Hip Score Sheet

[MurphysMinder]

Nijinksy (and anyone else who's interested), below are score sheets of 2 of my dogs. The bitch with a total score of 12 was mated to a dog whose score was 2:3, total 5. The score of 38 was the result

. Breeding animals is never an exact science eh

Hope it gives you an idea of how the scoring works anyhow. The bit of the sheet you can't see has the dogs details and a 3 generation pedigree.

 

[severnmiles]

But MM I don't think hip results are just down to how good the parents are, its also much to do with feeding and how much exercise you allow a young dog.

Having coeliacs I know that one of the long term effects of eating wheat on me is osteoperosis and if I eat wheat I get pains in my joints. Perhaps commercial dog food containing wheat has the same affect on dogs

How old was the 38 when she was done?

 

[nijinsky]

Thanks MM.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Really SM? I've never heard the wheat theory before. I'm wondering if some of the woeful x-rays that can be seen from the 70s and 80s, when dogs were fed on mostly meat-based diets, would bear that out.

Also, as I am sure MM will tell you, the sire or dam may have good hips themselves but may not throw good hips.
Thinking of some popular sires of the last ten years, ho hum.....

ETA: I'd say all good GSD breeding programmes are based on the fact that HD is a hereditary condition - if there was any other cause I am sure it would have been looked in to.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Very interesting to see the score sheets.

Agree on taking a look at the feeding and exercisepart, but even if you do your best, nature is complicated.

Maybe of no interest, but if I remember it correctly, the Swedish Kennelclub (SKK) has used the Norberg angle during the last years, but during the spring they announced that they will either put less weight on that result or entirely disregard it. I think they had found evidence that it simply doesn't affect all breeds the same way.

from Sweden.

 

[MurphysMinder]

She was 14 months when the x rays were taken. She is now nearly 8 (birthday Sept 11th) and touching wood is absolutely sound. I am aware that hip status is not down to the parents alone. I have been hip x raying my dogs since before the scoring scheme began (used to be the old BVA pass, breeders letter or fail) and these anomalies of poor hips from good parents (and good lines I should add) have always cropped up. As HH says, back in the 70s dogs were raised on almost pure red meat diets. And all my youngsters have had the same exercise regime. There have also been loads of different theories about improving hips, I can remember when everyone went thrugh a state of shovelling vitamin C into their youngstock. There was also a fad in the states of keeping young pups confined in kennels with low roofs so they couldn't stand on their hind legs

Don't think that idea caught on thank heavens.
By the way, should add I suppose that the 38 score has not been bred from.

 

[severnmiles]

Thats what makes me think, you would never think of breeding from your 38 bitch yet bulldogs of a 30 and sometimes higher are bred from.

Whilst I'll agree with everything else you've said having spoken to my very aged father he said from as far as he can remember - since the 40's - dogs weren't actually fed on meat, meat was rationed to people let alone fed to dogs. Dogs were fed scraps but even those were scarce as pigs trotters/head/ liver/kidneys/hearts and lights (lungs) all went for human consumption. He remembers regularly feeding the dogs stale bread and cake.

 

[nijinsky]

Xara's fed on Arden Grange complete dry food. I stuck with that as that's what the breeders fed her and after speaking to a few breeders, most fed that. I don't feed any red meat at all. Exercise is toughy - I don't let her upstairs so there's no running up & down but she does do a fair amount of tearing around with the other dog when they're playing although they are both very quiet during the day, they go mad at night when we want to rest!! What can you do?

Xara's dad is a 3:8 = 11
Xara's mum is a 14:4 = 18

Breed means score is 19.

It will be interesting to know whether any of her siblings have been scored yet.

 

[severnmiles]

Is that Xara in your siggy? Very cute if it is!!

 

[MurphysMinder]

I'm ashamed to say my Mums dogs were fed horsemeat in the 60s. There was a lady who used to have a stall in the market where Mum used to buy it (at the time I didn't know it was horsemeat, would probably have kicked up a fuss). This was cooked up in a big stew pan that seemed to be always simmering in the kennel kitchen. This was when she had a boarding kennel. When she no longer had the boarding kennel our dogs were fed green tripe, with a little biscuit meal (Winalot). Puppies were fed on Weetabix and goats milk for breakfast and supper, and minced beef for the other 2 meals. Mum would never give them bread, although some people used it for dogs, because some people believed it caused fits

Your Dad is right though, I think most people who just had one or two dogs just fed them table scraps, and didn't seem to do them much harm.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Ah, tripe, lovely tripe and lights.
We had a spare fridge, for obvious reasons.

That's mad about keeping people keeping their pups confined, MM.
D used to bounce up and down in her run on her hind legs all day (whenever she was not being walked, obviously) and she was 0:0.