I have  a basset bitch who is now 10 months. I intend on showing her and if she does well (and only if she does well) I would like to breed her to continue my own line. Now I am a firm believer in health testing and would have her hip/elbow and eye tested as recomended on the KC website (although could not find this info when looking today:rolleyes:) But when looking at the breed mean scores I can see that not 1 basset has been hip scored, not even the top breeders do it. Now I would feel very uncomfortable in breeding a bitch that has not been hip/elbow tested especially in a heavy boned breed, but if I do get it done then I will have no comparisin (sorry spelling!) either. Also I would have to be using a stud dog that has not been done.I would appreciate any advice on this subject, thanks

Kerry

its the same in my breed Kerry and i was (and still seem to be) i believe the 1st person in my breed to start screening all my breeding stock for elbows after a problem occuring within the breed (no one else seems to care much!) All I can say is do it and then decide.....you just have to do it and make up your mind without comparison.

maybe look around the scores for similar breed types? (though its a basset, v unusual) does the basset griffon vendeen get scored? if so could you not work on a basis from theirs?

The Basset Griffon Vendeen has a BMS of 22 - but on the list I have (up to 10/01/05) only 11 had been scored.

at least its something to work on i suppose

Basset Hounds and PGV are very dis similar breeds, different build, proportions, bone etc etc. I would suggest that you cantact the breed club abd ask them what health checks they recommend, if they say the breed is free of problems then great!

oh sorry, not a houndy person myself, they just seem to have a similar composition (well in comparison other things.

Thanks for your imput, obviously I will be getting them done anyway and hope for the best. We didn't get Ruga until she was 5 months old, she came back to the breeder because the new owners Lab would't get on with her and actually hurt her quite badly and she had to be stitched up, but I don't know what they were feeding her, how much exercise they gave her or anything, so when we got her she was put on Arden Grange and raw meaty bones and chicken and obviously limited exercise. What in your opinions would you say would be an ok hip score, in my labs I wouldn't breed any higher that 12 but would prefer 10 or less but this is obviously a breed that has a lot of comparison, any thoughts??

You could try and get in  touch with the KC and see if any have been scored.  Unfortunately the BVA site is never updated and the details on there are from January 2006, which is a shame.

Ask the breed club about scores or leading Basset breeders, unless we have any Basset experts here.

Unfortunately it seems as nearly most breeds they don't do health tests, so don't think they'd get far on enquiring.   You could try looking at sites abroad.  I'll look for one that I know and see if they have any details.

Checked the OFA site (Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals the USA organisation for scoring hips elbows etc).

their data for the Basset hound:

BASSET HOUND
Registry Rank Evaluations         Percent Abnormal         Percent Normal
                                          (that would be those       (that would be those
                                         scoring above 25 in UK)    scoring 0 to 25 in UK)
                                           
CARDIAC N/A          1                        0.0                           100.0
ELBOW    N/A         23                       4.3                             91.3
HIPS        12          194                    37.6                             60.8
PATELLA N/A           2                        0.0                            100.0
THYROID N/A          7                        0.0                            71.4

I compared the hip results with my own breed where abnormal 19.7% and normal 78.6 %, so no reason for complacency.

My breed in the UK has a mean score of 14 and median of 12 with a range of 0 - 61.  With US Bassets having nearly 40% classed as abnormal I would imagine their range and mean would be much higher than that.  All breeding stock in my breed in the UK is required to be scored.

I;m sorry but I bet that if the breed were scored plenty of not so good scores would soon turn up as they have with Beagles, some awful scores among the largely OK ones.

All breeds and cross breeds and even wolves can have HD so really all breeds should be scored.

As for no breed mean score I would use the comparison with the grading systems in other countries.

Under the US system all those scoring under 18 would be normal (Split into Excellent, Good and Fair), 19 to 25 borderline and only those over that would be in the three dysplastic categories of Mild, Moderate and Severe

Someone beat me to it but here's the site  http://www.offa.org/hipstatbreed.html?view=1&sort=4  :d