The Orthopedic Foundation has an open website at www.offa.org. At that website you can research health testing results for every breed that is tested and entered. Besides learning a bit about certain issues in certain breeds, I find this a useful tool in verifying health testing.

I received an email from someone whom has a Boxer pup that is having heart problems. When they bought the pup they were promised every health test had been run on both parents. They were never given testing results from a Cardiologist. They simply took the breeder's word for it. Turns out neither parent had been to a Cardiologist and the sire died of a heart attach soon after the litter was born. Of course the puppy owner feel cheated and betrayed.

If you are looking at a particular breeder and are considering a pup from them, take a couple of minutes and plug in the parents' names into the OFA data base. You only need to know part of their name to search. You will get a hit and results if they have been health tested and those results submitted to OFA. For Boxers, you can expect to see these tests listed for any given dog.

OFA Cardiac - Means they had their Boxer tested for SAS by either a Cardiologist or a Specialist. Some practitioners are allowed to confirm SAS testing but I think they need some level of accreditation.

OFA Hips & Elbows – Means they had xrays taken by a vet and submitted to OFA for evaluation. Elbows is a fairly new addition suggested by the ABC. While I personally do not know of a Boxer with elbow problems, I have been told many of the puppy mills in the midwest are producing this awful problem.

OFA Thyroid – Means they had their thyroid testing done by an accredited lab. This is not a complete must, though. As long as the breeder shows you the full panel they had run on each parent, it is fine.

CERF – Means they took their Boxer to a Board Certified Ophthalmologist to have their eyes checked. This is not a serious issue in Boxers but there is a small amount of retinal issues in Boxers if you ask an Ophthalmologist.

What you won’t find:  Holter testing done. There is currently no open database for this important test. The breeder should be willing to immediately show you the testing results for the holter that was run on both parents.

As a rule, the breeder should give you copies certifying the results on all of these tests. And if you don’t see results on the OFA website the breeder insists they had done, make sure you see the hard copy results before committing to a  puppy. Sad as it is, there are far too many con artists out there saying what you want to hear just to make a few bucks L