Hip & Elbow Scoring
What is Hip and Elbow Scoring?
Hip and elbow scoring is a practice commonly used in the evaluation of breeding dogs, particularly in breeds susceptible to hip and elbow dysplasia, which are common, costly orthopaedic issues in Golden Retriever. This evaluation involves the assessment of a dog's hip and elbow joints through radiographic imaging, with the goal of determining the health and structural soundness of these joints. Hip and elbow scoring is a diagnostic procedure where a specialist takes X-rays of a dog's hip and elbow joints. These X-rays are carefully examined to evaluate the structural integrity and health of these joints. The results are then expressed as numerical scores, which reflect the condition of the joints. Whilst genetics are a large contributing factor, there is never a guarantee that your puppy will not develop joint issues in the future, but having the parents scored is the best way to minimise the risks involved.
Why is it Important?
Genetic Health: Hip and elbow dysplasia are hereditary conditions, meaning they can be passed from one generation to the next. By assessing the hip and elbow health of breeding dogs, breeders can make informed decisions to reduce the risk of passing these conditions to the puppies.
Long-Term Well-Being & Quality of Life: Dysplastic joints can cause pain, discomfort, and reduced mobility in dogs. By selecting breeding dogs with good hip and elbow scores, breeders are working to improve the long-term well-being of the puppies and future generations.
Breed Improvement: The practice of scoring helps breeders identify dogs with healthier joints, thus improving the overall health and conformation of the breed. Over time, this can lead to a reduction in the prevalence of hip and elbow dysplasia in the breed.
Predictability: A puppy purchaser can have more confidence in the genetic health of the puppy when they know that the breeding dogs have undergone hip and elbow scoring. This helps ensure that the puppy they are considering is less likely to develop these orthopedic issues.
Responsible Breeding: Breeders who invest in hip and elbow scoring demonstrate their commitment to responsible breeding practices and the health of their dogs. This can be a positive sign for prospective puppy purchasers that they are dealing with an ethical breeder.
Hip and elbow scoring is a crucial practice in responsible breeding that helps ensure the long-term health and well-being of the puppies. It provides a valuable tool for both breeders and prospective puppy purchasers to make informed decisions and reduce the risk of hereditary orthopedic issues in dogs. It's a sign of commitment to the breed's health and welfare, and it increases the predictability of a puppy's future health. Whilst having breeding dogs scored is critical, it is also very important you understand how to read these results and ensure you take advantage of knowing the scores of the prospective puppy’s parents to make an informed decision about purchasing your next family member.
Do I Need to Know the Results?
At Sunshine Coast Golden Retrievers, we use the ANKC method for Hip and Elbow scoring, but there are some other, less commonly used methods around too. We will discuss the ANKC method below, but please note we believe you should apply the same theory to interpreting the results for any method, ensure the parents are below the average result of where the breed current sits.
To help you understand, I want you to think of hip and elbow scoring as if you are being tested for Cancer. You would not be satisfied if your doctor said to you, “don’t worry, you have been tested.” Instead, you would want to know the results of that test to determine if you did in fact have Cancer or if you were free of the disease. Similarly in Hip & Elbow testing, it is not sufficient information if a breeder only offers to you “yes, they have been tested” as you need to know the actual results that have come from that assessment. We believe in complete transparency and the power in knowledge which is why you will always find the results of our breeding dogs either listed on our website or readily available should you ever ask us. It is common and acceptable for a breeder to refuse to send you any copies of health testing as there are many scammers around that use these documents to con unsuspecting puppy buyers. However, there is absolutely no harm in being transparent with the actual results of the parents and sharing these scores with prospective buyers. The documents should always be available to sight in person with your breeder, and we caution you to beware of a breeder not willing to allow you to sight these documents upon request. It’s important when sighting these documents you ensure they match up with what the breeder has told you about their health.
How do I Interpret the Scores?
As mentioned, there are a couple of different types of Hip & Elbow Scoring available. The ANKC method is one of the more common methods, but there is also PennHip and OFA. We will discuss just discuss the ANKC method as this is the system we prefer.
ANKC Method
Hip Scoring
The Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) uses the BVA/KC (British Veterinary Association/Kennel Club) scoring system for hip and elbow scoring in dogs. In this system, a dog can be scored from 0 to 53 on each hip, making up to a total possible score of 106. An example of how these scores are communicated is like so: A dog named Beau has been hip scored and received a score of 3 on his right hip and a 2 on his left hip, this result would be written as “Beau’s hips are 3/2.” This may also be communicated as a total hip score of 5, which comes from adding both the right and left score together to get the total score.
A perfect score is 0/0, which signifies no signs of hip dysplasia. Higher scores suggest increasing degrees of hip dysplasia and joint abnormalities. It is necessary to note that different breeds have different standards when it comes to hip scores, for some breeds a score of 12 may be pretty good, and for other breeds a score of 12 may be terrible. Each time a hip score is taken, it is added to a national database (ORCHID) by the radiologist and this is a great tool to help understand where a dog sits in reference to its breed. For example, at the time of writing this (Oct 2023) the current average hip score for a Golden Retriever is 11.24, and we choose to rule out any dogs from our breeding program who have a score higher than this.
Elbow Scoring
The elbow scoring system provides a numerical score for each elbow joint. Scores range from 0 (perfect) to a maximum of 3, with lower scores indicating healthier elbow joints. Like hip scores, elbow scores are often presented for each elbow (Left Elbow Score / Right Elbow Score). It is strongly recommended that only dogs with a score of 0/0 should be bred. Elbow scores are not listed on a database because of this recommendation and it is advisable to avoid parent dogs with scores above 0/0 if you wish to minimise risk of inheritability.
Our Take on Hip & Elbow Scoring
When choosing to add dogs to a breeding program, a breeder needs to be able to know at what point they ‘draw the line’ and decide to rule a dog out of a breeding program. We strongly believe that any responsible breeder would draw the line at the average for hips, and above 0 for elbows. If the average score of Golden Retrievers is 11.24, and we start breeding from a dog with a score above that, we would be contributing to an increase in the score of the breed and essentially causing a detriment to the breed. Our aim as breeders should always be to leave the breed better than you found it. Some breeders will tell you a the dog has other desirable traits such as a wonderful temperament or great coat furnishings, an extreme end of the colour spectrum (cream or red), etc. which is why they’ve bred from a dog with higher scores. We disagree with this reasoning as it implies 1) it is difficult to find a Golden Retriever with a good temperament (meet any Golden Retriever and I think you will agree this is not the case) or 2) it implies that coat colour or furnishings should be put above the health of the dog, which is unethical. Ultimately, responsible and ethical breeding means you are putting the animals health and welfare at the number 1 priority.