CHIC Program Requirements
The OFA, working with the Cairn terrier's parent club (Cairn Terrier Club of America) recommends the following basic health screening tests for all breeding stock. Dogs meeting these basic health screening requirements will be issued Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) numbers. For CHIC certification, all results do not need to be normal, but they must all be in the public domain so that responsible breeders can make more informed breeding decisions. For potential puppy buyers, CHIC certification is a good indicator the breeder responsibly factors good health into their selection criteria. The breed specific list below represents the VERY basic health screening recommendations for Cairn terriers. It is not all encompassing. There are other health screening tests appropriate for cairns. But the letters CHIC after a dog's name shows just another level of care the breeder is taking.
REQUIRED TESTS: Patellar Luxation: Veterinary Evaluation of Patellar Luxation. Results registered with OFA. ACVO Eye Exam: ACVO Eye examination. Results registered with OFA. Cardiac Evaluation: Basic Cardiac Exam. Results registered with OFA. Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy (GCL): Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy - DNA Based Test from an approved lab
Note: I have absolutely NO idea why CMO is not listed as it is a common problem in cairns!
REQUIRED TESTS: Patellar Luxation: Veterinary Evaluation of Patellar Luxation. Results registered with OFA. ACVO Eye Exam: ACVO Eye examination. Results registered with OFA. Cardiac Evaluation: Basic Cardiac Exam. Results registered with OFA. Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy (GCL): Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy - DNA Based Test from an approved lab
Note: I have absolutely NO idea why CMO is not listed as it is a common problem in cairns!
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We Can Do Better: OFA Cairn Terrier Health Stats By: Diane Jessup DanBar Ranch Cairn Terriers The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) began keeping statistics on hip dysplasia in dogs in 1966. Since then, they have expanded their scope to include many other orthopedic, soft tissue and genetic diseases with a database which, as of early 2025, contained 5.38 million dogs. The founder of the OFA was frustrated by the suffering hip dysplasia was causing his dogs and he wanted to do something about it; truly an example of one man making a positive difference. Since 1966 ethical breeders have joined this effort to “do something” to improve the health of purebred dogs by testing their dogs, submitting the results (good and bad) to the OFA database and making the results public. Knowledge is power – and in this case the knowledge gained from the OFA database can make real, concrete advancement possible by breeders interested in improving the health of our dogs. Unfortunately, the OFA database is run on an honor system, relying on breeders and owners to send in both positive and negative results voluntarily. When a dog’s screening comes back with a negative result why would a breeder send that to a public database and pay the fee? The very simple answer is because the future health of their chosen breed is more important than ego. For those too timid to admit they struggle – like every other breeder – with genetic disease, the OFA offers an “opt-out” option where a specific dog’s information is entered in the general database but no identification of the animal is allowed. So there really is no excuse to withhold data, a practice which skews results to a damaging false positive. So why is specific data important? Because serious breeders can use the information to avoid dogs or specific lines which frequently express a disease they may be trying to breed away from. Nothing but good comes from more information – and this is the purpose of the OFA database. To have a breed ranking and listing, at least 50 dogs of a specific breed must have turned in results to the OFA for a specific disease - not in a year – in the entire history of the OFA database. In the case of elbow dysplasia and correct dental formation cairn terriers are not listed due to the minimum number of 50 dogs tested/certified has not yet been reached. Is elbow dysplasia a problem in the breed? The truth is we don’t know. Are missing teeth an issue? We don’t know. There is no OFA data to provide those answers. Is hip dysplasia a problem in the breed? Actually, yes, but to look at the tiny percent of dogs tested and results submitted, you would not know it. We can do better. Different breeds have different challenges and a quick look at the ranking of worst-to-best results for specific diseases makes this obvious. Large, mastiff or bulldog type breeds, particularly those unfortunately currently undergoing “fad” status make up the top ten worst breeds for hip dysplasia. Toy breeds, on the other hand, make up the top ten worst ranking breeds for patella issues. Different breeds, different challenges. Without screening no breed can have a comprehensive picture of what health challenges it faces. Cairns are relatively healthy but do have their issues. Several diseases which affect cairns are detectable by DNA tests – and the OFA offers certification for these diseases as well. The OFA has tried to encourage breeders to participate in even minimal screening. They created the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) by partnering with participating parent breed clubs to research and maintain information on the health issues prevalent in specific breeds. Working together, the OFA and Cairn Terrier Club of America (CTCA) established recommended minimum protocols for breed-specific health screenings. Dogs tested in accordance with that protocol are recognized with a CHIC number and certification – but buyer beware, the CHIC designation does not mean the dog passed the tests. A dog can fail every single health test and will still receive the CHIC designation. But what makes a CHIC designation so darn important, as