Hip Scoring in the UK

In the UK dogs can be scored after their first birthday. Vets send all plates scoring whether they are good, satisfactory or bad. Each dog can only have their plates submitted once. The breeder can appeal and have another examiner check the plates but unless there is a big difference of opinion the score will not be changed.

Hip-scores are attained by an experienced radiographer/vet assessing nine areas of each joint. Each area has a maximum score of 6, except for the caudal acetabular edge which has a max sore of 5, perfect hips having a score of 0. These are added together to give the score for each hip.

Right and left scores are then added together to give the overall score or mean score. An average is calculated for the particular breed and breeders are advised to breed from dogs with a below average score for their breed. (double click on fig for a view of the form)

The average mean score for a ridgeback is 12 but, for instance, an Otterhound has a mean score of 43, therefore what would be considered an average score for a ridgeback would be considered excellent in an Otterhound.

From June 1978 until January 2003 1,115 ridgebacks have been scored and the maximum mean score so far recorded for a ridgeback is 88 score with very few (possibly 5%) obtaining 0 (perfect).

The earlier hip-scoring scheme was graded with a pass, breeder's letter (which advised the Breeder that they were satisfactory but not quite good enough for a pass) and fail. This was changed in the early '80s as in some breeds hips were not good enough for a pass and in those breeds many failed to attain breeder's letter. Breeders of those breeds wanted to know if there dogs were only just out of the breeder's letter (satisfactory), range or were at the worse end of the scale. This made progress in those breeds difficult and so the new scheme was brought in.

Elbows are scored with a maximum of 3 on each elbow, 0 being perfect and 1 considered satisfactory.

(Double click on fig for a view of the form)

I am not sure how our schemes compare with other countries' schemes, as far as I know no UK ridgebacks have been scored under other schemes. If someone does know of any perhaps we can make some comparisons.

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