the rating only goes up to 3. There is a little more information on this and other health tests here: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/health-screening-for-labrador-diseases/ My other concern would actually be the puppy's age. 19 weeks is quite old to bring a puppy home - so you lose a lot of the benefits of bringing home a puppy, like being able to socialize it thoroughly, but without getting some of the benefits of bringing home an adult dog, like them being calmer or part trained. Not saying it's a bad idea, it's just not something I have come across before
Hi, I can’t comment about the scoring but wanted to echo @lucy@labforumHQ comment about age. 19 weeks is very old to get a pup, is there a reason for this ? It could be ok but if the pup has not been out and about you could have missed key socialisation opportunities that could lead to problems in the future. I would not be keen to buy a dog this age unless I had lots of reassurance about what has happened in the last 11 weeks when that pup could have been with me.
Hi Jack. Firstly well done for doing your homework! It's very refreshing to see new owners doing proper research. Out of interest, by ‘retriever’ do you mean Golden Retriever or Labrador Retriever? Personally, I'm afraid that I would walk away from this pup. I would not consider for a moment breeding from a dog or bitch with anything but 0 elbows. I would also agree with the above about the age of the pup. I took on a pup at 10 weeks once, and have forever regretted the socialisation he missed out on.
