One of the most common questions I see from people looking for a healthy puppy is “Is this breeder doing proper health testing?” For Dog People, all it takes is an AKC registration name or number and about 12 seconds on the OFA website for them to say “Yes” or “No, try somewhere else”. After reading this post and following the steps outlined here, you will be able to make the Go/No-go for health test results call just as quickly.
Most people generally know that breeders should be doing health testing, but they don’t always know 1) what health tests should be done for their breed, 2) how to look up health clearances on OFA.org, and 3) how to interpret the results. Some don’t even know the OFA exists.
In this post, you will learn:
DISCLAIMER: This post is meant to be a general guide to looking up dogs and interpreting their test results on the OFA website. It is in no way meant to give veterinary advice of any kind. This post is not a diagnostic guide. If you suspect that your dog has a condition discussed here, please consult with your veterinarian. Furthermore, please refer to the OFA website for more in-depth information. This post is meant to introduce you to canine health testing recorded through OFA and is not a comprehensive guide to health testing.
Affiliate Link Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links.
Get to Know OFA
The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) is the number one most reliable and reputable source of health testing data for dogs in this hemisphere. OFA is a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1966 by an avid sportsman whose dogs were impacted by hip dysplasia. He created OFA with the goal of reducing hip dysplasia in dogs.
What OFA Really Does
Over the years, OFA’s mission evolved to include reducing the prevalence and impact of all hereditary diseases in companion animals. Additionally, OFA’s orthopedic evaluations now include elbows, patellar luxation, spine, shoulder osteochondrosis, and Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. OFA maintains a public database for these results. The database also includes other types of phenotypic and genotypic evaluations, including:
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- cardiac evaluations
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- eye exams
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- DNA testing through companies like Embark
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- thyroid testing
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- dentition
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- kidney
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- congenital deafness
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- and more.
Passing final orthopedic evaluations are always posted to the public database. However, owners have the option to prevent failing evaluations from being made public.
Furthermore, owners cannot manipulate the information submitted to OFA. Hip and elbow x-rays are submitted directly to OFA by the vet that did the x-rays. Eye and cardiac exam forms, for example, are filled out on carbon copied forms by the evaluating veterinarian. The owner gets to keep the white copy, while the vet keeps the pink copy. The yellow copy is submitted to OFA by the vet and is called the research copy. If the owner wants the eye and heart results posted on the public database, they submit the white copy. Since OFA receives both the white and the yellow, they catch any potential manipulations or forgeries.
OFA Cares
Like the title of this section says, OFA genuinely cares about the health and longevity of our companion animals. They conduct their own research and calculate statistics on the testing they do/record.
In addition to their own efforts to reduce hereditary disease in companion animals, OFA funds research by other organizations. Today, they have funded more than $3 million worth of research for various hereditary diseases. Their primary beneficiaries are the AKC Canine Health Foundation and the Morris Animal Foundation.
Why is health testing important?
You care about your dog’s quality and quantity of life or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Health testing helps ethical breeders make better breeding decisions. It gives them the tools to know which animals to breed and which ones not to breed. Health testing is not a guarantee – nothing is when it comes to genetics – but it does stack the deck in the puppy’s favor. Any breeder that does not do the proper health testing for their breed is not an ethical breeder. Period.
Here’s a cute picture of Eevee to break up this post a little. You’re welcome. 😉
The consequences of not doing health testing can literally be life or death. The consequences can be a life of debilitating pain. A life without sight and/or hearing. Think about your heart dog (if you’ve had one) and how much they meant to you. Ethical breeders breed as if they are producing their next heart dog every time.
Finding the Required Health Tests for Your Breed
This may be obvious, but the best place to start is the OFA.org home page. From here, you can search a dog (or cat) directly, go to the “Tests by Breed” page, look up diseases, review the forms, etc.
Assuming you have chosen a breed, go to the “Tests by Breed” page. There you will find a list of breeds participating in the CHIC program (Canine Health Information Center). Click a breed name for the required health testing for that breed.
