I've heard so many lame excuses for not hip scoring recently so thought it would be interesting to see other peoples opinions on the subject.

Is it ever acceptable to breed without hip scoring in a breed that is routinely scored? Say for example the ancestors of said dog all had scores below the BMS, would that excuse you from hip scoring?

Short answer: no! It's perfectly possible to end up with a pup with a score worse than the parents, so unless you keep up, you will never know.

Absolutley not ever.

What is the point of possibly  storing up problems in the future, not only for the poor affected offspring who face a lifetime of pain and disability or subject to lenghty and extremley painful surgical procedures , owners who face large expensive vet bills for meds and maybe costly operations , if the insurance company refuses to pay.

But also for the breed as a whole. I would rather not breed than not to do the health tests.

It is just not worth the risk IMO.

I think a good example of this, is my last GSD. Her mum's score was 2:2 and her sire's score was 2:4, in her five generation pedigree the highest score was 14. My girl's score was 46 (total) which was good in comparison to her sister and brother!! All pups had been reared carefully. In my case I have a friend (vet) who specialises in orthopaedics and he couldn't believe the plates when he saw them, as he had seen how carefully she had been reared. I must add that her hips never gave her a days trouble up to the age of 7 when we lost her with a brain tumour.

Her sister lived on a farm and if she heard her dad start up the tractor and the kitchen window was open, she would leap from a standing position, over the kitchen sink unit and out through the window!! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. she was like a gazelle. The house was approx half a mile away from where her dad's office was, and she used to run backwards and forwards carrying messages. It was lovely to see her being given a bag containing her Dad's lunch and eagerly racing off across the field. Her owners emigrated, taking her with them, and she is still fit and active at 10. When we visited, she would be given an egg box and sent down to her dad, who would fill the carton and give it back to her to bring back. Never once did she bring me a broken egg.

Enough waffling now, but the point I am making is that neither these girls showed any signs of poor hips, they both won well in the show ring, lived very active lives and unless they had been scored we would have been totally oblivious.

There is never an excuse not to hips score

I have a girl here who is 6:7  her half sister was 45:45 (same father different mum) and generations of good scores..

What would have happened if someone decided to breed from her without scoring.. on the premice of her background and her sister.. :-(

My dog has HD and her father was 3-4 hip score and mother was 26-26.

Now surely the people owning the father should never have put him to that bitch.

just curious on peoples opinions.

Never acceptable...the breed specific health testing requirements are there for a reason! ;-)

no

Thankyou Newfiedreams and Newf 3
As i asummed that would be the case not to breed that bitch.
Now my poor girl suffers because of them.

I agree that the stud dog owner should never have allowed their dog to be used, but what about the owner of the bitch, surely they should never have had a litter from the bitch.

I found out soon after, they had sold the bitch,maybe as pet bitch then, i dont know.
My fault really for not checking correctly in the first place,and if i had we would not have our lovely girl now.

It was a top stud dog too.

I would never breed from a unscored bitch, or use an unscored dog, similarly I would never allow anone to use my dog that hadnt hip scored their bitch..

It is possible that the stud dog owner just asked if the bitch had been tested, but not what the results were. I did this many years ago. Niave of me but it worked out ok for me. Not everyone knows to ask what the results are, or even if they could see the certificate. Nowadays I wouldn't be so niave, but when you first start out you don't know to ask these questions. :-(

I would use a dog/bitch that has a score just over the breed average so long as the mate had a less than average score.

What I tend to find more infuriating is to breed and then hip score! What is the point of that??? The deed is done, the horse has bolted so to speak!

What really gets my goat is some in our breed hip score and have well above bms and still carry on breeding or also only have 1 eye test done in their lives but still claim to have a current clear eye cert, poor unsuspecting public. One person inparticular  that advertises quite a lot on here had her last current clear eye cert for both the sire and dam of the current litter in 2002, .

Thanks for all the replies. :)