Two questions: clicking ankles, and when is "puppy" term no longer applicable?

[Berner_Mom]

Morning BPO'ers!

First question- we had friends over with their 3 year old Pyr Jackson last night, and I noticed that when Jackson walked, I could hear his ankles clicking, I think on his back two legs.  It was the definite sound of joints clicking, I'm pretty sure from his ankles. I was concerned (at first I thought it was coming from Tucker) and mentioned it to Jackson's mom and she just said "oh yeah, that happens sometimes, since he was little." and didn't seem worried at all.  Now, I didn't hear the noise EVERY time Jackson was walking around, but I would say it was about 50% of the time he was in motion.

Any idea what this could be caused from? Should his mom be more worried and take him to the vet?  I don't think Jackson is hurting at all, but to me, joints clicking like that can't be good.

2nd question:  hubby and I had a "discussion" yesterday after Jackson and his parents left, on the topic of when should you stop calling your puppy a puppy and start calling him a dog?  Jackson's parents still refer to him as "our puppy Jackson", and yet Jackson is 3 years old.  I still call Tucker our puppy, because he's only 10 months, but hubby calls him our dog, because of his size.

Such a silly question, I know, but I'm curious as to others opinions.

I figure I'd call Tucker a puppy till he was at least 1 year old, and I do think its odd they call Jackson a puppy at the age of 3 years, but I also think hubby is wrong to call Tucker a "dog" already.

Hmmm.  Thanks for your input as always.

[VdogLover]

They should have the dog looked at by a vet...
There are several possible things that could be clicking.. from his hips, to his knee, to just a pooping hock.

[FXgirl]

If there's no pain, inflammation and he's walking without limping, he's fine.  But you will want to see the vet to rule that out.  Clicking sounds are pretty common.  I have a leo who's hocks click and know of others who are older and have had no problems as they age.  It might go away since he's still growing or it might not.

You can read more here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tiggerpoz/id15.html

[sc.trojans]

Either "slipped hocks" or hock laxity most likely - both of which will cause degeneration and arthritis over time.

Clicking is not normal and should never be ignored - definitely time for x-rays.  I just placed a foster boy who had horrible slipped hocks (puppymill dog purchased from a petstore) - the hock popped forward so badly it was amazing he could walk - and the clicking had been going on for so long that he had a partially torn tendon - a common outcome of hock laxity and exertion.  We did surgery on him and his new forever family has been great about doing rehab.  I had him fitted for a hock brace for him to wear on walks etc to stabilize the joint - this is usually all that is needed (and a lot of good joint supplements) to keep things intact.