First let me say that  I agree that we should be looking at elbows.  There is no question that there are elbow problems in the breed throughout the world.....possibly the very worst elbows are in Scandinavia...and they have strong breeding disqualifications based on ratings.  I believe their figure was somewhere between 80-90% of their Rottweilers were badly afflicted elbow-wise back as far as 1981. 

In 1985 when I was 2nd President of the IFR - the Conference of which was held in Philadelphia that year - I invited Professor Doctor Jorunn Grondalen, DVM at the University of Norway to come and speak to the Conference on the subject of elbow lameness.  The reason I chose Dr. Grondalen is because she had just written a book on the subject dealing with the serious situation regarding elbows in Scandinavia. 

One of the statistics she gave us was that 207 Rottweilers were presented to the University for xray examination of their elbows.  66 of the dogs were exhibiting lameness; 141 of the dogs had never shown any lameness.  They found DJD in 89.4% of the lame dogs and in 68.1% of the never lame dogs. Further studies showed that the incidence of lame dogs increases relative to the status of their parent's elbows.  They decreed that only dogs clear of DJD could be used for breeding.  My recollection is that they took either 2 or 3 views of each elbow to make their diagnosis.

Now back to real life.  I think we should be looking at elbows - if for no other reason than to help the IFR build a database to enable them to make a "guesstimate" as to the severity of the problem in this country - and based on Keller's estimate of 40-50%, I can believe they are so assessing elbows.

My big problem in making any breeding decisions based on elbow status is that I am not sure that the OFA has any idea of what they are looking at and seeing.  Your experience of the disparity of readings strengthens this problem for me.  But my main reason for my position is - in Holland, they are doing 4 xray views of each elbow; in Germany - I believe they are doing 2 views; in Scandinavia - they are doing 2 or 3 views; in USA they are doing ONE?????

If it takes 4 views for Holland to make a determination - how on God's earth can the OFA think of doing it with ONE view?

Therefore, I say - support the OFA and do the xrays - publish results if you wish, but do not make any breeding decisions based upon the OFA diagnosis..IMHO, it is far too early in the game to depend on ONE xray --- or maybe even FOUR!  Also I would be firmly against any requirement for "clean" elbows to be written into the Codes of Ethics.

So if Cahill were my dog (& wishes are horses!) I would be far more concerned about the pedigree and would not be at all concerned about the elbows. 

Forum open for discussion!

Clara