PennHIP technique (article)

Jemima Harrison has written a non-technical article about the PennHIPtechnique.
Ms. Harrison is a journalist and TV producer best known for
making Pedigree Dogs Exposed, a British television documentary highlighting health and welfare problems in purebred dogs in the UK. Click on the link below to read the article.

http://research.vet.upenn.edu/Portal...Feb%202010.pdf

Ms Puddleduck has jumped on the bandwagon, because she has nothing better to do just before Crufts.

The USA has made no more progress using the Penn Hip method than any other country in the world. All the Penn Hip does extra is allow the scrutineers to assess the puppy against the "average for the breed"& possibly do an operation to better the hips as an Adult. It is not the be all & end all to "prevent"HD nor has it speeded up the improvement of hips in any breed. The adult Penn Hip doesn't show any more than the X rays done under the European method of hip X raying & it is more expensive.

The most improvement in the hips of any breed is done by using known hip improvers at stud & good management of the growing dog(good nutrition, exercise etc etc)

There are American GSDs with very good hips that are toally unsound because of their"USA"structure(& no they are not from German or European imports)The American"type"of GSD has the "straight"back(but not the "level"topline), but is grossly overangulated

Have a look at this site All these dogs are Penn Hipped & HD "free"but it doesn't make them sound !!

This article by Jean Mueller about the unsoundness in these GSDs

I will be having my BCs Hip scored & may have my new puppy "Penn Hipped"so we can compare her with one of her possible suitors(who is in the Netherlands BTW)

hi Dyane
i do see what you are getting at
i do feel its a bit of a 'cash bandwagon' over here a bit like tplo surgery,only approved people can do it (ie patented)but i do find it interesting.
what age do you think is best to hipscore? i am getting Tupac scored, just for information purposes(was thinking bout penHipp until i realised we couldn't take the rads and send them on) i am leaning towards leaving him till 24months.

The Yanks don't tests until the dogs are 2 years old, but TBH any time after 12 months except for giant breeds(Newfies etc)is ok IMHO I would leave a Giant breed until at least 18 months as they don't usually stop growing until then.

Our Imported GSD was X rayed under the original scheme(devised by the GSD League & Club of the UK)at 12 months old & he got a certificate & when scoring was brought in his plates were resubmitted & graded 0:0=0. The original scheme had certificate, breeders letter & fail(Certs were 0 to 4 in total-not more than 3 on either hip)& the BL 5 to 8 no more than 4 on either hip)I had a BC scored at 3 1/2 & he scored 3:3=6 !

Personally, I like the European hip scoring method from what I've read, I think having a larger range of scores gives much better indication of exactly the status of the hips. Better than our Good, Excellent, Poor method. I mean, what does that mean exactly? Can you quantify "good"?