OFA -vs- PennHIP - Page 1

Good, bad or indifferent I'd like to hear your opinion.

Thanks

Some will say penn hip some will say OFA. I like OFA better. Penn Hip  just goes by how many people submit their GSD that year and based on those submissions is what kind of rating your dog will get there is no set standard like in OFA and it can change from year to year depending on number of submissions.

Then you got the SV who "a" stamp at 12 months of age and then you get in a whole seperate argument of which is better. SV who lets face it got the GSD  to what it is today as far as a breed standard and a standard on hips/elbows to be used for breeding or OFA/Penn Hip that wont give you an offical rating until 2yrs of age, so which one is right/better? thats a whole other thread

JMO

Dawg, I had good and easy results from OFA.  Went thru application process and my dog was graded and his certifications came right away by mail.  VB

I will do what I did with my last dog. At 2 yrs old, when my vet does OFA, he will also do PennHip. It's about $140.00 extra.

Paul15

The one thing that I did find more favorable about the PennHIP method is that they take the radiographs from 3 different views, but I guess that’s kind of a moot point depending on what kind of hips they looked at during that year.... right?

Paul15- Good idea doing both.  Did the results from both organizations of your last dog come back comparable or did the opinions differ?

TheOne- Oh yeah, I forgot about SV.... I'll have to do a search for that thread too

Thanks!

I believe that there are good and bad things about each and every evaluation...and what I end up going with is whatever the people of that country of which you're a part of Know and Trust themselves...and the reason is that when I sell puppies...they want to know if the hips/elbows have been x-rayed and certified...I choose vets that are very competent in taking and reading x-rays...and I have seen a lot of them too....So before I even submit x-rays to OFA or whoever...I already have my answer that I want...And of course I wouldn't even submit x-rays that I don't think would even pass...why spend your money...Just my take on the subject...and I know everyone does things differently...

~Bob~

This is what my Ortho vet passed on to me...the Penn-hip may be more accurate when the dog is young than the OFA prelims because of the age..I just did a six month old prelims before I start to work towards getting him a title wanted to see what they look like...he also said the OFA is more accurate when the dog has some age and some dogs when young look good and then not so good the older they get towards the 24 month when it is more accurate...the SV dogs can be done at one year which could be why some dogs pass at one year and could not at age 2 for example...hips do not improve with age so a good on a young dog at one year may be a fair at 24 months...I think the OFA standards are stricter than the SV ratings.

Marlene

I like Pennhip -- they do have a standard -- it's called the distraction index....they base the percentile off of that...but the distraction index doesnt change from year to year...just how good your dog is compared to other dogs of the same breed does.

I prefer Pennhip...its a mathematical calculation, the vets are trained on how to give radiographs, it uses three radiographs -- two of which it uses to evaluate hip conformation (same as OFA...they just only have two ratings...no DJD and DJD) -- and one of which shows laxity, it gives the owner a percentile rating compared to every other dog in the breed, as well as the actual DI rating, which doesnt change....all the radiographs go to PA.

OFA gives you an evaluation from various different people who change on the joint conformation.  This leads to the horror stories of people submitting the same radiograph and getting varying results.

The SV does the same thing...but the people who evaluate are the same every time (I believe)....so the horror stories dont occur.

I do the OFA...but only because it is the more accepted and recognized method.  I prefer Pennhip....they cost the same where I am.

~Cate

Most people want to see OFA. I would trust the Europeans more. The same person looks at the xrays and most are GSD. If you read the OFA site most dogs 93% to 98 % of  ratings do not change from one year to two years of age.Penn Hip  sounds great to me it makes more sense and is not subjective but again people like to see OFA.

I prefer PennHip anyday. I dunno, maybe because I love Pennsylvania.. LOL  Seriously though, PennHip studies hip laxity useing a distraction index formula, meaning when the animal is sedated.. pressure is used to move the head of the femur outta the joint socket that's held in place by the ligaments, only then is the radiograph taken. Dogs with high quotients are affected dogs. Also, if the hip joint lax is 0.4 (Malinois) it's genetic and not environmental or sub. Ya have to remember hip laxity and CHD are completely different. Soo in a round about way ... OFA fconcludes on CHD. PennHip concludes on Laxity. I personally think OFA is bogus compaired to PennHip. Also, DJD has an undisputed link with CHD @ PennHip. Soo, how do people know without passive laxity via DI or DNA ?

I think OFA does things backwards.. meaning the key is to stop "carriers", most "carriers" I study in OFA are rated "excellent", "good" and "fair" when compairing PH studies to OFA. Fine, they have "excellent", "good" and "fair" hips only, doesn't mean they arn't "carriers" or lax'd. Where as PennHip's formula eliminates genetic carriers by radiograph or DNA. Usually a DNA swab is offered through PennHip to keep samples of radiographed dogs in a database for scientific disposal for University Studies. This is still a new idea, but eventually PennHip will eliminate all "carriers" for various breeds with this duo. Of course this depends on the dogs owners wether they want an honest eval or something to just get by, basically .. better the breed or mask the breed.. PennHip or OFA to be frank. The Malinois for example ... new breed with PennHip but all owners contributed to the duo from the start, so the Malinois has a "CAP" on these type index'd concentrations from the get-go. The GSD isn't as popular in PennHip as the Hunting and Herding Dogs ... so there's alot of work for this data regarding the GSD through PennHip, but it'll happen. I think only like 6500 total dogs were ever rated with the distraction index. So PennHip is pretty fresh vs.OFA. Also, PennHip is criticized with useing DI formulas from the rival and public opinions.

If more owners would stop feeding kibble-foods-supplements with DAG (diacylglycerol) dog breeds wouldn't have these issues.

JMO ... opinions do vary.