This article is a consolidation and slightly updated version of two or three that have appeared in the canine press over the past decade or so, because a couple of things have changed during that time. It concerns the more well-known hip registries operating principally in the U.S. and Canada. Revising and combining this way should give you a better “meal” at one sitting. I hope to not only bring you up to date on methods and organization, but also stress again the importance that an open registry would be to progress in reducing incidence of HD in the better strains or breeding lines.

I have written in a few publications before, on the topic of genetic diversity, linebreeding, and health, and am now living up to my promise to the club leadership to supply another article on the related topic of phenotype variability as it relates to genotype. That is, “What you see is a clue to what you got.” (“Got” here means “obtained,” not just the teeny-bopper’s or Valley girl’s misuse of the word when they mean “have.”) For it is what you got from the breeders of your dog and its ancestors that you have to work with. If you are a non-breeding owner, you will want to read this to understand more about your dog’s appearance and health...

Every so often, old arguments resurface and writers try to change public perception about some particular topic. They may be based on well-thought-out scientific studies, or on poorly designed experiments, or on hot air. For years, Vitamin C (also known as ascorbate or ascorbic acid) has caused great controversy, mostly because of extreme and unfounded claims but also on fairly accurate studies with different conclusions because of the design of those experiments. Are most or any of the conclusions valid? There are many things we know or think we know about vitamin C, especially...

These comments are enlarged upon in my book on HD and other orthopedic disorders, available from the publisher or the author. Get the whole book for the whole picture. This magazine/website format is in response to requests by dog clubs where I lecture, and from individuals for a synopsis-comparison between diagnostic methods...

People take actions based not so much on logic and reasoning as on emotional bases. This is something I learned in some 33 years in the business of chemicals marketing. I saw the same thing in my experience as a breeder since the '40s, a handler since the '60s, and a judge since the '70s. And it's been a hard lesson for me to assimilate, because I am the penultimate logic-based person. So much so that I've been accused by some as not only being from Mars (women are from Venus) but from the dark side of a moon of Mars! Trained in the scientific method, which is based on careful observation and collection of facts, cause-and-effect, testing and proving all things (including following the Scriptural admonition in I Thessalonians 5:21 to do that very thing), I never quite learned...

The finding of CDRM in several littermate pairs, combined with the acknowledged high incidence of the disease in the German shepherd breed in general suggested that a genetic factor may well be involved in the aetiology of the disease, as previously suggested  (Clemmons, 1989). Due to this unusually high incidence of CDRM in one breed of dog and the discovery of at least two pairs of affected littermates, the investigation of a possible genetic factor was indicated. Following a literature search for diseases in other species with clinical and pathological similarities to CDRM, a working hypothesis was...

Before we get into the meat of the matter, let’s review the OFA-type definitions of canine hip dysplasia, referred to here as HD.

  The modern dog is to a great extent a manufactured product. That is, most breeds had been developed originally for specific purposes, but more recently have been changed via selective breeding to suit personal ideas of aesthetics (beauty). Utility has largely taken a back seat, but even in those circles where certain job functions are the breeders’ primary concerns, physical characteristics are often a result of breeders wanting the extreme rather than overall balance. This has led, over the last couple of centuries, to more differences between breeds than Nature might have developed on its own...

The elbow is called a synovial (lubricated) hinge joint, although it has some minor similarity to a ball-and-socket joint. There is not that sort of rotation that we find in the hip; the twisting of the lower arm is possible because of the design of the radius. Mainly, flexion and extension are the movements in the elbow itself. The ulna acts to add stability and restrict motion, and the radius bears most, perhaps up to 80%, of the weight of the forequarters.

As the author of "Canine Hip Dysplasia", and an international lecturer on orthopedic disorders, as well as a dog show judge, I am frequently asked to comment on similarities and differences in the procedures used and information obtained when radiographs are taken for OFA and other leg-extended positions as compared to the PennHIP evaluation, which you will see is an improved diagnostic technique.