The 16th-placed Hawks held their nerve on Sunday afternoon to register their seventh victory of the season against the Bulldogs, who started the round in sixth.
The 9.13 (67) to 9.10 (64) result comes after Hawthorn shocked ladder leaders Collingwood last weekend.
They were ahead by more than three goals early in the final term before the Bulldogs mounted a surge with two quick majors.
Bulldog Bailey Williams cut the margin to two points with less than two minutes remaining but his team were left agonisingly short.
Luke Beveridge's men host West Coast next round before finishing the regular season with a trip to Geelong as they try to lock in a top-eight spot.
"They broke too many of our tackles. Those disputed ball situations, they just won a hell of a lot more than us," Beveridge said.
"When you look at the evenness of the competition … you come out of the game and you think 'we could have been so much better in certain areas'.
"Hawthorn are improving and we knew that. We knew it was going to be a really difficult task."
Jai Newcombe was outstanding for the Hawks in his 50th AFL game, picking up a game-high 40 disposals, a goal and two assists.
The Hawks lost Chad Wingard inside the first few minutes when the experienced forward collapsed with a suspected Achilles problem trying to accelerate.
It was a poorly timed blow for the off-contract 30-year-old, who has been sidelined with several injuries this year including a nasty tongue laceration.
"He's been in such great form. It's really sad for him. We don't know the extent of it at this stage," Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said.
Mitchell was pleased with his team's ability to win ugly ahead of their match against top-four side Melbourne.
"(But) we haven't proven that we can play consistently high-level football," he said.
"We've done it for two games in a row (earlier in the season) but can we do it for another two in the final games of the season?"
Hawthorn shot themselves in the foot multiple times in the first half, with turnovers inside their own 50 leading to Bulldogs goals.
The Hawks conceded the opening three goals and trailed by 20 points at the first break but reduced the margin to nine at halftime on the back of long-range efforts from Newcombe and Karl Amon.
The Bulldogs suffered an injury hit of their own in the second quarter when Tom Liberatore was substituted out after being accidentally kneed in the head.
Hawthorn hit the lead for the first time early in the third quarter when Luke Bruest converted from close range.
Crucially, the Bulldogs managed just three behinds in the third term with the breeze at their back.
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