How to Read OFA Hip and Elbow Scores

The short answer

The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) grades a Rottweiler's hips on a seven-point scale in three groups: Normal (Excellent, Good, Fair), Borderline, and Dysplastic (Mild, Moderate, Severe). Three independent, board-certified veterinary radiologists each read the films, and the final grade is their consensus. Only the three Normal grades — Excellent, Good, and Fair — receive an OFA breed-registry number. Borderline and the dysplastic grades get no number, which is the first thing to check on any parent dog.

What each hip grade means

• Excellent — superior conformation; a deep-seated femoral head fitting tightly into a well-formed socket.
• Good — a well-formed, congruent joint.
• Fair — minor irregularities or incongruency, still within normal limits.
• Borderline — no clear radiologist consensus; more incongruency than Fair but no definitive arthritic change.
• Mild — significant subluxation and a shallow socket, usually without arthritis.
• Moderate — significant subluxation plus secondary arthritic bone change.
• Severe — the ball is partly or fully out of a shallow socket with large arthritic changes.

Reading elbow grades

OFA elbows are scored Normal or Grade I, II, or III dysplasia. There is no positive grade for a clean elbow — only abnormal elbows are graded. Grade I is minimal bone change along the anconeal process (under 2 mm); Grade II adds proliferation (2-5 mm) plus sclerosis; Grade III is well-developed degenerative joint disease with proliferation over 5 mm. A parent should read "Normal" on both elbows.

The 24-month rule

OFA issues final, certified hip and elbow grades only at 24 months of age or older. Anything earlier is a preliminary evaluation, not a certification — useful for a breeding plan, but not proof. Treat a parent advertised as "OFA Good" at 14 months as a prelim until you see the certified number.

FCI A-E and PennHIP

European dogs use the FCI scale, which maps cleanly to OFA: Excellent = A-1, Good = A-2, Fair = B-1, Borderline = B-2, Mild = C, Moderate = D, Severe = E. PennHIP is a separate method that measures passive joint laxity as a Distraction Index (DI) where 0 is the tightest possible hip; most dogs fall between 0 and 1, though the index can exceed 1.0. Values near 0.7+ carry higher osteoarthritis risk, and the score is reported as a percentile ranking within the dog's own breed. PennHIP can be done as early as 16 weeks, well before OFA's 24-month certification.

How to verify a parent yourself

Search the free public OFA database at ofa.org by the dog's registered name or registration number. A verified Rottweiler shows its hip grade, elbow status, and any other clearances with issued numbers. The number itself encodes the data — for example LR-100E24M-C-PI reads as breed code, sequential number, phenotype (E = Excellent), age in months (24), sex, restraint type, and permanent-ID status. All normal, of-age results post automatically; abnormal results appear only if the owner released them. If a breeder cannot point you to a live OFA record, treat the claim as unverified.

Why this matters for Rottweilers

Per OFA's cumulative breed data, roughly 20% of evaluated Rottweilers graded hip-dysplastic and about 37% graded elbow-dysplastic — among the higher-ranking breeds for both. Because the registry is voluntary and owners often skip submitting clearly abnormal films, true prevalence is likely higher. That is exactly why a serious program tests every breeding dog and publishes the results. For the full disclosure standard, a Rottweiler earns a CHIC number only after completing OFA hips, OFA elbows, a cardiac exam, an eye exam, and JLPP DNA testing with results made public — though CHIC certifies that testing was done and disclosed, not that every result was normal. See how we apply this in our breeding program and against the ADRK standard.