I don't know how much positioning would change the sockets but I find them shallow. The heads are floating out, one way out and the other head has the beginning of flattening appearing. Does the certifying body over there send plates back to vet clinic if they feel positioning is bad?

Most of the time they do... sometimes they don't how ever... this dog got the worst score or 'E'... The lady who owned this dog was going to redo the x-ray in 6 months after they where taken but didn't... This dog had awesome movements and very sound... it's hard to believe though by these x-rays. From where I come from we where only able to use one place to send our x-rays for scoring but now that's changed and now we are able to send our pics to OFA as well. I will most likely send my x-rays in the future to the OFA for scoring.
It would be great if some other would send in x-rays for us to see

Positioning killed these hips. Yes, positioning would definitely change the way these hips look. Face it, poor positioning can fail your excellent dog! Shame on OFA for even accepting to look at films like these! Don't they after all have a little picture of correct positioning on the 2nd page of their application? The fact is that they accept poor films all the time because it is easier to fail the dog and have the owner pay a resubmission fee. I have no faith or respect for OFA WHATSOEVER!

So where do you send your x-rays for scoring? The last x-rays weren't sent to OFA for scoring...

This is why I always look at my x-ray pics before I send them to be scored! If I don't like the positioning of the dog I won't send them and will do another one!

My feelings on the hip positioning also.....it would be very interesting to have proper films taken and submitted on the same dog and then let us know how the grading turned out.
I'm really enjoying looking at the submissions presented here! Thanks for the great thread!

Yes, this is a great teaching thread! Did I miss what Blackie's OFA ratings really were?

I didn't think OFA was the body who graded these dogs hips-did I miss something(a piece of the thread)?
I was under the assumption these were taken in Europe and sent in for grading there.
I've seen worse positioning on plates here in North America myself with passes and fails.

These hips are scary bad and I don't think positioning would help a wit.

No you didn't miss anything... these hips where graded in Europe ;)

This has been an educational thread. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry was away for a few days. Blackie's hips were rated as "severe". Kudos to those who saw this. He is a young dog, so these were prelims. He is a very sound dog. Will probably reshoot at 2 years just to see what we are looking at.

Excellent thread.