What age do you prelim? Do you prelim all your dogs or do you just wait till they are 24 months? Do you keep some of your dogs with just prelims and do not retest at 24 months if they were older (say 20 months)at time of xray?

I take an xray at 6 mos. just to make sure I am not wasting my time on a puppy that won't clear later. But if they look good it doesn't always mean they will stay that way--so, if it is a male that I may want to breed, I will xray again right before breeding at the oldest age I can (if he is under 24 months that is). A girl I wait until 2. I have seen hips at 5-6 mos. that were iffy turn out to be good, and those that looked good be failures at2. The screening at 6 mos. is just to make sure they are not terrible!

Depends on the dog. we have done it 9 16 and then 24 mos

But pretty much now we are at 12 mos or 15 mos then again at 24 months. I have never had them change.
Only one time I had a male who should of been good. he went in was kinda overweight pre lim fair. waited 6 mos slimmed him down and he came back good on another prelim. then at 2 came back fair.

Unless the puppy is limping or it's movement is really awful or akward, prelims at 6 months are rather meaningless. Bone and growth plate development is no where near done. Penn Hip is definately more useful at this age, will give you much more accurate information of hip and elbow development and money better spent that an xray. I have never heard of a good Penn hip score translate into hips that don't pass final OFA's. Not true the other way around. If you have to do prelims then I would wait until the dog is closer to 14 or 15 months as this will "probably" give you pretty good idea of what to expect at 2 yrs.

I am torn about prelims too. I have one bitch who I show and if she passes when she turns 2, we'll breed her. If she doesn't, we'll have her spayed and make her earn her keep with an obedience title! :) I didn't bother prelimming because it wasn't like I was going to rehome her if she failed to make the grade. I think my husband would send me away before he let me send any of the dogs away because I couldn't breed them.

Though I do understand when you can have many dogs and have an active breeding program...it's necessary to make sure you aren't wasting your time....

I usually do everyone at 8-12 months, hips and elbows. Then at 24 months I final those who stay and make the grade. I personally like to know early if it is staying or going.

I do PennHIP at 20 weeks. They always take an OFA view at that time. I have never had an OFA view that did not look good at that age. The PennHIP scores were better predictors of what I could expect at 2 years. When the PennHIP scores were bad, the OFAs at 2 years were bad.

And since when did Penn Hip start doing elbows??

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Unless the puppy is limping or it's movement is really awful or akward, prelims at 6 months are rather meaningless. Bone and growth plate development is no where near done. Penn Hip is definately more useful at this age, will give you much more accurate information of hip and elbow development and money better spent that an xray. I have never heard of a good Penn hip score translate into hips that don't pass final OFA's. Not true the other way around. If you have to do prelims then I would wait until the dog is closer to 14 or 15 months as this will "probably" give you pretty good idea of what to expect at 2 yrs.