OFA works with each breed’s national parent club (e.g. Golden Retriever Club of America, Doberman Pinscher Club of America, etc.) to determine eligibility requirements for the CHIC program. If a dog does not have a CHIC number, then it does not have all the health testing required by its parent club.
Golden Retriever Health Testing CHIC Example
On the Golden Retriever page of the CHIC program you will see Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia, Eye Examinations, and Cardiac Evaluation listed under the required testing. The eye examinations must be done annually by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist. The cardiac evaluation must be done by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist. If all four of these tests are completed and posted to the database, the dog gets its CHIC number. If the eye exams fall out of date, they will be denoted with an asterisk on the dog’s profile.
I hope you also notice that DNA testing is not required for a Golden to get a CHIC number. DNA testing through companies like Embark is important and is recommended by the Golden Retriever Club of America. However, it’s not required for a CHIC number as you cannot test for hip and elbow dysplasia, cardiac conditions, and some eye conditions with DNA. Unethical breeders will often do DNA testing without completing the other tests. They advertise the dogs as fully health tested, but DNA testing alone is not sufficient. If you see a breeder doing this, run away. They do not have the puppies’ best interests in mind. Ethical Golden breeders do all of the above and DNA testing.
Looking up Individual Dogs
Hopefully the breeder you are currently vetting has given you the registered names and/or numbers of the proposed breeding pair. If the breeder refuses to give you the registered name and/or number, walk away. They are not doing health testing. I do not care what wild excuses they give you, AKC registered names and numbers are public information. They are not, and never will be secret.
Anyway, to look up a dog, just type the registered name or number in the search box at the top of the page. The search box is on every page of OFA.org, so you can’t lose it. If that dog has health clearances posted on OFA, the dog’s name will show up in the search results. Click the dog’s name to see its full profile in a new tab. The full profile shows results for all health tests submitted to OFA. This page also includes the dog’s parents, full siblings, half siblings, and grandparents. You can search through the pedigree’s entire health testing history this way. Here is a link to Eevee’s health testing results: https://ofa.org/advanced-search/?appnum=2123257
If you search for a dog’s exact registered name or number and no results are found, then either the name/number is incorrect or that dog does not have health testing. There is no in between. Checking OFA is how you verify that a breeder is being truthful about health testing. Trust, but verify. Always.
Using the Advanced Search Tool
If you don’t have a dog’s exact registered name/number, you can use the Advanced Search tool. For instance, you may know the kennel name of a breeder and want to see what health testing they do before you contact them. Click on the “Advanced Search” button in the search box. Type the kennel name in the blank text box right underneath the big orange “Begin Search” button. The default is to search only the first word of the name, but you can change it to search the entire name. Hit enter and dogs with that kennel name will be listed. CHIC icons will be next to names of dogs with CHIC numbers.
The Advanced Search tool is a great way to do a quick check of a breeder’s testing practices. If no dogs are listed with the kennel name, then it is very likely that the breeder is not health testing their dogs.
I am one example an exception to this: my dog doesn’t have my kennel name in her registered name because I didn’t breed her. So, if some dogs are listed, but none have a CHIC icon, then the breeder is only doing partial testing. The Advanced Search tool includes several other search criteria, including breed, sex, report type, report results, CHIC qualified, and date of birth.
Deciphering OFA Numbers
Showing the numbers is all well and good, but what do they mean? If you read my About page, then you know that I’m an engineer and engineers like numbers, so I’ve broken them down for you below.
General OFA Number Format
Each number follows pretty much the same format, starting with the breed initials. As you can see above, the breed initials are followed by the registry short name (except for hips). The registry name is followed by the clearance number, then the age in months and sex of the dog, and finally the dog’s type of identification. Clearance numbers are unique to the dog and are only given for passing results. “PI” means permanent identification: the dog is either microchipped or tattooed. “VPI” means the microchip/tattoo was verified by the vet that did the exam. “NOPI” means the dog was not microchipped/tattooed.
Hip Number Format
Hip numbers, however, include more information. If you look at Eevee’s hip number, there is a “G” before her age and sex. This G means Eevee has a “Good” hip rating. Additionally, hip and elbow clearances cannot be issued prior to 24 months of age. Some breeders get preliminary (AKA prelims) hip and elbow evaluations done prior to 24 months, but prelims are not issued a number and do not count as a clearance. Unethical Golden breeders sometimes try to pass off prelims as finals. Don’t fall for it if they do.
