EBV Database

Overview

An Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) evaluates the genetic value of an individual dog, in relation to the whole of the dog’s breed. These EBVs are intended to help breeders reduce the prevalence of hip and/or elbow dysplasia by more accurately evaluating genetic risk. A dog’s EBV allows it to be placed on a scale of liability, identifying those individuals at highest risk of passing on the condition and those at lowest risk. Click to learn more.

What does the EBV value mean?

• The breed average is always set to 0.
• Better than average EBVs have negative values for example -20.
• Worse than average EBVs have positive values, for example 20
• The further a dog’s EBV is from the average, the higher or lower its genetic risk. One standard deviation is represented by 20 units. So a dog with an EBV of +40 is two standard deviations worse than average, while a dog with an EBV of -20 is one standard deviation better than average. (Standard deviation is a descriptive statistic that is used to understand the distribution of a dataset. It is often reported in combination with the mean (or average), giving context to that statistic. Specifically, a standard deviation refers to how much scores in a dataset tend to spread-out from the mean).
• At birth a puppy’s EBV will be the average of its parents’ EBVs. A dog’s EBV can change during its lifetime, as more information becomes available, either about the dog itself or its relatives.
• The confidence is a measure of how much information has been used to calculate the EBV. If the dog has been hip or elbow scored itself and has several relatives with scores then the confidence will be higher than if it has not been scored and has few relatives with scores. Individuals with several scored offspring tend to have higher confidence.