09/12/2026
🐾 Responsible Rottweiler Breeding Means More Than Just Doing Health Testing 🐾
At Alberta Rottweilers, we believe health testing is an important part of responsible breeding — but what a breeder does with those results is just as important.
Recently, we came across a breeding program publicly posting health-testing results that included a DJD II elbow score.
This raised an important question for us: If a health test identifies a significant concern, should that dog still be used for breeding?
The Rottweiler Club of Canada, in its information on elbow dysplasia, provides recommendations for reducing the incidence of ED. One of those recommendations states:
“dogs with scores of DJD II or III should not be used for breeding.”
The reasoning is simple: breeding isn't just about producing puppies that look good or have excellent temperaments. We have a responsibility to consider the health of the puppies we are intentionally bringing into the world and the generations that come after them.
Health testing should not simply be a marketing badge. A breeder should be willing to look at an unfavorable result and ask:
➡️ Does this dog truly belong in a breeding program?
➡️ What risks could this decision pass on to future generations?
➡️ Are we improving the breed, or simply producing another litter?
Nobody expects genetic or orthopedic health to be absolutely perfect. No breeding program can guarantee that. But when respected breed-health recommendations tell us that dogs with certain results should not be bred, we believe those recommendations deserve serious consideration.
Our goal isn't to criticize individual breeders. It's to encourage transparency, accountability, and better breeding decisions within the Rottweiler community.
If we're going to say “health tested parents,” then let's also be willing to talk honestly about what those tests mean and how they influence our breeding decisions.
The health of the breed has to come before the next litter.
❤️🐾
Source: Rottweiler Club of Canada — Understanding Elbow Dysplasia
Elbow dysplasia (ED) is a potentially crippling disease of dogs leading to the development of irreversible and progressive arthritis in the elbow joint. Even with early surgical intervention many dogs have chronic pain and lameness. For many veterinarians and breeders, elbow dysplasia is disease tha...