rwbeagles
Posted : 3/27/2007 11:14:12 PM
Well at the risk of being smacked around lol...I will say this.
If you prelim a bitch or dog at 18-23 months, their hips are not going to be a lot different than at 24 months.
You can breed a dog or bitch that is almost 2 on a 
relim, and redo the xray's later on after the breeding. 24 months, means only that you will receive an eval from THREE not just one, doc, and a NUMBER will be assigned and be put into the database after that age. In a breed like this one, where stats bear out the breed has an issue with hips...I'd want a Good or Excellent prelim and a Fair would be grounds to wait and redo prior to breeding. More an issue with a bitch who might only cycle every 6-10 months...than a dog who's probably ready any old time haha!
OFA has this to say on the likelihood of prelims passing...
'A recent publication* compared the reliability of the preliminary evaluation hip grade phenotype with the 2 year old evaluation in dogs and there was 100% reliability for a preliminary grade of excellent being normal at 2 years of age (excellent, good, or fair). There was 97.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of good being normal at 2 years of age, and 76.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of fair being normal at 2 years of age. Reliability of preliminary evaluations increased as age at the time of preliminary evaluation increased, regardless of whether dogs received a preliminary evaluation of normal hip conformation or HD. For normal hip conformations, the reliability was 89.6% at 3-6 months, 93.8% at 7-12 months, and 95.2% at 13-18 months. These results suggest that preliminary evaluations of hip joint status in dogs are generally reliable. However, dogs that receive a preliminary evaluation of fair or mild hip joint conformation should be reevaluated at an older age (24 months). '
Now CERF/eye exams are not "one and done"...meaning they certify the dog for THAT YEAR and for THAT EXAM only. You can redo the same dog the next year and it can have a problem...it's certainly not age dependant. I am nto familiar with the importance of age in other tests....Thyroid I think can change year to year and problems there don't typically show themselves until after 3-5 YEARS of age.
Now I think the more serious issue is the mental and phyical maturity of the dogs before 2...their development and true worthiness to be bred.
The site you posted was erm...interesting...and I think that's all I'll say lol!
ETA: info above was more to answer your q's about health tests and not really to delve into breeder ethics or lack thereof lol...those are rather a personal matter for many and fraught with drama in most cases!