Hi all, breeding not my forte but was asked by a friend who has a GSD long haired black and tan bitch what the process of hip scoring involves for the bitch - she's thinking (very carefully) about breeding from her. Sorry no more details on the dog (i.e. pedigree etc but know she's apparently fit and healthy and three years old - friend intends to have her health checked too) - would be grateful if you could explain how hip scoring works and roughly how much she can expect to pay. She has said if she's going to do it she wants to do it right and I said although I don't now the first thing about it I know a really helpful bunch of people who do and that I would ask you all on her behalf.

Thanks, in advance
KirstyS
:)

It involves booking her into the vet to have an xray, normally under general anasthetic. She would be layed on her back with legs extended and rotaed slightly to get the best picture. the xray is then sent by the vet to the British Veteruinary Association for scoring!

Your friend will need to take her KC reg with her to the vet and fill out the BVA form.

The last one I had Hip scored cost £54 for the anasthetic, £54 for xray plates and £12.50 the vets time, then there is a £20 something fee for the BVA!

Each Hip is scored on a scale of 0 (best) to 53 (worst). This would give a best score of 0/0 = 0 or worst score 53/53 = 106 at worst. One usually describes the total score, eg 7/7 would be shown as a total Hip Score of 14.

The breed mean score for GSD is 19, so a score lower (better) than that for breeding should be hoped for, but certainly no more than a few points higher, and then use a male with much lower score than the breed average.

The Sire of my pup's 7:7 and the Dam's 0:2- this is good- as I have endorsements on my bitch's KC- which can be lifted provided I meet certain criteria- 1) She is at leat two years old, 2) She has a good hip score and 3) She has either a good history at showing or has a breed survey done. In the breed survey, say for instance she had quite a high score and I still don't mean anywhere near the average, then I would have to find a very low scoring stud. Many of the litter's I saw while looking (it took me 6 months to choose one) had scores like these two.

Stacey x x x