The aim of this study was to develop a routine and reliable radioimmunoassay (RIA) for dog osteocalcin. Two peaks of dog osteocalcin were purified to apparent homogeneity according to N-terminal sequence analysis. Amino acid composition analysis suggested that the second peak was intact dog osteocalcin whereas the first peak could be a truncated molecule. High titer (> 1:5,000) anti-dog osteocalcin antisera were produced in rabbits. The antiserum recognized dog and rat osteocalcins but not that in serum of human, bovine, rabbit, mouse, guinea pig, or goat. A homologous RIA using anti-dog osteocalcin as the antibody and dog osteocalcin as the tracer and standard was developed. Taking advantages of the facts that (1) anti-dog osteocalcin cross-reacted in parallel with rat osteocalcin and (2) purified rat osteocalcin is commercially available, we devised an approach that used rat osteocalcin as the tracer and standard, and anti-dog osteocalcin as the antibody to develop a heterologous RIA. This assay recognized dog serum osteocalcin and diluted in parallel with rat and dog osteocalcins. Quantitation was done using rat osteocalcin to construct standard curves, and results were expressed in ng/ml of rat osteocalcin-equivalent. The detection limit of the assay was 5 ng/ml rat osteocalcin-equivalent, and half-maximal displacement was seen at 30-40 ng/ml rat osteocalcin-equivalent. The inter- and intraassay variations were 16.1% and 8.5%, respectively. The assay accurately determined the amount of exogenously added dog osteocalcin in serum. The results quantitated with this RIA correlated well (r = 0.975, n = 86) with those obtained with the homologous RIA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)