A healthy working dog team makes life much more enjoyable and less stressful. Vaccination plays a key role in this. There are two key vaccines that we recommend your team stays up to date with. These are what we call the ‘core’ vaccine and canine cough.
The ‘core’ vaccine helps to protect against:
Canine distemper
Infectious canine hepatitis
Adenovirus respiratory disease
Parainfluenza
Canine parvovirus enteritis (parvo).
Of the above, parvo is of most concern. A young pup that becomes infected with parvo virus has a low chance of survival. Those that do survive can have lifelong issues as a result of a damaged gut lining from the virus.
This vaccine requires an initial puppy course followed by a booster every three years (see table below).
Canine cough
Canine cough (historically known as kennel cough) is the second highly recommended vaccine. We are seeing a lot more canine cough in the community lately. This virus causes a nasty hacking cough that can be very debilitating. If it goes through your team they can be out for 2-3 weeks with exercise intolerance and just generally feeling terrible.
As with a lot of cases, vaccination is not 100% effective, but keeping your dog up to date with their vaccinations will reduce the chance of clinical disease, the seriousness of clinical signs and the length of time they are infected.
This vaccine is a simple, yearly oral vaccine. For those dogs that are considered high risk, such as trial dogs, it is recommended every 6 months.
Below is the recommended vaccine schedule for your team:
Vaccination schedule
