Not to start a war with this question but I would like some imput on at what age should I have my vet x-ray my boys hips. We've had people tell us anywhere from 5 months to 10 months for the first x-rays.I will have his hips and elbows done at 24 months but was told by an old timer to have them done earlier to get some idea if they are developing correctly. BE NICE!

Waste of time and money to do before 12 mos.

18 months. And it can change. I had a girl that passed at 18 months, fail at 25 months.

I would never x-ray before 12 months unless I thought there was a problem.

I've only x-rayed for prelims a couple of times. Once because I bought a young bitch from another breeder and I wanted to know if I should feed her for the next year. Her prelims were fair at 12 months, at 24 months she was OFA good.

Another time I x-rayed was when I kept two from a litter to run on. They were similar in conformation, but I preferred one. I wanted to place the other but I didn't want to lose that pedigree, so I tested the sister I planned to keep in order to make sure she looked OK. She did, so I placed the other.

You can do a PennHIP evaluation at this point with little likelihood that it will change.

Never. I stopped doing prelims a long time ago. I don't have a lot of dogs. I don't breed often. I have room to run on a dog and enjoy showing that dog. If the dog stays sound, I have no reason to xray. I will eventually do xrays when I decide I want to breed. Pets first, show dogs second, breeding dogs third. I will place a dog if it does not pass OFA.

Seriously?! You place the dogs that don't pass OFA? So, you pass along your orthopedic problems to someone else. So much for "pets first" as you call it. Sad.

12 mos seems like a pretty fair guage. I like to look at about that point to make sure things are looking as they should.

I'll give you an example of hips and elbows that don't pass. I have a girl whose hips came back as Severely dysplastic and elbows Grade II DJD. I spayed her and kept her here afraid of what would happen to her as she aged. She's now 10 years old, has never limped a day in her life and jumps on and off the bed - and my bed is high. She's very active, running around the yard while I do yard and garden work. Go figure - - - There's no simple answers when dealing with genetics and living things.

On the OFA site somewhere, there is the data that says what percentage of prelims had changed at the time of finals. I am not sure if it breaks it down by age, however.

We don't do prelims much but the ones we have done were after 12 months and did not change. The only one we ever had change was a borderline at 25 months that went good 6 months later.

People love free dogs! We've only had one failure and another pup with a severe leg injury (which we did the surgery and recovery on). Both ended up with among the best pet homes I've seen. We were totally up front and waited for the right situations. There are some great people out there!