Health screening only becomes useful at scale when results are recorded somewhere breeders can actually search and compare — that’s what health databases do. This final guide in the Genetics area covers how to find and read published health data, and the limits of what it can tell you.
The most important first
- Health databases let you look up a specific dog’s published screening and DNA test results.
- Coverage depends entirely on how many breeders test and submit results — it is not a complete picture.
- A dog with no published results may be untested, too young, or have an unreleased abnormal result — a gap is not evidence either way.
- Compare a candidate mate’s results, and its relatives’ results, before committing to a pairing.
- Databases are a research tool, not a substitute for direct communication with the dog’s breeder or owner.
What health databases actually hold
National kennel clubs, breed councils and organizations such as OFA maintain searchable databases of submitted health screening and DNA test results — hip and elbow scores, eye test results, cardiac results, DNA panel outcomes — usually searchable by a dog’s registered name or registration number. Some databases, like OFA’s CHIC program, formally recognize dogs that have completed a breed’s full recommended health testing panel and had results made public, creating an incentive for comprehensive, transparent testing. A CHIC number does not mean every result was normal — always open the record and read each result. Used well, these databases let you check not just a candidate mate’s own results, but its parents’, siblings’ and offspring’s — exactly the kind of relative-level data that makes pedigree analysis and estimated breeding values possible.
The coverage gap: absence isn’t evidence
The single most important limitation to understand is that these databases only contain what’s been submitted — participation is often voluntary, and coverage varies enormously by breed, country and individual breeder practice. A dog with no published results might be untested rather than unhealthy, and a breed with low testing participation will show an artificially reassuring picture simply because problems that exist aren’t being recorded. Reading an absence of bad results as good news is a common and understandable mistake.
In the OFA database, normal results are published automatically, but abnormal results appear only if the owner chooses to release them. A dog with only normal results listed, or with gaps, may have an unreleased abnormal result, may be untested, or may simply be too young. Ask the owner directly for copies of all results.
In practice
A breeder checks a prospective stud’s health database entry and finds no red flags — but also no results of any kind. They assume this means he’s healthy, until directly asking the owner reveals he’s simply never been tested. A dog with a poor result at least gives you information to act on; a dog with no result gives you none, and it’s easy to mistake the two.
(Illustrative, composite scenario.)
Reading results in context
When results are available, read them alongside the dog’s relatives’ results, not in isolation — a single good or bad score is less informative than a consistent pattern across a family, which connects directly back to pedigree and family analysis and to estimated breeding values where they exist. And where a database entry raises questions, the most reliable next step is usually to ask the dog’s breeder or owner directly, since databases can lag behind recent testing or miss context a direct conversation would surface.
Scales differ by country. OFA grades hips from Excellent to Severe and certifies hips and elbows from 24 months of age (preliminary reads are possible earlier). The UK BVA/Kennel Club schemes score dogs from 1 year: hips from 0 to 106, where lower is better and the breed median is the benchmark, and elbows from grade 0 to 3, where only grade 0 is recommended for breeding. Compare a dog only against the scale and breed figures of the scheme that scored it. Where the Royal Kennel Club publishes estimated breeding values, these combine a dog’s score with its relatives’ and are often more informative than a single score.
Work on it
A few minutes here will teach you more than re-reading the article.
Ask yourself
- Do I know which health databases are relevant to my breed and how to search them?
- Would I mistake an untested dog’s blank record for a clean bill of health?
- Do I check a candidate’s relatives’ results, not just its own, before planning a mating?
Find out & check
- Find out which database(s) your breed’s health results are published in, and how to search them.
- Check a dog you’re considering, and its close relatives, in the relevant database before committing to a mating.
Do one thing
- Look up your own breeding dogs’ entries in the relevant health database and confirm your results are accurately and fully published.
Was this article helpful?
Anonymous. We do not store your name, email or IP address.
Sources & further reading
- OFA — CHIC Program. ofa.org
- OFA — FAQs. ofa.org
- American Kennel Club — Purebred Dogs: Health Testing for a Stronger Breed. akc.org
- The Royal Kennel Club — Health Test Results Finder. royalkennelclub.com
- BVA/Kennel Club Canine Health Schemes — Hip scheme. bva.co.uk
- BVA/Kennel Club Canine Health Schemes — Elbow scheme. bva.co.uk
- The Royal Kennel Club — Estimated breeding values. royalkennelclub.com
- OFA — Hip Dysplasia. ofa.org
Where evidence is limited, recommendations rest on established practice and expert judgment, and may be updated as knowledge develops.
Next steps
- Related: Health screening and health schemes · Estimated breeding values and risk assessment.
- Return to the area hub: Genetics and inherited health. This completes Area 3 — next: Area 4, Reproduction & fertility.