I think that most vets in fact Do know what good hip positioning is. The thing is that mostly techs take the actual films. They need to be taught how to do it well, and the vet needs to Make them redo bad films. I am also a firm believer that one cannot take really good hip films without some type of sedation/anesthesia.
When doing OFA films, we quote the owner for 2 films just in case one film doesnt turn out quite square. We also dont do OFA films with out sedation.
We also require light sedation so we can make sure to get the perfect shot.
I agree with bigpoodleperson, techs do the shots and need to learn how to get them perfect.
Fortunately for my clinic we just got a new digital x-ray unit...we are like kids in a candy store with it. It is about one million times easier than our old analogue unit, holy cow! Flip was the demo dog for it when the guys were showing us how to use it.
We can get some amazing shots with this thing. In fact, not saying the old units or films were bad, but if you can find a practice that does digital x-ray, I would suggest going for it. We can scale down to such precision views...and frankly, being able to email and burn images to disc is so convenient!
Can you tell I love our new toy?