Sometimesnotoften Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I am interested to know how PennHip is perceived by the general public? Has anyone used ONLY PennHip on their pups and had an adverse reaction by the public, not understanding how to interpret the scores? And also when explaining the system to people, do they question the integrity of the comparative system? Having worked in a Vet clinic the medical opinion seems to value PennHip results much higher then conventional HD/ED scoring (unless it is repeated every 2 years of life of a breeding bitch - which of course most breeders do not do) however the general response from people does not seem as excited about it. I wonder if this is because it will expose faulty hips moreso and breeders are worried, or because the comparative system is always subject to change and the public dont understand how to interpret the score and are then reluctant to trust them? If you plan to use PennHip do you then make sure you do both systems? I want to use PennHip but am leaning towards the conventional method first and follow up with PennHip - so I can offer both systems of scoring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelsun Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 PennHip is a good system in many ways, however without adequate breed numbers, you don't get a true percentile to really judge. When we first started PennHip with German Pinschers, their percentile was against ALL other breeds, because there weren't enough to form their base line. When we got those numbers, the percentile was changed on all PennHip certificates because now we had enough to make a rating based solely on our breed only. Big difference! There are some that didn't get the numbers they wanted and went on to OFA as well, pulling out 'fair' and going with that for their breeding. We have a few quite shocking PennHip scores and yet, these animals are being bred from, because the owner is determined that the system is faulty (which turns around six months prior the statements that it was far better than traditional exray system....funny how that happens when suddenly there was a failure in the mix!) Overall, I appreciate PennHip more, but until it becomes more affordable, I'll have to stick with my old fashioned method. I'm happy to say that I have a couple of the best percentile rated Gp's currently around through PennHip, keeping that benchmark and average up where it should be (the equivalent of 0/0 or Excellant ratings done via exray) A number of people in the states did use both methods for a while to compare, but in truth, it's apples and oranges and people need to remember that scores are based on different things for each system, so it's not fair really to compare them, however good percentile and low hip score does give people lots of information on the dog in question but as we know as breeders, doesn't guarantee that a problem won't show up in offspring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstep Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) I am interested to know how PennHip is perceived by the general public? Has anyone used ONLY PennHip on their pups and had an adverse reaction by the public, not understanding how to interpret the scores? And also when explaining the system to people, do they question the integrity of the comparative system? Having worked in a Vet clinic the medical opinion seems to value PennHip results much higher then conventional HD/ED scoring (unless it is repeated every 2 years of life of a breeding bitch - which of course most breeders do not do) however the general response from people does not seem as excited about it. I wonder if this is because it will expose faulty hips moreso and breeders are worried, or because the comparative system is always subject to change and the public dont understand how to interpret the score and are then reluctant to trust them? If you plan to use PennHip do you then make sure you do both systems? I want to use PennHip but am leaning towards the conventional method first and follow up with PennHip - so I can offer both systems of scoring. It is my understanding that PENN is only a prediction of what might happen and it is an odds system, another words they give you a number that gives the odds of what the hips will be. It is not a DX of normal hips nor of HD. This means that you still have to do AVA hips when the dog is older to see the actual condition of the hips on the adult dog. Personally I would never accept PENN scores only for clearing a dog of Hip dysplasia (or for having HD for that matter), only AVA or OFA. BTW they are far more accurate on some breeds than on others ( on some breeds they have a very poor accuracy rate, in fact they are running around 50/50 or more wrong than right), though the stats that show the accuracy rate on each breed for PENN seem not be on the web anymore. Edited June 21, 2011 by shortstep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts