Objectives Of The OFA

• To collate and disseminate information concerning orthopedic and genetic diseases of animals.

• To advise, encourage and establish control programs to lower the incidence of orthopedic and genetic diseases.

• To encourage and finance research in orthopedic and genetic disease in animals.

• To receive funds and make grants to carry out these objectives.

*Source:OFA

What Is CHIC?
The Canine Health Information Center, also known as CHIC, is a centralized canine health database jointly sponsored by the AKC/Canine Health Foundation (AKC/CHF) and the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA).

Mission Statement

• To provide a source of health information for owners, breeders, and scientists, that will assist in breeding healthy dogs.

• To work with parent clubs in the identification of health issues for which a central information system should be established.


• To establish and maintain a central health information system in a manner that will support research into canine disease and provide health information to owners and breeders.


• To establish scientifically valid diagnostic criteria for the acceptance of information into the database.


• To base the availability of information on individually identified dogs at the consent of the owner.

The parent clubs vote on what health issues are most prevalent in their breed. CHIC then sets a criteria of testing for those tests. If your dog has had all the required tests and if your dog has permanent identification i.e. tattoo or a microchip, then your dog is put into the CHIC data base and given a CHIC number showing that your dog has had all tests required by the parent club. A CHIC number is issued to all dogs that have had the required testing with the results posted on OFA. You do not submit test results to CHIC. CHIC obtains all info from the OFA public data base.

OFA can only post what they are given. Dare I say, that there are a lot of Rat Terriers with issues but the issues are not given to OFA to put into the data base. All information needs to be shared and given to OFA, in my opinion. If it isn't, then OFA will only be as good as we allow it to be.

So, you have a dog with issues, you're not the first nor will you be the last. It's what you do with that information that matters. Deal with it and move forward. If it is an issue that you choose to continue to breed with then be prepared to deal with the consequences.

OFA and testing is not a guarantee that you'll have perfect dogs, but it is a tool, a piece of the puzzle that we can use that will help us make the right choices and decisions. Hopefully, the more data that is collected the more help OFA can be in the future. Please, look above at "Objectives Of The OFA" and you will see this statement
*"To advise, encourage and establish control programs to lower the incidence of orthopedic and genetic diseases."
It says LOWER. It does not claim that it will eliminate them overnite, but, hopefully in time it will. What it does tell you is, that a breeder is at least trying to do his or her very best.

How many breeders are breeding with issues unknowingly simply because they don't test? If they are not testing, they certainly aren't going to show issues in their breeding program. That doesn't mean they don't have them. It means they don't know. They are not testing and they are not vets so, how would they know?

The dogs with issues are as important as the ones without in the OFA data base. When we first started testing, we didn't realize just how important the results were, YES, we made mistakes, but we know better now. We will make other mistakes, but hopefully, we will learn from them too. If anyone among us has not made mistakes,please cast the first stone.

Personally, I'd rather be a breeder that tests and shows my issues than one that doesn't have ANY issues because I don't test at all.

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