His left hip pops with almost every step. He doesn’t limp or have trouble getting up however. And he’s very playful. For having such a bad hip he seems like he doesn’t care. If I hadn’t heard the popping, I never would’ve known to take him to the vet as it’s nearly unnoticable visually. He’s very young, not even a year old. Is it possible that his quality of life will stay this way, or is it inevitably going to get worse?

Stay on top of your vet visits and be sure to have the hips x-rayed at least once a year when he starts getting older perhaps 4to 5 years of age.
Feed at least a capsule of glucosiamine daily in his food to keep the joints lubricated.
Other than that once he shows signs of it bothering him take him to the vet to have him medicated.
You probably won`t get the longevity you were hoping for without him suffering so be mindful of when the time comes to let him suffer.
So sorry to hear of his condition being so young. Good Luck and God Bless your 4 legged friend.

Is it something that they only find in an X-ray, or can you look at a dog and see the symptoms? If so, what are the symptoms?

Great answers people-not! Gah she is asking if she can look at a dog and tell if it has hip dysplaisa. And yes you can look at some dogs and tell that they have at least something wrong by the way they are walking

"There are a number of symptoms of hip dysplasia. Some dog owners only say that their dog didn’t walk right. Others will say they saw no symptoms at all, or just that their dog began to limp. Following is a list of common symptoms, of which your dog may have a couple and not have hip dysplasia.

Bunny Hopping: The dog tends to use both hind legs together, rather than one at a time. This occurs when the dog is running, or going up stairs.

Side Sit: Also called lazy sit, slouch or frog sit. When the dog sits, its legs are not positioned bent and close to the body. They can be loose and off to one side, or one or both legs may be straight out in front.

Sway Walk: Also called a loose walk. When the dog is walking, the back end sways back and forth because the hips are loose.

Unusual Laying Position: Legs are straight out and off to the side when the dog is laying on its stomach or legs are straight out behind the dog. (All dogs lay with their legs behind them on occasion, many dogs with hip dysplasia lay like this all the time.)

Limping: The dog may favor one hind leg or the other, and may alternate legs that it is favoring.

Quiet Puppy: Puppies who are already in pain from hip dysplasia tend to be very good puppies. They do not rough house the way that normal puppies do. They also tend to sleep for a long time after playing or going for a walk. Some owners describe their puppy with hip dysplasia as the best puppy they’ve ever had.

Dog Doesn’t Jump: Not only do they not jump on you, they seem to pull themselves up by their front end onto furniture as opposed to jumping up.

Underdeveloped Hind Quarters and Overdeveloped Chest: This is caused by the failure to use the hind legs normally and jump. The dog also may actually be shifting weight forward."

If your dog is not walking correctly then yes bring it to a vet to have X-rays((the best way to look at the bones with out opening the dog)) to determine either or not the dog has HD.

Some breeds are more prone to have HD then others.
A good list I found a while back has these breeds listed "
* American Bulldog
* American Staffordshire Terrier
* Beagle
* Bernese Mountain Dog
* Bloodhound
* Bouvier des flandres
* Boykin Spaniel
* Briard
* Brittany
* Bulldog
* Bullmastiff
* Chesapeake Bay Retriever
* Chow Chow
* Clumber Spaniel
* Coonhound (Black and Tan)
* Coton de Tulèar
* Curly Coated Retriever
* English Setter
* English Springer Spaniel
* German Shepherd
* Giant Schnauzer

* Golden Retriever
* Gordon Setter
* Irish Water Spaniel
* Kuvasz
* Neapolitan Mastiff
* Newfoundland
* Norwegian Elkhound
* Old English Sheepdog
* Otterhund
* Polish Lowland Sheepdog
* Portuguese Water Dog
* Pudel Pointer
* Pug
* Rottweiler
* Shih Tzu
* Spanish Water Dog
* St. Bernard
* Staffordshire Terrier
* Sussex Spaniel
* Welsh Corgi
* Welsh Springer Spaniel

I recently found out that my dog has hip dysplasia in both hips. The vet suggested acupunture and I was just wondering if anyone has done this with their dog. If so, did it work well?

Acupuncture works great!!! It is defiantely worth a shot.

I would not use Rimadyl except on a very limited basis.It has some very serious side effects and many vets no longer dispense it. If your dog does go on Rimadyl you will need to take it in periodically for liver function testing.