Bunny hop

[luke4275]

My soon to be 5 month male gsh.. ( will be 5 months on Dec. 30.) has an occassional bunny hop.. Never a good sign I think. MY plan is to xray his hips when he gets neutered within the next 3 months.. Any ideas on what the hop is all about? He is from a breeder who's grandparents had good and exc hips and who's parents I believe weren't checked.., but you know breeders, never had a problem. etc.. And we know that even excellent hipped parents can throw a bad hipped dog. My vet said he could grow out of it and not to restrict his exercise.. let him play as he wants to.. (I never force exercise like ball retreiving) I let him run with other dogs for about 30 minutes and walk him as well. any thoughts?

[Veronica]

My pup bunny hops. We found out at 18 months that he has severe hip dysplasia, but before we knew that, he ran like a maniac, jumped, chased tennis balls. We had no idea his hips were bad till he started a little limp. Our vet said there wasn't any reason to limit his activity at that point since the damage couldn't get much worse (though obviously not sure all vets would share that opinion?).

He had the FHO procedure about 8 weeks ago, and he still bunny hops. He still has the other hip to take care of, so not sure if that's why he does it, or if he's still healing, or if it's habit at this point.

Looking back, we missed other signs - when playing, especially with other dogs, he'd lay down after a while; throughout basic obedience & CGC, he'd plop down on his side, laying all stretched out (the repetitive sit, down, etc was probably making him sore); occasional limping (we thought was a little pano); and of course, the bunny hop.

Just wondering if you've read the info about neutering at this age vs. waiting till physically mature?

[doggiedad]

my pup bunny hopped untill he was 6 months
maybe 8 months old. i had him blood work done,
x-rays, checked for tick disease and everything
was negative. then one day i let him out of the
car and there was a bunny near by. he took off
after the bunny and ran normal. he never bunny
hopped after that. my breeder thought he was late
in learning how to run.

if i were having my dog neutered i would wait untill
he was 2 yrs old maybe 2&1/2 yrs old.

Originally Posted by luke4275

My soon to be 5 month male gsh.. ( will be 5 months on Dec. 30.) has an occassional bunny hop..

[Jax08]

You can get prelims done on his hips but if it's just occasionally I would take him to a chiropractor. When my girl with mild HD runs, she bunny hops all the time. Keeping her back in helps her range of motion but HD doesn't come and go.

OR.....check her for pano. He's n the right age group