Below are all of Grace's genetic testing results. She has had extensive genetic testing and comes from a line of dogs who have been carefully tested. She had all genetic testing except for Von Willebrands as she comes from two clear parents so it wasn't needed. Grace passed all of her testing (eyes, skin, elbows, blood work which showed no diabetes, thyroid disorder etc.) except that one hip showed mild dysplasia. She came into heat early- a week after the OFA X rays were taken. OFA recommends that X rays be taken at least a month before a dog's heat cycle as it can skew the results (because the hormone changes of the heat cycle can make the hips appear more lax on the X ray). We discussed what to do with our vet and the owner of Shiloh the sire,  who is a very experienced and careful breeder. Since the vet said Grace's hips looked really good on the X ray we decided to go ahead and do the breeding.

    We believe the unilateral finding is due to one of two factors (or a combination of both): 1. the hormones of her heat cycle may have skewed the X ray. 2 Grace got her back right leg caught in a chain link fence a few weeks before the X ray, causing her to held her foot up for a couple of days. That may have pulled or torn a ligament which could also explain the result. We have researched unilateral hip dysplasia and found that experts believe that if only one hip shows a problem  the "good" hip is the one that must be considered to most closely reflect the dog's genetic makeup, as if it was genetic both hips would likely show a problem. Neither our vet or the owner of Shiloh have any concerns about the puppies. I have put the letter which our vet wrote after examining the X rays before Grace was bred.

    Grace comes from a well tested line and the whole line is to be considered as well as each individual dog. The puppies Papa, Shiloh's Penn hip results showed his hips to be in the 90% range which is truly excellent. So based on all of the above, we feel confident in guaranteeing this litter for hip dysplasia as well as any other genetic disease for the standard two years. See our buyer's form for additional details. We are also confident enough that we are planning to keep a breeding quality puppy from this litter ourselves. We will have Grace's hips rechecked with both OFA and Penn hip later this year.