I had to rush my little Jack Russell Puppy to the vets Friday.  I only got her 3 days earlier.  She was gulping (not hiccups) uncontrollably and getting quite distressed.
Vet saw her and took her straight in as I was worried because she had been chewing lots of wood and going round the garden so i wasn't sure if she had picked anything up. 
He gave her anesthetic and put an endoscope down into her stomach which x-rays had revealed was full of gas.  The endoscope showed nothing else up.
Vet decided to keep her in overnight, She came home Sat Lunch time.    She had a few gulps Sat evening but nothing too bad.
However today she got much worse again and was gulping badly getting distressed again so i ended up at emergency vet.  They said her tummy didn't feel full of gas yet but they had never come across this gulping before and really had no idea why she could be doing it or what the problem was but to talk to my vet tommorow about referring her to a specialist. so i bought her home (waste of £85).
I am beggining to wonder if it is some defect she has been born with or could it be something else.
Anyone else had this problem or can shed any light?   Pup is 11 weeks old now but quite small.   I have her brother who is fine.

Bev

When had she been fed in relation to these incidents?
Have you ever seen a dog 'backwards sneeze'?  Could it have been this?

Hi Bev, Can I just ask, was the pup bottle fed or did mum feed naturally?

Hi, there is no relation to food as far as I can see, she can do it within minutes of eating or mid way between meals in fact anytime of the day or night.
Puppy as far as I know was fed naturally by mum. Nothing was said when we purchased her and her brother.
Bev

Hi Bev
Both my dogs have done this from time to time. I admit it looks pretty scary but I don't know what causes it.  However I've found that if I let them eat grass, which they're usually keen to do, it helps a lot and the gulping quickly subsides.

Hope your little dog is soon OK.

Hi Bev, reason for asking if bottle fed, is because one of my pups did this, Little Ollie.  He was bottle fed and was apparently taking in too much air with feed. It somehow became a 'habit'  At one point he was in so much pain because of the gas in his stomach and very ill, he was given prescribed Tagamet and over a couple of weeks the gases were released, You have no idea of the smell that came with it :D  By 16 weeks he seemed to stop the gulping and backward sneezing etc and he settled very quickly, and was able to go to his new home at 18 weeks.  I see him at our training classes every week and has never had the problem since and is growing up to be a very strong normal healthy boy. He was also the smallest in the litter but caught up very quickly.  Just to reassure you :D

Another problem could be tracheal colapse or paralysis, more often found in senior dogs.