SureFire Shepherds PennHip and OFA Results

Rhonda McMahan 651 Stewart Creek Rd., Longview WA 98632 360-578-2076  surefireshepherds@earthlink.net

Here at SureFire Shepherds,  sound HIPS and ELBOWS are very important in our breeding program.  We have been using OFA to rule out dysplasia since the beginning of our breeding program with fairly good results in resulting breedings of only OFA acceptable dogs.  Since 2000 we have begun to incorporate PennHip scoring into our evaluations, as it is now our desire to not only produce dogs with no dysplasia, but ones with as tight as possible hips.  Please visit the PennHip website to learn more about WHY this evaluation is our best indicator for tight hips.  As you read through ALL of our posted results for SureFire Shepherds (the great ones AND the average ones that we would like to improve!) you will start to see a pattern.  First of all, you will see several instances of OFA preliminary reports that showed as Fair or even Borderline/Mild dysplasia due to Sublaxation (not dysplasia) for dogs who were very large boned and faster growing - these dogs ended up being OFA GOOD (and having high PennHip scores) when fully mature.  Please remember that a PRELIMINARY report for OFA is just that - only a preliminary - shepherds, especially, need time to fully mature before getting accurate results from such a method. Also, an OFA report is only as good as the positioning is - OFA only reads one position, if it is off slightly, your report will either not be as accurate as it could be - or it can look BETTER than the hips really are! You will also see that there are several OFA GOODS that PennHipped only average.  Why the inconsistencies?  Because they are measuring different things!  OFA is looking for dysplastic changes (caused by wear and tear of the head of the femur rubbing against the hip socket) and they are evaluating conformation of the hip joint based on how nicely it fits into the socket - a good positioner can fit a hip into the socket when positioning the dog for the x-ray and make a dog who is sublaxated (hip joint not tightly in the socket) look much tighter than it really is!  Also a poor positioner can make the head of the femur actually appear "out" of the socket much more than it really is.  We are just now starting to see how evaluating our pups with the PennHip method can tell us much more accurately (much more so than OFA only) how tight the hips really are.  Getting a passing score back on either is NOT THE ULTIMATE GOAL HERE!!!  Sure, any breeder would like to boast on a pedigree full of OFA GOOD and EXCELLENTS - but just how good were those hips - really??? Did the positioner just do a fantastic job with the positioning and had the dog simply not yet developed any dysplasia? OUR goal is to know just how good the hips REALLY are so that only the best of the best can be used in our breeding program.  Because OFA is still the respected standard for hip evaluation (and it DOES indicate if any dysplasia is present), we will continue to OFA our dogs and simply add PennHip as a another indicator of hip status and will track results.  We suspect that by concentrating our breeding program around only high range PennHip scoring dogs will result in much more consistent EXCELLENT tight hips in future progeny.  A dog's hips should last for the LIFE of the dog - not just until he turns two years of age!   Giving a hip guarantee on our dogs is just another way of allowing us to get results back on puppies that we place in other homes.  We hope that everyone who purchases one of our puppies will at least do an OFA (we will encourage PennHip!) as this will give us more data for our Hip Improvement Project.   As an incentive to encourage new owners to x-ray hips/elbows, rebates of $50 will be given for OFA reports submitted and $100 for Pennhip reports submitted. 

White Shepherds in our breeding program (residing at SureFire):

Super (Angus x Phoenix) - PennHip 80th percentile at 7 years of age, OFA GOOD at 4 years of age, normal elbows,

Nala - (Isaac x Star) - OFA GOOD, normal elbows at 2.5 years of age, PennHip 80th percentile at 2.5 years of age (*Nala's first OFA report at two years of age was Borderline due to sublaxation) Nala has done a lot of growing since she was two and is a stocky female.  She was a fast growing, LARGE puppy.

Fivers - (Obi x Cira) - PennHip 80th percentile,  OFA Prelim Good Hips, Normal Elbows at 13 months of age.  Littermate, Myah is Pennhip 90th% and OFA Excellent.

Dottie - (Super x Hera) - OFA Prelim Fair Hips and normal elbows at 1 year of age, PennHip 40th percentile, no dysplasia noted  NOTE: littermate brother OFA GOOD Hips/Elbows, second brother PennHip 60th percentile, normal elbows.  Dottie has produced 80th % pups.

Lego- (Beauty x Ritz) - OFA pending, Pennhip 70th percentile.

Colored Shepherds in our breeding program (residing at SureFire) who are white factored:

Meka - (Super x Meko) - No OFA done on Hips, elbows normal at 3 years of age, PennHip 90th percentile at 3 years of age

Destiny - (Kiev x Meko) OFA GOOD at 2.5 years of age, normal elbows - PennHip 60th percentile at 2.5 years of age (*Destiny's OFA preliminary at 1 year was Mild Dysplasia due to Sublaxation) - Destiny has done a lot of growing since she was two and is now a large, stocky female. She was a fast growing LARGE puppy.

Abigail - (Super x Brita) - OFA GOOD at 4 years of age, Normal Elbows - Pennhip 60th percentile at 4 years of age.

Chevy - (Liberty x Rugur) - OFA Prelim Good, Normal Elbows, Pennhip 60th percentile.

Raven - (Beauty x Brutus) - OFA Fair Hips, Normal Elbows.