Cardiac Number Format
Cardiac OFA numbers also have a bit more detail in them. The registry short name tells you what type of cardiac exam was performed: Congenital, Basic, or Advanced. The congenital database is no longer used as of October 1, 2020. Therefore, dogs with cardiac exams dated prior to October 1, 2020, may be in the congenital database. Congenital and basic cardiac numbers also include a P, S, or C before the identification type. P = Practitioner, S = Specialist, and C = Cardiologist. Advanced cardiac exams can only be performed by veterinary cardiologists and therefore do not have a P, S, or C in the number.
How to Interpret OFA Results
Hips and Elbows
Hip and elbow evaluations are the most common required health tests across all breeds. The x-rays are typically taken together at a single vet visit and submitted directly to OFA for evaluation. Three randomly selected radiologists from a pool of 20-25 review each image and rate them. The final rating is based on the consensus of the three ratings. You can read more about the rating process here.
Now, there is one very important nuance about hips and elbows. The x-rays are nearly always done together. Therefore, the results for both should have the same test date and report date. If one result is missing, you can assume with a high degree of certainty that the missing one failed. If the dates do not match, but are both there, you can assume that the clearance with the later date was initially failed. The dog was retested later and passed. This situation is rare, but it does happen.
Hip Results
Hips are rated with one of seven possible options, listed from best to worst: Excellent, Good, Fair, Borderline, Mild Hip Dysplasia, Moderate Hip Dysplasia, and Severe Hip Dysplasia. An example of hips rated “Good” is shown below. The passing ratings for hips are Excellent, Good, and Fair. There is nothing wrong with breeding a dog with Fair hips. Passing is passing is passing. Fairs hips are not “almost dysplastic”, but Borderline hips are. Borderline is neither passing nor failing according to OFA, but any breeder worth their salt will not breed a dog with Borderline hips.
Elbow Results
Elbows are rated in a slightly different way than hips. Passing elbows do not receive grades, they are just rated as “Normal”. Failing elbows are graded as Grade I, Grade II, or Grade III Elbow Dysplasia. Sometimes elbow dysplasia is also called “Degenerative Joint Disease” or DJD. Elbow dysplasia can be unilateral (one failing elbow) or bilateral (both failed). The photos below are of “Normal” elbows in a 2-year-old Golden Retriever.
Eyes
Eyes are complicated little organs. I am not even going to begin to pretend that I know everything about eye problems in dogs. There are so many possibilities that OFA has a glossary just for eye diseases. I went down a bit of a research rabbit hole while writing this post. I’m not going to discuss any individual eye conditions here, but I am going to point you in the right direction to look it up yourself.
There is a document by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (ACVO) called The Blue Book that includes all canine ocular diseases that are presumed to be inherited. OFA also has a webpage called Blue Book Breeds that lists breeds included in The Blue Book. Click on your breed’s name and you will find that breed’s section from The Blue Book.
Here’s where things get complicated: eye conditions can receive results called “Breeder Options” in addition to “Normal” and “Ineligible” (failing). Directly from The Blue Book:
Breeder Option: Entity is suspected to be inherited but does not represent potential compromise of vision or other ocular function.
The Blue Book, 2019; American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists
Basically, this means that the breeder has the option to breed that dog since the condition will not result in blindness. However, Breeder Option conditions are presumed to be genetic, so it is not recommended for both members of a breeding pair to have Breeder Option eye conditions present. If you are concerned about a Breeder Option, please research the condition, and ask your breeder more about it.
Cardiac Exams
Whew! You made it to the heart of the article. Kidding. We are actually getting close to the end, but this section is extremely important. For breeds such as the Golden Retriever, proper cardiac exams can literally be the difference between life and death. Cardiac exams can be performed on dogs of any age, however, only dogs 12 months of age or older can have their results recorded on OFA.
