[Mick Trainer]

My question is... How do I check to see is the health certification claims (hips, elbows, heart, and eyes) are genuine? As far as I can tell the hip test is done by local vets and not by an anonymous panel. Is there an equivalent registry in Australia like the OFA in the USA? Xray scores are done by certified vets here chosen by the "Hip and Elbow Scheme" and should not be hard to verify as they will come with offical papaer work from this group with all details about the dog and his/her scores. Mouth and eye are simply checked by the local vet but this is not normally a big problem as anyone with any real knowledge and make such an assesment.

[b]Does anyone have any other information about breeding and health standards in Australia? Any recommendations?[B/] Breed standard wise most breeders breed almost exclusively for showing so show standard is very good. We have, same as every other country, people who operate outside any real standars. In terms of health cert hips and elbows are the strictly followed ones with mouth and eye being prefered by most decent breeders now days. Very few do heart etc. However I must say that we have very few heart problems within the gene pool here (to the point I have never scene or heard of anyone having dogs with such problems) so few feel the need to check for such things. Bone cancer is probably the largest health problems in dogs here but many breeders feel they are aware of which dogs produce this and stay clear of it so some feel it is on the decline.

If you are still interested in the pup feel free to PM me and I will give any info (if any) that I have regarding him, his sire and dam etc.

Mick.