Health Testing. To me this is a non-negotiable. EVERY dog that is bred should be health tested. Health Testing is not simply my vet said they are healthy or DNA Tested. While DNA is one piece of the health testing it is not a “Fully Health Tested” Dog. Health Testing is breed specific tests that screen for issues that may affect that particular breed. For example in the Australian Labradoodle the health test are OFA Hips, OFA Elbows, OFA Eyes, OFA Heart, OFA Patellas, and DNA. Some of these are performed by specialist and some can be done by your regular vet but those results are sent to OFA for official pass/fail results. If a dog fails it should NOT be bred. There is so much information on health testing right at our fingertips to miss that health testing is extremely important. I wrote a whole blog on Health Testing find that here. https://www.cnrfarms.com/health-tested-what-does-that…/ Once you have health testing results your breeding decisions should then be based off of that with the goal of improving. For instance if I have one dog with Fair Hips(which is the lowest passing grade) I will always breed that dog to a Good Hip or better with the goal of improving hips in the next generation. Without health testing you can never know if you are truly breeding two healthy dogs that will bring improvement in the next generation.
