Bad hips, good hips

Keechak

My dog Hawkeye is going to be a conformation pup agility pup and obedience pup. In his contract from the breeder it says he must get his hips OFA certified as Good or excellent (any lower and he must be neutered.) it also says in his contract that if I begin to use him before 2 years old for any activities that put stress on the joints he must get his hips OFA evaluated. Now I plan on starting to teach him how to jump around 14 or 15 months so he will need the OFA evaluation. my question is at what age do you think will be a good time to get his x-rays done? I am thinking about a year old, but I would like some others opinions.

KelliCZ

Taken from the OFA Website only dogs over 24 months can be certified

Age Requirement

Only dogs that are 24 months of age, to the day, or older at the time of radiography can qualify for an OFA hip number. In general
hip joint status of younger dogs will be e valuated but only
a consultation report will be issued. For toy and small breeds
interested in the Legg-Calve-Perthes Database the animal has
to be 12 months of age or older. The dog’s registration certificate or
copy of this information should be available at the time of radiography.

OFA Policy Regarding Release Of Preliminary Results
(Animals Under 24 Months)

In an effort to encourage open sharing of health test results,
the OFA will post preliminary results if:
The animal is at least 12 months at the time of radiography
The animal must be permanently identified via microchip
or tattoo
The owner initials the authorization block to release all
results (including abnormal results) when the application is
initially submitted

Restraint

Obtaining

cshellenberger

You can do PENNHIP at a year, it's more accurate and doesn't require sedation. Talk it over with your breeder.

Shalva

I think that what your breeder is saying is that if you are going to be putting stress on those joints in teaching things like jumping that you have a prelimary done..... that is an ofa prior to age two.... but then you will need to do it again with new slides at age two to get a permanent clearance.... anything done prior to age two will give you an idea about how the hips are looking but they won't do the perm. clearance until age two....

In my opinion.... you can teach jumping without jumping.... in other words set up your jumps, set them at 2-4 inches high and teach your dog the mechanics of having to go through the jump and over the bar..... however, because the bar is close to the ground your dog won't have to actually jump... but will learn that he needs to go through and over..... I would save the jumping until he is age two..... better safe than sorry.....

I taught all of my dogs the agility obstacles and worked with things on the ground or close to the ground until they were two... and then raised the jumps and at that point we really went for it... but the dogs had already had two years of practice and they knew exactly what needed to be done.

teaching jumping doesn't mean you have to be jumping
s

Kathyy

In fact NADAC has put just that into its program. Maxwell is one leg short of his Novice Hoopers title. The hoops look like regular jump standards with a half holahoop stuck into the uprights to make a sort of hoop to go through and NOT jump. You could make up a number jumps and now stick the hoops into the top ends and later take them out and put the jump bars on to train jumping. I am going to make these up if and when I get another dog to train crosses and handling. Google NADAC hoopers images to see just what they look like.

Obstacles are easy. It is the stuff between the obstacles that makes agility a challenge.

I would find out from your breeder what other agility stuff your new pup shouldn't be doing too. Weaves and real contacts are harder on the dog than jumping.

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Keechak

No I definatly wont be jumping him at full hight till two years. but around a year and a half I was going to be jumping him at around 8 inches (my jumps I own don't go below 8) He will be a big boy and he will jump 20 inches in a competition so 8 should be just a step over for him, and I just was thinking I would get him the preliminary at that time and then the finale at 2 years.

Why do they have to sedate the dog? I thought it was just an x-ray that they had to take (my vet dosn't sedate well behaved dogs for x-rays)

Shalva

talk to your breeder, but I think you could do the eight inches without having to do the prelims first.... I would allow that myself.....depending on how big your dog is at this point..... as far as sedation

there are some who believe that sedating relaxes the joints and then you won't get as tight an xray as you would without sedating....

my dogs are usually sedated... just so they can get the positioning right... positioning is everything in an xray..... so my dogs are sedated and I have only gotten goods and excellents from OFA so I am not sure that the whole laxicity of the joints things from the sedative is really a problem.

s

cshellenberger

Being able to do Xrays without sedation is important to breeds sensitive to certain sedatives (such as Ace with Bully and Mollossor breeds who have slower metabolism), that's why I had suggested PennHip.

Shalva

they sedate for penn hip here
I was under the impression that all penn hips were sedated.

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