If I x-ray my dogs, and know that they have good hips, that’s great. If I send my x-rays in and get an OFA certificate, then EVERYONE will know that my dogs have good hips. More importantly, everyone in the future will know the hip status. If I don’t OFA, then the genetic information will be lost to the future. My dogs will just be some of the many unknowns that populate most pedigrees now, and will recede into obscurity like all the others. Everyone will speculate, point fingers, and will lay blame on the untested dogs, just like they do now. No one will remember that I SAID that my dogs were sound.

A century after we die, everyone will know the status of our dogs and all the dogs that have been documented as free of hip and elbow dysplasia. Hopefully, by then, the unknowns will be the exception instead of the rule. We am lucky to live in a time when genetic diseases can be determined and weeded out of our dogs. Our ancestors did not have this luxury. If we do our part now to make the dogs of the future healthy and sound, the future generations will thank us for the dedication and sacrifices that we make today.

We all are, ourselves, the future from the past. We have no one to thank, only condemn, for getting us into this genetic mess. If we don’t eliminate the problems now, who will?

A small price to pay to insure the future will be there for others.