Contacted a GSD breeder off Champdogs, who fully health test their dogs ,was just wondering what results I should be looking for? I know the average hip score is 19 for a GSD, so anything over that should I avoid, or anything close to that?
Also what about elbows and eyes? What should I look for there?
I think they are genuine, and their dogs look great, but I'd like to have some kind of knowledge rather than just taking them at their word.

I am shocked to see no one replied to this, seeing as most go on about how important it is to health test and for new owners to research and go to decent breeders doing the right tests on their dogs before breeding.

The breed avarge sits at 19 for hips, I would be looking at the parents having lower hips than 19 - Any eye tests should come back clear/unaffected - Grading for elbows is as follows

0 Normal - 1 Mild ED - 2 Moderate ED or a primary lesion - 3 Severe ED

So ideally you should be looking at 0s.

Males should also be tested cear/normal for Haemophilia A - , and most if not all decent breeders are doing so - This disease is a bleeding disorder, and is the same in dogs as in humans. Its tested through blood samples.

Make sure you see all the paper work proving both parents are fully health tested, with the correct results and good luck finding the right breeder.

Hi, thanks for the reply!!
I researched the hip scores, on pedigree database and they seem to be in check. Most seem to be a1-a2, with a few fast normal ones scattered in the 5th and 4th and 3rd gen.
Have emailed breeder re elbows eyes and meeting her and dogs before whelping, haven't heard back yet. I'll have to ask about haemophilia too- taht wasn't something I was aware of, I know what a serious diease it is though, so thank you
I'm waiting to hear back from her, and I suppose I'll be able to tell from her reply whether I'll be persuing it or not.

sorry only just seen this.

The health tests for a sheppie are:
HD - average 19
ED - ideally be 0. They range from 0-3. 3 being the worst. I personally wouldnt go for a dog whose ancestry has 2's or 3's
Males need to be Haemophelia (sp) tested
JRD - again not all breeders test for this and some dont deem it necessary
Eyes are not recommended to be done but some breeders do do them.

You need to look through the pups ancestry not just the parents for health tests. Ideally all hips should be under 19 but preferably as low as possible. you may also see them graded as: HD normal, HD fast normal & NZ. HD normal would be great, HD fast normal is ok and would equate to a higher hip score but still within the breed average and NZ is a bad hip score.

You should also research the lines you are getting your pup from for other illlnesses like epilipsy, dwarfism etc (if you need any more info on this I can give you the name of a very good GSD forum who has a very experienced member with this sort of thing)

Just out of interest what breeder are you loking at?

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She's in N.I their kennel is "roedamar", two possible litters, litter 1= dam Alberdale Oriana sire Angelo vom Boses Litter 2= dam ANTILLI BRIGITTE AT LARTAMAX sire= Peterwell Kasper of Alberdale.
I think I prefer the first sire, the second one has lots of gaps in ancestry on pedigree database.

If they are KC reg the breeder will have access to a 5 gen pedigree I think, so you would see a few generations behind the sire?

People have looked into my dog before but I forget what I know/knew etc anyway

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You can check up the health tests each dog has on here if they are KC reg by the way:

Dog Health Test Search

As an example my dog is called Liberty King and a golden retriever, you can see what he has had done. You have to make sure the names are spelt exactly right though

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I haven't been able to find the sires, have seen the females, and all that is on there is their hip scores. I've emailed breeder asking if she does any other tests. Haven't heard back.

there is also nothing on the site about health tests by the looks of it

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It could quite simply be that there is a name spelt wrong or something for the sires, its soooo easy to do! My dog has a few dogs in his pedigree where the names are spelt differently depending where you look

Hope the breeder gets back to you soon.

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