Hi,
I was talking to someone earlier who has bred a couple of litters and she is totally convinced on her thought about puppies and I wondered what other people thought. She said that when a puppy lays on its tummy with it back legs stretched out it means that when said puppy is grown he/she wont suffer from hip displasia. I was under the impression that the only way to be this sure was to have dog hip scored???

I just wondered what you guys thought?

Hi! i have 2 Shih Tzu's and as puppy's both used to lay like this! one is fine, but the other one has Chronic Arthritic and Hip Displeasure in both hip's
Having puppies hip scored would be the best way forward! rather than guess work!

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To be 100% you need an x-ray.If a dogs hips are that bad though you can usually tell by gait or trouble jumping .

As for laying "frog" style lots of puppys lay like that.I know a few adult dogs that lay froggie style too.

I think it just means the dog is flexible.All my pups layed like a frog when young but as they got older and developed their muscle mass they stopped laying like it.

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Oh my God! Utterly mental! My vet says even hip scoring (of the parents, I mean) is no guarantee. As was already said, the only sure way of diagnosing the offspring is an X-ray.

The back legs stretched out the way you describe is typical of puppies. I have lots of photos of Jake and Brig as babies (must scan them, it wasn't a digital camera 8 years ago) lying like this. Neither had/have displaysia.

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Staffies always seem to lay that way!
The only surefire way is by hip scoring - which depending on breed needs doing at around 14 month! but not a lot of point unless intending to breed!

Most young puppies do... Its because they are so flexible and has little to do with the shape of the joint. Although my monster of a Berger still lies like "road kill" at 3yrs old... he has a hipscore of 4:3 (scored at 18 month)

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Thanks for the responses, Thats what I thought re they would need x-rays, I wonder if that what she tells people when she sells them a pup

If only it was that easy!!

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If only life were so straightforward. There IS a train of thought that Labs who lay like this have good hips - and my girl who does it has an excellent hip score (5/4) but then none of my others do it - and 4 of them have equally good or better hipscores).

I also know of someone with a dog who did this who was completely dysplastic and needed bi-lateral hip replacements

NOW - onto the question about - whether the dog will ever suffer from hip dysplasia.

Severe HD normally manifests itself when the dog is still young (usually under 12 months) - I am aware of dogs demonstrating it later on in life - and as it doesn't 'suddenly appear' - their hips would have been pretty poor to start with - contrary to popular belief - good hips don't deteriorate as the dog gets older other than normal age related issues.

I recently scored one of my girls at 2.5 - she has a bump at 6 months which left her lame for about a week, I was convinced at least one of her hips would be shot - even though she has not been lame since - she came back 4/3 - not far off as good as it gets.

Other than the natural ravages of old age, which dogs and humans alike can suffer from - good hips are good hips - bad hips are bad hips - but - you can get dogs with poor to high hipscores who move like a dream and never have a day's lameness in their lives.

Without visible signs of lameness, the only way someone would know their dogs hips are not good is if they decide to score them - then you can get dogs with similar scores needing a hip replacement - there is an owner on here whose dog's score is nowhere near the top of the scale - and not much higher than my highest scoring bitch (who will never be bred from) - I would defy anyone to pick up my girl has poor hips, yet this other dog needed a hip replacement.

Mother nature can be strange creature at times

Providing you are sensible with diet and exercise for your pup, and they don't exhibit any signs of lameness

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