What is the minimum age for certification & how often do I have to repeat the exams?
Each test may vary in minimum age, but the details are all available at the OFA website. 12 months is the minimum age allowed typically for all but the hip exam, but a good time to start would be 2-3 years when the dog is a young adult & preferrably before s/he is bred. Your local vet can usually do both the hip and thyroid exam at one time and some can likely do a basic heart exam (auscultation). To add in the CERF and a full heart examination by a cardiologist involving an echocardiogram will likely require you see a specialist. Note the basic OFA Cardiac does NOT screen for anything but congenital ("puppy") heart disease, so an echo done routinely (every 1-2 years) on adult Danes (especially males) is recommended to screen for DCM and other adult onset heart diease. And although it's not required to maintain your CHIC status, OFA has suggested, in accordance with expert guidelines, that dogs be checked regularly as an adult for thryoid disease. Annual testing from 2-4 years is ideal. Biennial thyroid testing after that will suffice. CERF is only good for one year & "expired" CERF exams are noted in italics, but for many eye conditions that affect Danes (such as eyelid abnormalities), a single exam will likely note any issues. Cataracts are an exception to this general rule and should be followed regularly (i.e. on an annual basis) to see if they are progressing. The CERF veterinarian can advise you on specific needs for reexamination.

What can interfere with testing results?  
Illnesses, certain drugs and even the estrous cycle (of bitches) can potentially interfere with thyroid testing. OFA also recommends that hip screens not be done during estrus. This is another reason to simply schedule that first OFA thyroid when you are planning an X-ray for OFA hips. All Danes undergoing thyroid testing should also be in good health, as various illnesses can have an effect on thyroid function. Bitches should be in anestrous ideally. Any medications a dog is taking should be discussed with the vet prior to doing any sort of health screening.

What happens if the results are equivocal? What happens if my dog doesn't "pass"?
Hip scores can come back as "borderline" or with a request to retest which doesn't necessarily imply the dog has hip dysplasia.  Thyroid testing can result in an "equivocal" status. This is not a "fail" nor does it mean the dog has thyroid disease; it means the results of the test were inconclusive and should be repeated in 3-6 months. Upon repeat of the thyroid testing, most dogs will then receive a clear "pass" or "fail." Some eye and heart conditions can also be considered a "gray area" where retesting may be recommended. If this occurs the dog will STILL receive its CHIC certification right away. A similar situation results even if your dog "fails" a certain testing, as the CHIC program has been instituted to be an "open" registry and offers a way for owners/breeders to gather information & get feedback on various aspects of their dogs' health --it is not intended as a way to seperate dogs into groups of "passes" and "fails." So as long as the owner is willing to reveal non-normal ("fail") results, the dog will still receive his CHIC certification. The CHIC is a reward for seeking health data on individual dogs and then being willing to share it; it is not a program designed to externally define dogs as breedable or not.  What the breeder and/or owner decides to do with the extra information provided by the CHIC program will depend on how they perceive the results as impacting on the overall health and breeding status of the dog in question.

What is the minimum as to testing and what is really ideal as to testing? The minimum requirements for CHIC certification are simply to test the dogs per the Canine Health Foundation's requirements (listed at OFA) and reveal all results. Ideally some tests should be repeated and/or augmented. For example, when testing for thyroid, OFA recommends repeated testing on adults through breeding age (see OFA for details). For cardiac testing, an ausculation on young Danes isn't really enough. This will screen for basic congenital defects, but will not ferret out such defects as SAS (subaortic stenosis) and DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy). To protect the breed, Great Dane breeders ideally should have a full cardiac work-up, to include an ECG & echocardiogram, done on all adult breeding stock on a regular basis into the veteran years. Visit the main page at the Health & Welfare section of the GDCA website for more information on heart disease in the Great Dane. CERF (eye) testing must be done yearly to be current. Hip radiographs (Xrays) should ideally be done on adult Danes. There ARE other tests which may be necessary depending on what an individual breeder has experienced with his/her dogs. And for all it is good to test, testing isn't useful unless conducted properly & used wisely.  Testing is a "snap shot" of a dog's health only when not augmented by a more detailed history. So it goes without saying that testing isn't enough: a good medical history with accurate detail and ending ideally in a proper necropsy when needed should be conducted on at least breeding dogs, and the more detailed the history on all close relatives, the better informed a Great Dane breeder can be about what s/he is actually producing.

What do I get for testing my dogs; do I have to pay? Beyond the simply satisfaction of being able to document your claims of health as a breeder, and being able to help the breed out, your dog's CHIC status will be noted at the OFA website with a red, white and blue banner by the dog's name. You will also receive in the mail a red, white and blue CHIC certification. This will take 4-6 weeks to process, as do the individual tests. (CERF data now appears at the OFA website as well.) Note please that the dog need not pass all portions of the CHIC to receive the certification, but will have to then be willing to reveal non-normal results to receive the CHIC. On the OFA forms there is a box the owner must check that allows OFA to release non-normal results. For PennHIP and Canadian hip data, the owner now must simply send in the appropriate screening form to OFA with a signed letter requesting the hip results be entered in the CHIC database. There is a one-time $25 fee per dog to the CHF is required for databases like PennHIP that do not currently participate in the CHIC database.