A Little Interlude About Breeding Screenings

I worked Rippa this Monday and it went awesome. I used all of Stephanie’s sheep and since she was doing so well, I thought it would just be kind of a “chore day” where we went in and out of different pens and field options she had. Lots of opportunities for us to see where we’re at and what to work on. Rips needs some distance work because she’s lacking some confidence there, but she did some great lifts that I wouldn’t call “outruns” but I’d take it if that becomes her MO. She just kind of walks calmly up to the sheep, takes a side, waits for them to move, and then starts fetching them to me. Not the “Border collie” field outrun I think we tend to train for, but super useful and using her own smarts rather than obedience training to get it there.

Anyhow . . . so this whole week I’ve been kind of angsty. As part of my, “Don’t let things hold you back,” I decided to start up the breeding screenings to see if even thinking about pursuing breeding her was going to be in the cards. I got the DNA verification kit and sent that off, and next was hips and elbows.

I feel like, since this is my blog and I like to be super honest, that I feel really funny about health clearances. As I’ve gotten into this thing, I really feel that if I’m breeding, it should be to do outreach to local ranchers and provide working dogs to the cattlemen. And, to a cattle man, usually breed and pedigree and such don’t mean a thing. Most people do not ask about health clearances. You will hear about those things from people in “the fancy” – dog nerds such as myself who speak a certain way and share information and really just . . . it’s a hobby.

Ranchers? Does the dog work? Will it live for a good while and stay healthy? Does it have the temperament I want? That’s usually where the conversation ends. Rippa and Fury both have a proud lineage of dogs owned and bred by these kind of handlers, so not a ton of information on health clearances behind them. It was interesting choosing a sire because of that – many people feel that without that information, it’s a crap shoot, but I feel that it’s not – if these breeders answered affirmatively to the questions above, that’s miles ahead dogs with allergies and early cancer and debilitating dysplasia. It’s a risk I took.

So, yeah, it’s funny. I’m going all out to do the clearances, but the people getting dogs from me aren’t so much worried about it. From what I see, interacting with ranchers who’d buy the dogs, the more I have that stuff available easily, the more they think I’m just a show dog breeder, so I’m actually not going to make the info that available on my site (which I’ll need to redo) unless asked. But, being diligent, I’m going to do it anyway.

So, to the hip xray development.

We have a vet in town that I specifically go to because they’re supposed to be “the best” for breeders and they do hip xrays without anesthesia. I’ve had my troubles with them for a long time, but I still stuck with it because people told me to long ago and I tend to just go that way unless otherwise prompted. Fury got her hips done and came up “Good” with OFA and that’s all I needed.

So, Rippa went in last week, and despite some issues I had with how weird they were being, “Oh, we might not get the images we want, please clear us to use anesthesia, really, we prefer you to use anesthesia” etc for people who are supposed to be good at anesthesia.

And then they sent me the films. Her elbows look really good, but her hips? Uhh . . . she was tilted. But without asking, they just sent them off. At first I tried to be chill and just let it happen because, of course the OFA people would see it as less than ideal, right? But then I posted it online and everyone said to make them retake it.

I pointed it out to them and they offered to do so. I made an appointment, but being me, I spent a lot of time sitting on the computer reading about OFA readings and comparing the films. And what I got was this: the quality of the films is totally dependent on the quality of the people taking them. One website I looked at, one I’ve very much respected for years has a whole article about how a dog can go from dysplastic to not depending on the way someone shoots the photo.

And I’m supposed to trust a vet that sent in bad films to begin with? So, talking to a friend, I decided to ask for a refund (which they gave me) and look into other options. He suggested I look into PennHIP, since now that I was armed with the thoughts in my mind about subjectivity regarding OFA readings.

PennHIP, looking not just at the classic dog-with-legs-extended view (which is supposed to evaluate formation of the joint itself and any arthritic signs or deformities within it) also measures how the joint seats. As someone with terribly lax joints (two surgeries and bad knees right here with this gal), I can appreciate that. The laxity of the joint is something that can definitely cause problems and it’s more scientific: it’s a measure that’s taken and then compared to animals within the same breed. You can actually have a specific goal to breed toward and it’s from a sample that’s sent in whether the people getting the results like it or not (aka, more reliable).

And so, despite costing me 3X more (and I’ll never make it up in breeding), I felt a lot better about that. Science, always.

She had to get anesthetised, which really freaked me out, but the vet did a great job explaining it to me and making me feel okay about it.

And here we are, with a fresh set of images, a not-dead-dog (though she’s a bit cranky since coming home), and a lot more peace of mind. The vet sat me down for twenty minutes, answering all my questions and pretty much demonstrating that he’s a huge geek for PennHip and I made the right decision.

Want photos?

Here’s her elbows from the first vet:

And here’s the OFA shot with the legs pulled down from first vet:

Here’s the new one:

So, uh huh. Quite different, don’t you think? Dr Shechter said if I sent in her hips to OFA she’s probably rate Good to Fair because the joint could sit a little more in there, but that at 4 years old, no sign of degeneration and he thinks she’s got healthy hips for his taste. Good news, considering some people, upon seeing the first shot, were like, “Hmmm, crossing my fingers for you” which made me more than a little worried. Fair’s just fine in my book.

And, more interestingly, here are her other shots

This is a compression image – where the dog’s hips are set into the joint to show how they fit.

And then:

This is the laxity shot – they put the dog’s up as if she’s standing there and measure the movement from compression to this position. It’s then set against a percentile within the breed (aka, some breeds might have more lax joints than others) of all that are submitted (and anyone using PennHIP is submitted, whether the owners want it or not. The average percentile for Aussies, from my research, is 47. Percentiles 30% and below seem to show unlikelihood for development of hip degeneration, so rooting for that.

He suggested I send the hip in for OFA so buyers used to OFA will be satisfied (same with elbows), but at this point, I’ve got the films, and I’ll have the PennHIP eval, and I’ll just educate people. I’m a little freaked by OFA at this point and I’d rather not buy into it unless I really have to.

Either way, a nice, complete picture and a satisfied (albeit poorer) customer here.

Side note: the new vet, Dr Schechter? That last name is Hebrew for “slaughterer.” Hah. I’m also friends with an ER doc in town named Dr. Slaughter. Accident or NO? In Judaism, there’s a teaching that people are born under a blood sign and can end up as murderers but when directed right, they tend to end up in farming or doctoring. Wive’s tale or SOMETHING TO IT?

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.