Hello I wonder if anyone here can explain something to me? I was looking at the helath scores of two labs on the Kennel Club sire while I decide whether to buy one of their pups. Dad has not been hip scored and his EBV is 1.8 - slightly above average on the sliding scale on their graphic. Mum has been scored - her hips are 5/6. She is also slightly above average on the graphic, which would seem to correspond to a score of 11, but her EBV is given as 24. Can anyone tell me why her score is so much higher than the dad given that she has been hip scored? would forum members consider one of these puppies? thanks so much for any advice
My understanding of EBV is that it differs from just using hip/elbow scores for the individual dogs because it takes into account multiple generations, including siblings and progeny from past litters. So the dam may have good hips herself but still have hip dysplasia in her family line that could potentially show up in pups (and perhaps has already). Pups will start out with an EBV the average of their parents. If one parent's EBV is above average then ideally they would only be bred with a dog with an EBV below average. It sounds like pups from these two parents would start out with an EBV of 12.9. I wouldn't personally choose a pup from this pairing. Don't forget to look at the confidence level for each, though. More information will improve the reliability of those scores, which makes them more useful for decision making.
