Thread: Very interesting food for thought.

Originally Posted by ethos

Your highlighted bit is due to the fact that the heritable portion of HD is polygenetic, not the fact that there is no genetic connection. That makes it more compicated than a simple "if you have this (single) gene you will get HD": and hence not fully understood - yet.
As far as HD testing, it is also just a case of science working like it should and improvements being made- the Penn hip score method is now considered superior for assessing breeding dogs.

Understood and agreed. However, I would make the point the PENNHIP system is superior by virtue of the fact the first system had no use whatsoever, which still leaves us to ascertain to what level PENNHIP offers that much more. Time will tell if the dogs improve, but I doubt that can happen when so many dogs are labeled as champions without having to do as much as a 15 minute work out on the hill. If the field and the hill is the test, weaknesses will soon be apparent and culled by the astute breeder.

If you work a working dog then the field will test its soundness, if you do not work the dog then you need a vet to tell you that what you are doing is OK, and that is not completely reliable as it requires assumptions and predictions... The hill does not. They do or they don't!