Quote:
Originally Posted by Shrap
I'm only talking from experience of my breed of course, but almost all the dogs I've looked at from breeders I know have elbow grades of 0 with the occasional 0/1 or 1/1. I've actually never seen a breeder use a dog with an elbow score of 2. Apart from the English lines breeders. One of a very well used studs has a grade of 3. Disgusting 
In your situation I would be looking at the other siblings on mother's side and what sire has produced before jumping in saying no. If you have enough reason to believe the sire is increasing grades - I'm assuming you've done this and that's why you're happy breeding? If they are only half siblings without themselves having done the research into your lines they've no right to say that really have they |
And what about all the ungraded siblings and relatives? Your argument would work, if all the relations were graded, unfortunately they're not, so you can only really look at a tiny proportion of the picture, and of course, the dogs in front of you.
And yes, I've looked back through all the health test results available throughout both pedigrees, back to at least the fifth generation, and have come across absolutely nothing to convince me there are any problems within either lines, and in truth, I'm not even convinced Indie's elbow results are a accurate reflection of her true grade, given that the vet mucked up one set of plates that were rejected by the BVA, almost unheard of. I had a waiting list for pups from Indie, and had been accepted to use a good quality stud dog, yet I took the hard decision to have her spayed.
I know a GR dog that's offered at selective stud with an elbow grade of 2, and I know the owner a little - at least they know the grade, and have proven the dog in competition; however, you will still find many bitch owners would prefer to use a dog that hasn't had their elbows graded, than a dog with a grade of 2. And yet the unknown quantity could prove to be a 3 for all they know, because, as has been said earlier on this thread, not all dogs show outward signs of the condition of their elbows or hips.