minimal as the testing required is, is the fact that a breeder bothered to screen for those recommended diseases and those results are publicly available in the database. And while we can do better, the CHIC certification is a great first step every ethical breeder participates in. One area where we, the breeders of cairn terriers, can do much better is education. We need to educate new owners and especially new breeders to the importance of OFA and the CHIC program. I went to the CTCA website and not one word could I find concerning the CHIC program. There is a list of tests the club recommends cairns be screened for, but not one word about sharing this important information with the OFA database. This lack of public education regarding the importance of the OFA database coupled with the CTCA’s policy of exclusion of “newbies” to the benefits of club membership and mentoring certainly does more harm than good to the cairn breed. Surely the good health of our cairns is much more important than the annual “national” beauty show to which the vast majority of the club’s time and energy is directed. Today’s breeders have access to tests those hardy souls who came before us could never imagine. Today we can know our potential breeding dog’s genetic health while it is still in the whelping box. Even hip dysplasia can be ruled out under a year of age with “preliminary x-rays” which, according to the OFA, are 95% accurate when compared to the final 24 month x-ray. So why don’t more cairn breeders take advantage of this wonderful science that can absolutely help our breed? Why don’t local breed clubs offer health clinics? Why isn’t the OFA program and its benefits to all breeds discussed at every opportunity and the public educated? I’ve used OFA for the fifty years I have been “in dogs” and DNA since it became available. As someone who suffers quite severely from genetic, orthopedic issues, I am perhaps particularly sympathetic to dogs suffering from preventable diseases. Ask a breeder why they don’t “OFA” and you will get an amazing array of excuses. The truth is ethical breeders who truly care about the breed make up a far too small percentage of those producing puppies. But there are good breeders out there and national and local breed clubs, and the AKC - people who are supposed to be the stewards of our beloved purebreds for the short time they are in our care. We can do much better, folks and we should consider our starting point to be educating the public to demand OFA results from any breeder they are considering buying a puppy from. Considering the plethora of cairn terriers registered each year with the AKC (a number I can’t give you because the AKC is rather coy with exact registrations numbers and has ignored two requests from me for the number) the amount of breeders utilizing these inexpensive, essential screenings is appallingly low. Since 1966 only 220 cairn terriers have had their hips x-rayed even though hip dysplasia is KNOWN to be present in the breed. Considering that many breeders are charging multiple thousands of dollars for cairn puppies the cost of these screenings is very reasonable and they are readily available. If breeders are not putting their puppy money back into the betterment of the breed just what are they spending it on? So how do we do better? As breeders we need to encourage (or shame) other breeders into getting those CHICs and submitting OFA results good or bad. We need to educate puppy buyers about the importance of insisting any breeder they consider have CHIC certifications and that they openly display their OFA results. Unethical breeders will claim to screen their dogs but come up with excuses as to why they are not listed on the OFA site. (The most common lie being that the results will somehow be “stolen” by other breeders). As a puppy buyer you ultimately hold the health of the breed in your hands, as you are the one capable of demanding OFA testing on breeding dogs. Breeders will meet the demand – please make the demand health testing and results sent to the OFA database. Which brings me to the last thing we, all of us “dog lovers” can do better. On most OFA forms there is a space to sign off on the results of your dog’s testing so that it can be published. This is where the unethical breeders can “gotcha” the novice puppy buyer. Sure, they say, my dogs are tested – they just don’t mention that they failed the tests. According to the OFA, only about 30% of all hip dysplasia submissions have the authorization box checked. That means 70% of those submitting their dog’s hip x-rays do not want the public to know what those results are. We can do better. Dogs are our species’ soul mates – our best friends, and they serve humankind in so many important ways. Their love is a kind of magic that brings out the best in us. They don’t ask a lot. Can we breeders and puppy buyers – stewards of an ancient Scottish breed that we have in our care for only a few generations before we pass it on – can we please do better for our cairns? Cairn Terrier OFA Data 1966 thru 3/2026 (* most negative results are not recorded giving a false positive) Disease: # Dogs Ever Tester: Percent Normal Results: Hip Dysplasia 220 91% Elbow Dysplasia – less than 50 dogs ever tested so no results shown Patella Luxation 425 94% Cardiac Health 133 100% Correct Dentition – less than 50 dogs ever tested so no results shown Eye Health 2,100 90% *Diane Jessup is the author of The Dog Who Spoke With Gods, The Working Pit Bull, co-author of Colby’s Book of the American Pit Bull Terrier and hundreds of magazine and news articles. She has put over 70 training titles on her dogs over 50 years and has been a speaker in five countries to animal control and law enforcement officers on canine issues as well as an expert witness for large municipal police K9 units. Retired from 20 years as an animal control officer and educator, she has appeared on many shows such as Oprah, 48 Hours, Bryant Gumble’s Eye on America, McNeil/Lehrer News and many others. She lives with her cairn terrier family in rural Washington state.
