First Signs of Hip Dysplasia in Dogs: What to Watch For

The earliest signs of hip dysplasia in dogs are usually "bunny hopping" (both back legs moving together when running), stiffness or reluctance to get up, a swaying or wobbly walk, and difficulty with stairs or jumping. These typically appear while a dog is still growing, around 5-6 months old, though milder cases can go unnoticed until arthritis develops much later in life.

Last updated 17 September 2026. Written by Jamie Sinclair, who writes about canine health, nutrition, and everyday care for Doggy Dailies — focused on translating veterinary research and real ingredient science into practical, honest guidance UK dog owners can use.

Table of Contents

• What Is Hip Dysplasia, Exactly?
• The Early Signs to Watch For
• Two Different Onset Patterns Worth Knowing
• The UK Hip Scoring Scheme — A Real Screening Tool Most Guides Skip
• Which Breeds Are Most at Risk?
• A Related But Different Condition: Elbow Dysplasia
• What to Do If You Notice These Signs
• Managing Hip Dysplasia Day to Day
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Sources

What Is Hip Dysplasia, Exactly?

Hip dysplasia is a developmental condition in which the hip joint doesn't form correctly — the ball (the top of the femur) and socket (part of the pelvis) don't fit together snugly, so the joint is looser and less stable than it should be. Over time, that instability causes abnormal wear, inflammation, and eventually osteoarthritis in the joint.

It's largely an inherited condition, meaning genetics from both parents play the biggest role, though growth rate, body weight, and exercise levels during puppyhood can also influence how severely it develops.

The Early Signs to Watch For

The signs of hip dysplasia can be subtle at first, and are easy to mistake for normal puppy clumsiness or simple tiredness. Watch for:

• "Bunny hopping" — running with both back legs moving together, rather than the normal alternating gait
• Reluctance or difficulty getting up from lying down, particularly after resting
• A swaying or wobbly walk, especially through the hips and back end
• Stiffness, most noticeable first thing in the morning or after exercise
• Difficulty with stairs, jumping into the car, or onto furniture
• Reduced interest in walks or exercise that used to be enjoyed
• Visible muscle loss or "skinny hips" — weaker back-leg and hip muscles from reduced use
• Audible clicking or grinding from the hip joint during movement

No single sign confirms hip dysplasia on its own — several of these can also point to other joint or muscle issues — but a combination of two or more, especially in a young, growing dog of a predisposed breed, is a genuine reason to book a vet visit rather than wait and see.

Two Different Onset Patterns Worth Knowing

Hip dysplasia doesn't always show up the same way, and it's worth understanding both patterns rather than assuming it only affects older dogs. Many affected dogs begin showing symptoms while they're still growing, typically around 5-6 months of age, as the loose joint struggles under the strain of rapid bone growth.

But a meaningful number of dogs with milder joint laxity show no obvious signs at all as puppies, and the condition only becomes noticeable much later in life, once years of abnormal wear have led to secondary osteoarthritis in middle age or beyond. This is part of why a dog that seemed to "grow out of" early stiffness hasn't necessarily avoided the condition entirely — it can still resurface as arthritis years later.

The UK Hip Scoring Scheme — A Real Screening Tool Most Guides Skip

Most articles on hip dysplasia list the symptoms above and stop there. What's genuinely useful for UK owners, and rarely covered, is that there's a formal, long-established national screening system specifically for this condition: the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and Kennel Club's Hip Dysplasia Scheme.

Under this scheme, a vet takes a standardised X-ray of a dog's hips (usually from around 12 months old), which is then independently scored by two specialist assessors against nine specific features of each hip joint.

Each hip is scored from 0 to 53, giving a combined total score out of 106 — the lower the score, the better the hip conformation, with 0 representing an essentially perfect hip and higher scores indicating progressively more dysplasia and osteoarthritis. In 2024 alone, over 6,200 dogs had their hips scored through the scheme, and the resulting data is used to publish breed mean scores, which responsible breeders use to select which dogs to breed from — the scheme specifically recommends only breeding from dogs scoring below or close to their breed's published median.

If you're buying a puppy from a predisposed breed, asking to see both parents' hip scores against the breed average is one of the single most useful, concrete questions you can ask a breeder, and a genuinely more reliable predictor of risk than physical appearance alone.

Which Breeds Are Most at Risk?

Hip dysplasia is far more common in medium and large breeds, though it can occur in any dog. Labradors, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Rottweilers, Bernese Mountain Dogs, and Newfoundlands are among the breeds most consistently identified as high-risk.

If you own one of our UK's most popular breeds, our Rottweiler health guide and German Shepherd guide go into more breed-specific detail on hip and elbow dysplasia risk for those two breeds particularly.

A Related But Different Condition: Elbow Dysplasia

Hip dysplasia often gets mentioned in the same breath as elbow dysplasia, and while the two share some risk factors and predisposed breeds, they are genuinely separate developmental conditions affecting different joints. Elbow dysplasia covers a group of specific developmental abnormalities in the elbow (including fragmented coronoid process and osteochondritis dissecans) rather than the ball-and-socket mismatch seen in the hip, and it's screened for separately, via the BVA/Kennel Club Elbow Scheme, which uses its own 0-3 grading system per elbow rather than the hip scheme's numerical score.

A dog can have one condition without the other, though some predisposed breeds — Labradors and German Shepherds particularly — are commonly screened for both. If your dog is showing front-leg lameness or stiffness specifically, rather than the back-end signs described above, it's worth mentioning elbow dysplasia to your vet as a distinct possibility rather than assuming it's the same underlying issue.

What to Do If You Notice These Signs

If your dog is showing several of the signs above, the right next step is a vet appointment rather than home diagnosis — hip dysplasia can only be properly confirmed via physical examination and X-ray, and several other conditions (including cruciate ligament injury and other joint problems) can look similar from the outside. Catching it early genuinely matters: a confirmed diagnosis lets you and your vet put a management plan in place — around exercise, weight, and possibly supplements or surgery in more severe cases — before secondary arthritis has had years to develop.

Managing Hip Dysplasia Day to Day

For dogs living with hip dysplasia, day-to-day management usually centres on a few consistent principles: keeping your dog at a lean body weight to reduce load on the joint, favouring controlled, low-impact exercise like lead walks or swimming over high-impact activity like repeated jumping or ball-chasing, and providing supportive bedding and ramps to reduce jarring movement. Our Hip & Joint Chews and JOINT-EZE Tablets are formulated with glucosamine, chondroitin, and green lipped mussel to support joint comfort as part of this kind of routine, alongside — never instead of — your vet's guidance.

In more severe cases, your vet may discuss surgical options. For young, still-growing puppies with early diagnosis, a procedure called juvenile pubic symphysiodesis can be done to influence how the pelvis develops and improve hip conformation before problems set in.

For adult dogs with established dysplasia and pain, options range from a femoral head and neck excision (removing the damaged ball of the joint so the body forms a working false joint) to full total hip replacement, which is generally reserved for more severe cases but has a strong track record for restoring comfortable mobility. This is a genuinely case-by-case decision best made with a vet or veterinary orthopaedic specialist who has actually examined your dog and can weigh up age, severity, and overall health.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• British Veterinary Association & The Kennel Club — BVA/KC Hip Dysplasia Scheme, scoring methodology and 2024 screening figures.
• PDSA — Hip dysplasia in dogs: signs, symptoms, and age of onset.

This guide is intended as general, evidence-informed information and does not replace individual veterinary advice. If your dog is showing signs of hip dysplasia, please see your vet for a proper diagnosis.