Thanks to everyone for your responses. I did contact the clinic organizer and it is a echo color doppler so I am thrilled. The clinic is in Woodinville, Washington and is being put on by PSLRA and is not in conjunction with a show. This clinic always has an excellent turnout and this will be the first year for the echo at the price of $150 (including auscultation)

The two I am taking will be 2 in September and I am excited/nervous about getting the final hips/elbows done as well as the echo. I have done EIC (both carriers), they are Optigen clear by parentage and have CERF numbers. I am keeping fingers/toes, etc crossed for good results.

Thank you. I was given the impression that they were totally separate and had to be done separately as well at a higher cost. We do have a cardiologist at the clinic and I will confirm what is being done. This is the first year the club is offering this procedure.

Even if its offered at a clinic for just an "Echo" I would personally go to the cardiologist's office and have the echo with color doppler done, if the clinic cardiologist is not doing both the echo with color doppler, but I cannot imagine a cardiologist would do a echo without doing a color doppler with it. The color doppler shows things that just a echo does not, that is why they do both the echo (ultrasound of the heart) and then the color doppler. You will be able to see it on the screen and once you see it, it might make more sense their differences and why each is important. If you have ever had a ultrasound done of your heart, they always do a color doppler with it, standard procedure. Doing only one, is like only getting one part of examining the heart done. There could be things that show in the color doppler that do not show on the echo (ultrasound). I am sure you can check to see which cardiologist is doing the clinic and then call their office to inquire and confirm. Good for you for doing both - very important tests, after all our heart and its health is what keeps us alive each day, right? Same with our dogs.

A color doppler can't be done if they don't have the equipment that's capable of doing a color doppler.

If I see that a dog is listed on his web site as echo cleared by a cardiolist and then see on the OFA aite that he has a echo number/clearance is this enough?

Forgot to add - the test is being done by a respected cardiologist in the area.

From what you say, it does indicate an echo was done. If it was performed by a cardiologist, then the OFA number will also indicate that.

The OFA will include information on a dog's cardiac # as to the particular cardiac screening, i.e.: was it auscultation or echo, performed by a regular vet, specialist or (the gold standard) a cardiologist.

"Cardiac
Example: LR-CA250/18M/C-PI

LR = Breed Code, in this case a Labrador Retriever

CA = OFA Database, in this case Cardiac (CA)

250 = Ascending numerical identifier given to each animal with a breed evaluated as normal and given a number, in this case the 250 th Labrador to be given a cardiac number

18 = The age in months when the testing was done, in this case 18 months

M = Sex

C = Suffix indicating the area of specialty of the attending veterinarian.
P = General Practitioner
S = Specialist
C = Board Certified Cardiologist

PI or VPI = Indicates that the animal has been permanently identified in the form of tattoo or microchip. If the dog is permanently identified AND the id has been verified and signed off by the attending veterinarian, a suffix of VPI is applied. If the animals lacks permanent identification, a suffix of NOPI is applied.

Hope this helps.
Then when you see any cardiac information on a website and they indicate a "clearance" done at 9 months, you know that it cannot be anything more than a preliminary exam. (It could merely be a regular vet listening with a stethoscope) If a dog has an OFA clearance you can look up all this info, the type of exam, plus what sort of vet did the exam, on OFA.

This example given wasn't a full cardiac exam. A full one with echo/color doppler will indicate that. After the LR # at the end after PI will have PI-ECHO.

This(ECHO) is what you want to see on the OFA heart # report. If it doesn't say ECHO then you don't have a true report of the dog's heart.

Is this test still beneficial on an older dog that is breeding age. I did the cardiac exam OFA at 2 years old but not this test. Thanks to all the posters with good information; it is very helpful.

I had a well respected cardiologist tell me (when I asked when would be the best time to do an echo doppler on a dog) that the absolute "best" time to echo your dog to evaluate cardiac health was just before he died...so the older the better. Realistically, he recommends doing an echo at 18 months when the dog has reached his mature size. There can be significant changes if an exam is done before the dog has finished growing. He also recommends doing echos on retired older dogs (if they have not been done) so you can see what you have in your line and can be in a better position to make informed breeding choices on their younger dogs.

People should have the ARCH screening done when they take their dog to the cardiologist for an OFA cardiac echo exam.
The more data the cardiologists can collect the better off all of us Labradors breeders will be.

The oldest dog I have heard of getting an echo exam for OFA is 12 years. Good for those conscientious breeders.

You are right.
It would look something like this:

LR-SN8294/58M/C-VPI-ECHO CARDIAC

I don't know what the "SN" database is testing for as these letters are not explained on the OFA website. CA is cardiac. So the clearance you are looking for will look like this actual example from the database:

LR-CA3821/52F/C-VPI-ECHO

My mistake...it was a cut & paste gone awry.