Types of Vets and Cardiac Databases
It matters what type of vet does the exam for certain breeds. As I said above, cardiac exams can be performed by practitioners (regular vets), specialists, or board-certified cardiologists.
Some breeds, like Golden Retrievers, need cardiologist exams instead of specialist or practitioner exams. The reason is that Goldens can be afflicted by a hereditary heart condition called sub-valvular aortic stenosis (SAS). SAS is deadly. Outwardly healthy young dogs can suddenly drop dead of this disease. Goldens will not receive a CHIC number if the exam is not done by a cardiologist.
Anyway, depending on the type of vet and exam type, the results will be entered into either the Basic Cardiac database or the Advanced Cardiac database. The Advanced database is a two-tiered database including both congenital results and adult onset results. For breeds with adult onset diseases, the exams must be repeated throughout the dog’s life to get and keep their CHIC number. Prior to October 1, 2020, some exam results were entered into the Congenital Cardiac database. Practitioner exams are automatically entered into the Basic Cardiac database. Cardiologist exams can be in either database, depending on the type of exam performed.
Exam Types
The most common type of cardiac exam is an auscultation. The vet just listens to the heart in a few different places with a stethoscope. Some vets prefer to listen to the heart twice: once with the dog at rest and once with an elevated heart rate due to exercise. As of October 1, 2020, an auscultation only exam can only be recorded in the Basic Cardiac database, regardless of the type of vet that performed the exam. Prior to that date, auscultation only exams by a cardiologist could be recorded in the Advanced Cardiac database or the Congenital Cardiac database.
However, since October 1, 2020, an echocardiogram (echo for short) must be performed for the result to be listed in the Advanced Cardiac database. An echo is basically an ultrasound of the heart. Echoes are required to diagnose certain diseases, like Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM; enlarged heart) because the condition doesn’t always present with a murmur. Echoes can also catch SAS that an auscultation may have missed.
Another type of exam is the electrocardiogram (ECG). Some breeds require ECG as well as an echo. An ECG is what you see on the screen at a hospital showing the heart’s rhythm. Some Apple watches can perform an ECG (sometimes called EKG in humans). It measures the electrical activity in the heart and displays the type of rhythm.
If you want to keep digging, OFA has a wealth of information on cardiac exams and their limitations on their website.
Types of Results
The actual results for cardiac exams include Normal, Equivocal, and Grades 1-6 of heart murmurs. Normal is the only passing grade. An Equivocal heart is like Borderline hips: it’s technically neither passing nor failing, but most good breeders will consider an Equivocal result to be failing. The lower grades are usually very mild murmurs and could even be completely innocent. However, low grade murmurs may warrant an echo if one was not performed. A Grade 6 murmur is loud enough to be heard without the stethoscope touching the dog.
Normal results often include additional details like the example dog above. “AO/CONG” stands for Adult Onset/Congenital and is part of the two-tiered Advanced Cardiac exam. “AUSC” stands for auscultation. Dogs that get both an auscultation and an echo will have “AUSC/ECHO” and “ECG” will be added for dogs with an ECG exam. Results from the old Congenital database would often say “NORMAL – PRACTITIONER” or “NORMAL – CARDIOLOGIST” and would include “ECHO” if an echo was completed in addition to the auscultation.
Putting it All Together
If you made it this far, congratulations! You just read through a whole lot of pretty technical information. I do sincerely hope that this has been helpful to you. I also hope that this guide helps you distinguish the ethical breeders from the unethical ones and helps you find the healthy puppy of your dreams. And don’t forget the potential consequences of a breeder not doing health testing.
Thank you Maegan for a detailed explanation of what seems to me to be a somewhat complicated subject. Thank you also for this blog! I am a pet person and my last golden, Luca, passed away in June 2020 – 2 weeks shy of his 14th birthday. I’ve had 3 goldens and with each one I did more research. Luca was from an ethical breeder- hence his amazing personality, intelligence, and healthy long life. Finally, thank you for your contributions to the Golden Retriever Forum – another great resource.
Thank you so much Leslie! I really appreciate your kind words. I am sorry that you lost your dear Luca, but I’m also incredibly happy that you had him for such a long time.
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