We Can Do Better: OFA Cairn Terrier Health Stats By: Diane Jessup DanBar Ranch Cairn Terriers The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) began keeping statistics on hip dysplasia in dogs in 1966. Since then, they have expanded their scope to include many other orthopedic, soft tissue and genetic diseases with a database which, as of early 2025, contained 5.38 million dogs. The founder of the OFA was frustrated by the suffering hip dysplasia was causing his dogs and he wanted to do something about it; truly an example of one man making a positive difference. Since 1966 ethical breeders have joined this effort to “do something” to improve the health of purebred dogs by testing their dogs, submitting the results (good and bad) to the OFA database and making the results public. Knowledge is power – and in this case the knowledge gained from the OFA database can make real, concrete advancement possible by breeders interested in improving the health of our dogs. Unfortunately, the OFA database is run on an honor system, relying on breeders and owners to send in both positive and negative results voluntarily. When a dog’s screening comes back with a negative result why would a breeder send that to a public database and pay the fee? The very simple answer is because the future health of their chosen breed is more important than ego. For those too timid to admit they struggle – like every other breeder – with genetic disease, the OFA offers an “opt-out” option where a specific dog’s information is entered in the general database but no identification of the animal is allowed. So there really is no excuse to withhold data, a practice which skews results to a damaging false positive. So why is specific data important? Because serious breeders can use the information to avoid dogs or specific lines which frequently express a disease they may be trying to breed away from. Nothing but good comes from more information – and this is the purpose of the OFA database. To have a breed ranking and listing, at least 50 dogs of a specific breed must have turned in results to the OFA for a specific disease - not in a year – in the entire history of the OFA database. In the case of elbow dysplasia and correct dental formation cairn terriers are not listed due to the minimum number of 50 dogs tested/certified has not yet been reached. Is elbow dysplasia a problem in the breed? The truth is we don’t know. Are missing teeth an issue? We don’t know. There is no OFA data to provide those answers. Is hip dysplasia a problem in the breed? Actually, yes, but to look at the tiny percent of dogs tested and results submitted, you would not know it. We can do better. Different breeds have different challenges and a quick look at the ranking of worst-to-best results for specific diseases makes this obvious. Large, mastiff or bulldog type breeds, particularly those unfortunately currently undergoing “fad” status make up the top ten worst breeds for hip dysplasia. Toy breeds, on the other hand, make up the top ten worst ranking breeds for patella issues. Different breeds, different challenges. Without screening no breed can have a comprehensive picture of what health challenges it faces. Cairns are relatively healthy but do have their issues. Several diseases which affect cairns are detectable by DNA tests – and the OFA offers certification for these diseases as well. The OFA has tried to encourage breeders to participate in even minimal screening. They created the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) by partnering with participating parent breed clubs to research and maintain information on the health issues prevalent in specific breeds. Working together, the OFA and Cairn Terrier Club of America (CTCA) established recommended minimum protocols for breed-specific health screenings. Dogs tested in accordance with that protocol are recognized with a CHIC number and certification – but buyer beware, the CHIC designation does not mean the dog passed the tests. A dog can fail every single health test and will still receive the CHIC designation. But what makes a CHIC designation so darn important, as minimal as the testing required is, is the fact that a breeder bothered to screen for those recommended diseases and those results are publicly available in the database. And while we can do better, the CHIC certification is a great first step every ethical breeder participates in. One area where we, the breeders of cairn terriers, can do much better is education. We need to educate new owners and especially new breeders to the importance of OFA and the CHIC program. I went to the CTCA website and not one word could I find concerning the CHIC program. There is a list of tests the club recommends cairns be screened for, but not one word about sharing this important information with the OFA database. This lack of public education regarding the importance of the OFA database coupled with the CTCA’s policy of exclusion of “newbies” to the benefits of club membership and mentoring certainly does more harm than good to the cairn breed. Surely the good health of our