Hello all I have recently been looking at The KC website on breeders around my area for Labradors.

I found one that has been marked by special pictures by the KC as good breeders. Anyway in one of them the breeder said the Sire (dad) had 0:0 Hips but the Dam(mum) had 4:4, and also that they both had good elbow scores.

So what I'd like to know is, is the mothers score of 4:4 good for a Labrador?

Is there any possibly chart showing what is the maximum acceptable score, and which is the least acceptible?

I read the average for Labs for their Hips is 12 6:6 or 5:7, so the 4:4 is slighty concerning to me.

Thanks in advance.

The way i understand it the lower the score the better so they sound like good scores to me

Thanks, I'm new to all this hip & elbow scores.

What is an unacceptible score for hips?

They are excellent scores to be honest

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I would be happy with that!
Ideally u want to get a score below the breed average perfect would be 0-0 but that doesnt always happen.
Anyhows I would far rather a low score and excellent health and temprement than an excellent score ie 0-0 and poor temprement etc.
Be warned though good scores are not a certainty that the offspring will be the same...a lot can depnd on diet excercise etc.

i just googled some info about hip scores and got this
How the scores are rated:

Excellent 0-4 (no.3hips)
Good 5-10(no.6hips)
Fair 11-18
Borderline 19-25
Mild Dysplasia 26-35
Moderate 36-50
Severe 51-106

4:4 should not be a worry at all, you cannot just breed from 0:0 as it would restrict the gene pool too much. This score is totally acceptable.
Have a chat to Dundee she breeds Labs

But can it help lower the risks of the puppies?

As Tashi says they are both excelent
The idea is that both scores ar equally balanced and their is a total for the two combined!

for example and this is an example the figures are not real but just saying the breed required recommended score was 12
6-6 would be good 11-1 altought acepetable not so good as 6-6 8-8 would be out

have I confused you!!!!
someone help me - know there is a sight on the net somewhere!!
DT

4.4 is an excellent score.

The BMS for labradors is 15, which would be the total for the two hips together. Anything below that is good. Obviously 0.0 is best, but very few dogs score that. I would also prefer a relatively even score.

Basically, a panel of orthopedic vets examine xrays of the dogs hips. They examine 9 features for each hip. 8 of these features are scored out of 6, 1 scored out of 5 with 0 being the perfect score. This means that each hip has a potential total score of 53 - add them together and you have a total of 106. This is the worst possible score and such a dog would have no hips at all. The advice is not to breed from dogs above the BMS which in labs is 15, so you can see that 4.4 is excellent.