Can someone please tell me why dogs are hip scored, at what age is this done and are all breeds hip scored?
A

Ok I have just visited the British Veterinary Assoc. website
http://www.bva.co.uk/
which has answered all my questions except one which is, does anyone know what the mean score is for the Cairn Terrier or am I missing something obvious here?
Thanks,
A

They don't seem to be listed on the list I have which probably means less than 10 have been scored. Doubt if they have much of a problem, being such a small breed - but, then again, how would they know if they don't test?
Nice little dogs tho'

Fab little dogs. I wouldn't be without mine now.
A

I bet that a number of breeds have HD but they are not scored so we will never know.  If breeds are never tested then how do they know that they are fine?

Good point perrodeagua. It might just be worth doing it anyway unless of course Cairns, because of their size just do not get HD.
I wonder if Vets have a policy that they do not hip score dogs that are below a certain size unless they have obvious problems. I can't imagine they would turn away this sort of business and surely breeders and people that show dogs would want to know that sort of information.
By the way my reason for possibly having my dog hip scored is  purely medical. I don't want to over excercise him and exacerbate a potential hip problem.

I would also bet that a number of breeds, including my own, have a vrey misleading mean score.  If all breeding dogs had to be tested I wonder what the results would be then?

I wonder what proportion of the population of each breed SHOULD be hip scored in order to calculate a true mean score and really if that percentage isn't achieved a mean score shouldn't be used which is perhaps is why I can't find a mean score listed for the Cairn terrier.
A