We adopted a Lab last year, a wonderfully sweet black lab who came with the somewhat unfortunate name of Tinker, but it fits her and whatever, it's fine. The vets estimate that she is around 9 or 10 years old and she has terrible hip problems. We give her glucosamine supplements once a day with a meal but they don't really seem to do much. She still doesn't like the process of standing-to-sitting-to-lying down; she kind of just collapses quickly to ease the pain. Don't get me wrong, she's happy and comfortable and the vets say the glucosamine is fine, but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about alternate products to help her arthritis...

The number one thing that helps our dog (who has arthritis) is to keep her warm, when she gets cold her hips stiffen up and are much worse. We were also told that even a 10% weight loss can work wonders for dogs with arthritis.

Although I gave my dogs their glocausamine tablets regularly my vet didn't really think they made a difference. And if it did it wouldn't reverse the existing arthritis.

There are meds to help alleviate the pain - rimadyl i think, but that might give the dog long term kidney problems. Gas4 is right - I think weight loss (if the dog is heavy) and keeping him warm are really the only things you can do.

And good for you for adopting an older dog. That is wonderful:)

heated beds and ramps for stairs/getting into the car are both good, and light exercise will also help. My mom has severe arthritis and so when the vet says to keep her dog moving she knows it works. Don't skip a day, they need to move every day if it's going to help.

whole dog journal just recently endorsed Dog Gone Pain. It's a natural remedy. I've never tried it, but a WDJ endorsement is a pretty big deal, IMO. May be worth checking out.

First off, I would make sure you're using an independently tested brand of Glucosamine/Condroiten supplement, such as Cosequin. As with any "dietary supplement" the FDA doesn't control for quality or consistence.
Second, keep the dog at the "loading dose" level even after the 6-8 week mark. Some dogs need the higher level. And you usually don't see a difference for 6-8 weeks.
Add in a fatty acid supplement to her diet. Fatty acids are natural anti-inflammatories.
Try seeking out a veterinary acupuncturist - also very helpful.
There are also very effective anti-inflammatory medications for dogs, such as Rimadyl, Deramaxx, and Metacam which your vet can prescribe after doing a routine blood work up. (You'll need to have them done regularly while on the anti-inflammatories though)