Hip Dysplasia has been described as a poly-genic disorder - meaning that there are several genes responsible for its occurrance. As a result, there is no simple test to determine if a dog will produce puppies with hip dysplasia. However, dogs who have Hip Dysplasia are more likely to produce other dogs with hip dysplasia. Theerfore, you are well advised to do research before purchasing a puppy from a breeder.

Make sure that the breeder has screened the dogs and their parents and grandparents. The most common screening is OFA or PennHip. With OFA, you want to make sure that the rating is Good or Excellent, although in some circumstances, Fair is considered breedable, but I think that depends on the breed.

You can look up dogs in the OFA database here-

OFA Website

You can read about PennHip here-

Penn Hip

There are also theories that say that running, jumping or overfeeding can cause Hip Dysplasia. As I understand it, those things cannot CAUSE HD, because a dog must be predisposed to having it, but those things can aggrevate HD or speed its onset. My personal opinion is that weight gain and excess weight is the worst thing for HD, especially in growing puppies.

Other Relevant Links:

http://www.vetgen.com/research.html