How to read a hip or elbow score

A hip result appears on a Royal Kennel Club record in a shape like this: a left score, a right score and a total, together with the date of the test and how old the dog was on the day. Here is what each part of that is telling you.

The scale

Under the BVA/Royal Kennel Club hip dysplasia scheme, each hip is scored from 0 to 53, and the two are added to give a total from 0 to 106. Under the BVA/Royal Kennel Club scheme each hip is assessed on nine separate radiographic features, which is why the range is so wide and why the numbers are not intuitive.

Lower is better. Zero is a perfect score for a hip; 106 is the worst possible total. This catches people out constantly, because almost every other number in dog breeding runs the other way.

The minimum age

Dogs are scored under the scheme from a minimum age of one year. If someone quotes a “hip score” for a six-month-old puppy, that is not a scheme score — ask what it actually is and who assessed it.

Age at test is worth noting for its own sake: a Royal Kennel Club record shows the date of the test and the dog’s age at the time, so you can see whether a result is current or twelve years old.

Both numbers matter, not just the total

The two sides are reported separately for a reason, and a total on its own throws that information away. These two results total the same number and are not the same result:

Four and five is a broadly even pair. Zero and nine is one excellent hip and one considerably worse one. Reduce either to “9” and you cannot tell them apart. Ask for both sides, show the full result to your vet, and let them read it in context.

(The first chip above carries a tick because it has been checked, and that is what a visitor sees on a listing. The second, with an information mark, is how an unchecked result looks to its owner in their dashboard — visitors do not see it at all. A tick never appears beside a result nobody has checked.)

The only useful comparison is within the breed

Hip scores are compared against the breed’s own median — the point where half the scored dogs in that breed sit below and half above. The British Veterinary Association publishes breed statistics for this purpose.

Comparing across breeds tells you very little. Breeds differ in build, in how many of their dogs are scored at all, and in how long the breed has been in the scheme. A total that is unremarkable in one breed can be poor in another.

Elbow grades: the rule people miss

Elbows are graded under the same partnership scheme, from 0 to 3 per elbow, where 0 is the best result. The rule that catches people out is this: the higher of the two elbow grades becomes the dog’s grade. They are not averaged and they are not added.

So a dog graded 0 on one side and 2 on the other is a grade 2 dog, and that is how it is recorded:

Breed Right applies that rule in the model layer when a breeder enters a result, so an elbow grade shown here is always derived from both sides rather than typed in — the form cannot be used to round a dog down.

Eyes, while you are asking

The third scheme in the same family covers eyes, run by the BVA with the Royal Kennel Club and the International Sheep Dog Society. An eye result is a word rather than a number — “Unaffected” is the result you will most often see — and it is a result on a date rather than a permanent state. For eye conditions the currency of the examination matters as much as the outcome, so always look at when it was done.

“No record” is not a result

The Royal Kennel Club notes on its own records that they may not include all the screening a dog’s owners have had done. A blank is a blank. It is not evidence that a dog is unscored, and Breed Right never renders an absent result as a negative — it says “Not recorded on Breed Right”, in neutral styling, and nothing more.

What to ask a stud owner

• When was he scored, and at what age?
• What are both hip scores, not just the total?
• What is each elbow, not just the grade?
• How does the hip total sit against the breed median?
• When was his last eye examination?
• May I see the certificates, in his registered name?

The stud dog checklist puts these in the order that saves you the most time, and health testing explained covers the DNA side.