In the last 4-6 weeks our 18mos old Bouvier has started to limp on occasion. It seems to go back and forth from one leg to the other after any running around. When it first happened we put him on limited exercise, walks and extra obedience to work his brain thinking he might have slipped on the ice or something while running. After a few weeks of this we started letting him run around more but still restricted and only for short distances(20-30ft), he has been fine for the most part, one day he got a little more running in and was limping that night. Then this afternoon after we got home he was ouside for a while and he had a couple of runs down the driveway(about 250ft) and back because the snow plow was on the road. Now he is having trouble walking and when he tried to jump up to look out the window at the snowmobile going past his left leg locked up and he collapsed. He stretched it out and now he is limping on his right leg again. He has always done more stretching of his back legs than any dog I have had but I just put it down to him being kind of lazy when he first gets moving, kind of like me. Even as a puppy he would do a liesurely stretch whenever he came out of the crate.
Does this sound like dysplasia, I always thought that it would just be stiffness, the locking up makes me worry. Probably a trip to the vet tomorrow.....
Any ideas????

I know that Pano can switch legs and seems to be very painful.

A trip to the vet sounds like a good idea. Dysplastic dogs bunny hop when they run and, if they have it in both hips, they can have a funny gait when they walk or pace.

I'll post this link again...it's helpful to see what HD looks like, compared to a normal dog:

http://accad.osu.edu/~hcaprett/COTA_741_sp04/CanineLO_090504.html

Thanks for the link. I watched and he doesn't walk like the dog with dysplasia. He simply will not put weight on one foot when it is affecting him but the rest of the time he has a normal gait, right up to walking up the stairs one step at a time. At times it looks more like he has a sore foot, that is until his leg collapsed on him. He still wants to play and I am pretty sure if I took the ball out he would chase it.
I've never heard about pano till tonite but the quick read I did on says it affects young dogs, he will be a year old in June so I assume he would be too old for this to come on????
Thanks again.

Karna, pano is most common in dogs who's bones are still growing - which for a large breed can be up to 2-3 years, though I think there are some really rare cases of adults getting it... you said your dog was 18mos in the first post, but then said he'd be a year old in June.. I'm assuming you mean he'll be TWO in June? either way, he's probably still within reasonable range. Switching legs is definitely a hallmark of pano as well, so much so that it is sometimes called "shifting leg lameness".

But I'm wondering about his leg "locking up". My dog suffered pano for a bit and it made him extremely sensitive in his hind end - he'd scream bloody murder when he got up from laying down - but it never caused anything to go so stiff that he'd fall over. Have you checked out luxating patella? It's most common in toy breeds, but it can happen in large dogs as well - the knee cap slips out of place, and usually the dog locks up the afflicted leg out of discomfort. My family had a Pom with luxating patellas and it would cause him to fall right over crying and holding out one leg. We'd massage his knee until the patella popped back into place and then he'd be back up and on the go. Our Pom seemed to grow out of it, but there are surgical options to fix really bad cases...

Hope you find out what's wrong with your pup - he's a handsome boy!

~Natalya