Dogs I have x-rayed and then Placed in other Homes or were x-rayed after their placement and are from our lines:

NEW!!! Sage - (Glacial, a Super x Cira daughter x Obi) - OFA Excellent Prelim, normal elbows - Pennhip 90th percentile.  Sage was our pick of litter in lieu of stud service.  SureFire also was stud owner of the litter Glacial came from. Sage lives at Starr Shepherds in Salem, OR.

NEW!!! Sugar - (Rachel x Geronimo - OFA Good Hips, Normal Elbows - Pennhip 90th percentile.  SureFire Shepherds was the litter owner of this litter. Sugar lives at Starr Shepherds in Salem, OR.

NEW!!! Sapphire - (Nala x Obi) - OFA Good Prelim, Normal Elbows - Pennhip 60th percentile.  SureFire Shepherds was the breeder, Sapphire lives at Starr Shepherds in Salem, OR.

NEW!!! Justy - (Sugar x Obi) - OFA Good Prelim, Normal Elbows - Pennhip 100th percentile.  Breeder is Keslie Joyce of  Starr Shepherds, Justy lives at Starr Shepherds in Salem, OR.

NEW!!! King - (Meka x Obi) Pennhip 100th%, now lives in Holland.  SureFire owns sire and dam and was breeder of litter.

NEW!!! Zenzi - (Meka x Obi) OFA Good, Normal Elbows, Pennhip 80th percentile.  Zenzi lives with the Stevens Family in Vancouver, WA. SureFire owns sire and dam and was breeder of litter.

Obi  - Bred by SureFire (Zorro x Gretta) OFA GOOD at 2 years of age, normal elbows - PennHip 90th percentile, x-rayed at 18 months of age (*Obi's OFA preliminary at 1 year was Fair).  Obi was bred to a 80th percentile (SureFire Kahnica) and produced two pups who both PennHipped 90th percentile.   Obi has produced two pups from the breeding with Meka who have been Pennhipped, King above Pennhipped 100th% and Zenzi Pennhipped 80th %. Obi now lives in Finland (as of April of 2006).

Liberty - Bred by SureFire (Zorro x Gretta), litter sister to Obi.  OFA GOOD at 2 years of age, normal elbows.  Owned by the Theiss family in Dallas, OR.

Cameo - (Nala x Obi) OFA Good Prelim, Normal Elbows at 18 months, - Pennhip 80th percentile at 18 months. Cameo now lives in Finland.

Bo - (Meka x Obi) OFA Good Prelim, Normal Elbows at 18 months, now lives in Finland.

Randie - (import lines) OFA Good Prelim and Normal Elbows at 18 months, - Pennhip 90th percentile at 18 months.  Placed with Patchwork Shepherds.

Myah - (Obi x Cira) - PennHip 90th percentile, OFA Prelim Excellent Hips, Normal Elbows at 13 months of age.  Sold to a breeder in Australia.

Berlin - Zorro x Destiny - PennHip 90th percentile at 18 months of age

CJ - (Zorro x Meko) - OFA Fair Hips and normal elbows at 1 year of age, PennHip 40th percentile, no dysplasia noted, has been spayed

Mufasa - (Ve-lins Dakota x Sis) - OFA Good Hips, normal elbows, PennHip 60th percentile - SureFire kept breeding rights.  NOTE: littermate sister PennHip 90th percentile, mother is a 90th percentile as well.

Brutus - (Brute x Shasta) - OFA GOOD, deceased

Gretta - (Super x Meko) - OFA preliminary at 18 months was Good and normal on elbows - now spayed.  Sister, Meka - PennHip 90th percentile, brother below - OFA Fair.

Smokey - (Super x Meko) - OFA FAIR Hips, normal elbows, sister, Meka (above) Pennhipped 90th %

Adante - (Kiev x Meko) - OFA Good Hips, normal elbows,  PennHip 80th percentile.  Lives in Arizona with Abbott's German Shepherds. Daughter - Trinity - PennHip 80th also.

Beauty - (Super x Rainey) - OFA Good Hips/Elbows at 2 1/2 years of age.

JoJo - (Major x Meko) - OFA Fair Preliminary on hips, normal elbows at 1 year of age, PennHip 70th percentile at 1 year of age

Zorro - (Dakota x Evita) OFA GOOD at 2 years of age, normal elbows - PennHip 60th percentile, x-rayed at 4 years of age (*Zorro's OFA prelim at 1 year was Good).  Placed in a pet home near Seattle.

Mister - (Nala x Brutus) OFA Good Prelim at 1 year, Pennhip 60th percentile at 1 year. Lives in Arizona with Abbott's German Shepherds.

Rachel - (Romeo x Cinamon) - OFA Fair at 2 years of age. Normal Elbows.  Not yet Pennhipped.  Has produced a 90th % Pennhipped daughter.  See her daugher - Sugar on Starr Shepherds page.  Rachel now lives in Idaho at Silver Mountain Shepherds.

Trinity - (Adante, who is a Destiny brother x Snowcloud female) - OFA Fair Preliminary on hips, normal elbows at 1 year of age, PennHip 80th percentile at 1 year of age.  Note: Both sire and dam are also 80th percentile.  Now lives at Silver Mountain Shepherds in Idaho.

Dogs out of my lines or similar breedings that live with Kim Waddell at Poorboy Farms.