What The Heck Are Health Clearances & Why Should A Puppy Buyer Care?!?

One of the hallmarks of a responsible breeder is performing breed specific health checks on their dogs. Most breed parent clubs, such as the Golden Retriever Club of America (GRCA) and the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club (USA) (NSDTRC (USA)), recommend the minimum health clearances that are tested for on breeding dogs. As an example, GRCA recommends four basic health clearances:

• Hips
• Elbows
• Heart
• Eyes

While NSDTRC (USA) recommends three minimum clearances:

• Hips
• Eyes
• DNA Test for prcd-PRA

The reason for performing health checks on parents is to produce sound, healthy, unaffected offspring. However, a puppy buyer must realize that these clearances are not a 100% guarantee that their puppy will be unaffected. Performing these health checks should be thought of as improving the odds of producing healthy pups. Currently, the only health clearances that can guarantee unaffected offspring are the recently developed DNA tests.

One health certificate that puppy buyers may be presented with by a breeder is a “CHIC Certificate” or “CHIC Number”. The Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) collects health results from different sources and combines them all on one form. Here is an example of a CHIC certificate issued on a Golden Retriever:

Note that the “REQUIRED TESTS” are the basic four tests recommended by GRCA. There are also “OTHER TESTS” listed which are optional testing that can be performed on breeding dogs.

Here is a CHIC certificate issued on a Toller:

Once again, note that the “REQUIRED TESTS” are those recommended by the breed parent club, NSDTRC (USA), and that additional tests are listed under “OTHER TESTS”.

One thing to realize about CHIC certificates is that they may be issued to dogs that did not pass a particular clearance. If a dog has all required tests done and the breeder authorizes public release of failed tests, the dog will be issued a CHIC number. Here is an example of a Golden Retriever that did not clear elbows, but received a CHIC certificate:

“DJD II UR” stands for “Degenerative Joint Disease Grade II Unilateral Right” which means this dog had arthritis detected on x-ray in his right elbow. So it is important for the puppy buyer to look at the individual health test results listed on the CHIC certificate to make sure the dog did not fail one of the clearances.

In future blog posts, I will go over each individual health clearance, show examples of the certificates/reports issued by the organizations that do the clearances, and explain how to understand the clearance gibberish (ex.: GR-PA74/23M/P-PI).

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