cairns is much more important than the annual “national” beauty show to which the vast majority of the club’s time and energy is directed. Today’s breeders have access to tests those hardy souls who came before us could never imagine. Today we can know our potential breeding dog’s genetic health while it is still in the whelping box. Even hip dysplasia can be ruled out under a year of age with “preliminary x-rays” which, according to the OFA, are 95% accurate when compared to the final 24 month x-ray. So why don’t more cairn breeders take advantage of this wonderful science that can absolutely help our breed? Why don’t local breed clubs offer health clinics? Why isn’t the OFA program and its benefits to all breeds discussed at every opportunity and the public educated? I’ve used OFA for the fifty years I have been “in dogs” and DNA since it became available. As someone who suffers quite severely from genetic, orthopedic issues, I am perhaps particularly sympathetic to dogs suffering from preventable diseases. Ask a breeder why they don’t “OFA” and you will get an amazing array of excuses. The truth is ethical breeders who truly care about the breed make up a far too small percentage of those producing puppies. But there are good breeders out there and national and local breed clubs, and the AKC - people who are supposed to be the stewards of our beloved purebreds for the short time they are in our care. We can do much better, folks and we should consider our starting point to be educating the public to demand OFA results from any breeder they are considering buying a puppy from. Considering the plethora of cairn terriers registered each year with the AKC (a number I can’t give you because the AKC is rather coy with exact registrations numbers and has ignored two requests from me for the number) the amount of breeders utilizing these inexpensive, essential screenings is appallingly low. Since 1966 only 220 cairn terriers have had their hips x-rayed even though hip dysplasia is KNOWN to be present in the breed. Considering that many breeders are charging multiple thousands of dollars for cairn puppies the cost of these screenings is very reasonable and they are readily available. If breeders are not putting their puppy money back into the betterment of the breed just what are they spending it on? So how do we do better? As breeders we need to encourage (or shame) other breeders into getting those CHICs and submitting OFA results good or bad. We need to educate puppy buyers about the importance of insisting any breeder they consider have CHIC certifications and that they openly display their OFA results. Unethical breeders will claim to screen their dogs but come up with excuses as to why they are not listed on the OFA site. (The most common lie being that the results will somehow be “stolen” by other breeders). As a puppy buyer you ultimately hold the health of the breed in your hands, as you are the one capable of demanding OFA testing on breeding dogs. Breeders will meet the demand – please make the demand health testing and results sent to the OFA database. Which brings me to the last thing we, all of us “dog lovers” can do better. On most OFA forms there is a space to sign off on the results of your dog’s testing so that it can be published. This is where the unethical breeders can “gotcha” the novice puppy buyer. Sure, they say, my dogs are tested – they just don’t mention that they failed the tests. According to the OFA, only about 30% of all hip dysplasia submissions have the authorization box checked. That means 70% of those submitting their dog’s hip x-rays do not want the public to know what those results are. We can do better. Dogs are our species’ soul mates – our best friends, and they serve humankind in so many important ways. Their love is a kind of magic that brings out the best in us. They don’t ask a lot. Can we breeders and puppy buyers – stewards of an ancient Scottish breed that we have in our care for only a few generations before we pass it on – can we please do better for our cairns? Cairn Terrier OFA Data 1966 thru 3/2026 (* most negative results are not recorded giving a false positive) Disease: # Dogs Ever Tester: Percent Normal Results: Hip Dysplasia 220 91% Elbow Dysplasia – less than 50 dogs ever tested so no results shown Patella Luxation 425 94% Cardiac Health 133 100% Correct Dentition – less than 50 dogs ever tested so no results shown Eye Health 2,100 90% *Diane Jessup is the author of The Dog Who Spoke With Gods, The Working Pit Bull, co-author of Colby’s Book of the American Pit Bull Terrier and hundreds of magazine and news articles. She has put over 70 training titles on her dogs over 50 years and has been a speaker in five countries to animal control and law enforcement officers on canine issues as well as an expert witness for large municipal police K9 units. Retired from 20 years as an animal control officer and educator, she has appeared on many shows such as Oprah, 48 Hours, Bryant Gumble’s Eye on America, McNeil/Lehrer News and many others. She lives with her cairn terrier family in rural Washington state.