Vaccination Schedule

[Jess & Stewart]

I'm trying to plan & decide who I want as a vet. My aunt loves her vet & recommended them. I called today & they told me they do vaccines 4 weeks apart. My pup had the first round at 7 weeks & I'll be picking him up at 9 weeks (Nov. 22nd). The vet said she didn't think it would be time for them again right away, but since most breeder contracts say you need to do a vet check within a window of time (like 12 days, etc). I could do one visit for an exam, fecal, deworming soon after I get him, then another for vaccines.

I'm not sure I'd want to pay for 2 visits so close together & I thought 4 weeks was a large span of time between shots. 7 wks-1st round, 11 wks-2nd round, 15 wks-3rd round, then rabies 1 week after that. I can't figure that no walks until at least 16 weeks is a good thing to do. I thought it would be more like 7 wks, 10 wks, 13 wks (ok for walks), then rabies at 14 or 16 sounded more reasonable.

I'm guess I'm nervous about sheltering the pup also. Would it be unreasonable to get a 2nd round of shots at 10 weeks, so I'd go for a first vet appt the week of Thanksgiving before the holiday, like Wed. Nov 26 (he'd be days shy of 10 weeks) after I get him or wait until after, around the first week of Dec. 2nd.

I was also all set to get insurance with Pet Plan but my parents think I should just keep the $200 & pay for anything that comes up, instead of paying $200 twice (insurance plus deductible)

Any advice is appreciated! I'm getting all my supplies set up & house ready. I'll be sure to post pictures!

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

I'm right there with you regarding all the questions and following this thread carefully. I am curious about this as well.

I know my friends are already tired of hearing about my dog and she's not home yet. She will be coming home on Thursday the 21st. I'm very excited.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

To add to the puppy socialization topic, I looked up my comments from years ago when I posted about Lucy's early socialization (Lucy is now 4 yrs old). I had done a ton of research on the subject and wanted to keep Lucy both protected and safe, but well socialized, so I used those early isolation weeks to incorporate other forms of socialization, including sounds and indoor obstacle courses. When she got the go ahead from her vet for outdoor sidewalk walking (after her 2nd set of vaccinations) we also enrolled her in puppy romp sessions at a local indoor doggie daycare facility. We used these same practices on Oscar when he arrived last year. The home isolation period for both puppies was only 2-3 weeks. Here are my comments:

 

Lucy is now about 4  months old. We used a sound socializing CD to accustom her to various scary sounds like thunder, machines running, babies crying, etc., setting the volume extremely low and slowly increasing it daily. We were pretty  protective of her before having all her shots so kept her home until 10 weeks,  but had lots of visitors over (no dogs). At 10 weeks we enrolled her in puppy romp sessions at a local doggy daycare facility that sanitized the entire area  every night. Only puppies with the same level of shots were allowed. The puppy  romp sessions were a godsend for socializing Lucy to other puppies, people of  all ages, and a different environment. She was very shy with puppies for several  weeks, but during the 4th session she really blossomed and came out of her  shell. Lucy has always LOVED people! Men, women, children.. she doesn't  discriminate. She's also enrolled in a puppy class (which started last week),  and is doing extremely well there. I think the puppy romps have helped her  immensely in all areas of her socialization.

BTW, when we had Lucy home in those early isolation weeks, we set up a puppy obstacle course with a 2-sided ramp, raised  broomstick for jumping over, and a ladder laid flat so she could walk through  the rungs. She loved all that, and you could see how it really improved her self  confidence with mastering all the elements. We also took her for drives and  parked outside dog parks and horse stables so she could watch the dogs and  horses as well as people. We trained every day on walking, waiting sitting,  downs and coming when called. All done at short intervals to keep her  interest.

Lucy is far and away above the level of training than her peers  at puppy class. She's like a star pupil, but only because we started training  her the moment we brought her home.

 

[Jess & Stewart]

Debb-I actually thought of you & those discussions! I have empty boxes from Amazon that I'm going to keep so I can do just that! I have a few different sizes of them & a broom. I figure I can make a little course of it!

I want to do puppy romp classes, but I'd need to take a cab to the place, they are at 6:00 pm & it's dark by 5 pm here. I'm sure nothing would happen in a cab, but it makes me a little nervous to go across town the pup in a cab. Then enviably I'd need to wait for one after the class was over.

I'm searching for a place that has classes on Saturdays so it's daytime, lol

[Stephanie and Ragley]

Not sure if you have already had a sufficient answer or not to the vaccination stuff yet, but I thought I would add to it because Ragley and I literally just went through this at the vet this morning. She got her first parvo when she was 6 weeks old and we went in today for our well-puppy visit (per breeder contract, as you mentioned). She is 9 weeks old today and the receptionist told me they may not give her the next parvo because they usually wait 4 weeks-- of course I was not thrilled with the idea of having to pay for to vet visits, but I also didn't want to rush the vaccines. When talking to the vet, though, she said three weeks was fine for the second one, but we will wait 4 in between the other sets. Hopefully your vet will do the same for Stewart and let him have his second round with your wellness visit at 10 weeks!