OFA

Nope, no elbow ratings yet (they were just sent in on Monday... I do have SOME patience), but I did find something quite intriguing while perusing the OFA site looking for explanations to hip and elbow xrays. It clearly states that the vets who read the xrays will take into consideration the breed, age, and sex when scoring the hip. That's the first I'd heard or seen of that. Does that mean the exempt all bulldogs? No, it just means that they realize what is good for one breed, may be excellent for another.

What was very interesting is that I couldn't find anything about those three factors (breed, age, and sex) in the elbow information. Especially in our agility discussion lately, it seems as though even more emphasis is finally being put on elbows, especially with that slamming down for 2o2o contacts a lot of people teach. I understand we need strict guidelines to improve breeds (and maybe they do consider those three things) but there has to be some leeway it would seem, espcially for age. I hate to say it, but I'm beginning to think that elbow xrays are more important than hip. The dogs' massage therapist told me that they carry 60% of their weight in the front (I hope I got that number right... and I think so because she was saying Bailey probably carried 70% when she was tight all over and hurting) and only 40% in the rear.

Back to school... almost done with my script for tomorrow. Mock parent/teacher conferences, fun... maybe? My "parent" is, of course, the head of the education department. I've met him a total of twice now. Once was this (yesterday now) morning at a meeting about student teaching. I asked him to be nice, and not be a disgruntled parent... hehe, he thought it was pretty funny, I was pretty serious!

We shall see!