three shots for puppies?

[Sallystyle]

I have a 12 week old pup and she had her 2nd jab a week ago.

I have had conflicting advice. One vet said she can't go out until her third jab and the other said she can go out a week after her 2nd.

My worry is that she is missing the socialising window and I will end up with a poorly socialised dog if I wait until she has had her third jab.

I can't carry her around as she is too heavy and hates being carried. I have a lot of different people in and out of the house but I would like her to get used to strangers, more children and other noises.

In the past mine just had two jabs. I googled and some people think that socialising is more important than waiting for the third shot. I know we have a lot of dog experts here so I wanted to ask your thoughts.

Depends on the breed involved and the area...some dogs esp dobes and rotties are known for having high levels of maternal ab's and are more prone to getting parvo as the 2 booster shots are not as effective for them.

Also if you live in an area thats got a high incidence of parvo I would be very wary. Most vets do not offer 3 injections.There is usually a reason behind this thinking.

What vaccines has she had, and when/at what ages? You are right to be concerned about socialisation, but protecting physical health is important too.

The newest best cover vaccine on the market can end up being a three dose schedule. You need to chat with your vet about what cover will be present a week after the second vaccine and what is not covered till the third.

Not sure about the vaccinations, I'll leave that to the vets that have replied already, but my pup (now 1 year old and 28: to the shoulder) was a big lad and due to illness wasn't allowed down outside until just over 16 weeks old. Socialisation is so important that we still carried him everywhere we went though - we just took it in turns to take the strain, often passing him back and forth every five minutes or so and found plenty of benches in busy places so we could sit with him on our knees and watch the world go by. Have you any friends with fully vaccinated dogs you could either visit or invite over to yours?

I'd also recommend getting her booked onto a good puppy class (not one with loads of off-lead play) as soon as she's able to go out, as it made a massive difference to my boy's confidence around other dogs and mitigated the lack of early interaction to some extent.

From being carried everywhere (even though it felt like my arms grew several inches in the process) he's fine with almost everything, people of all ages and races, trucks, buses, umbrellas, walking sticks, wheelchairs, crutches, scooters, bicycles, loud noises etc, although is still uncertain around off-lead, in-your-face type dogs - but that's more to do with being leaped on by two out of control dogs on his first two proper walks.

Personally, I wasn't willing to risk putting him down on the ground earlier, having heard about a fair few recent cases of parvo in pups that had delayed vaccinations for various reasons and seeing what it does to them.

I feel your frustration though, as I felt exactly the same.

Thank you.

She has been booked in for puppy classes.

I don't know exactly what she had but she had her first at 9 weeks, 2nd at 11 and 3rd due at 13 weeks.

I just googled and there has been quite a lot of cases of parvo in my area it seems, so I won't risk it.

I will just get dh to carry her out and about more. I know a couple of dogs in the family I could introduce her too. I have five children and another dog so she has got to meet quite a few people already and we do take her for drives as well and carried her around the pet shop a few times. She hates being carried though so it makes it difficult.

It can be a pain when they don't like being carried, especially if they wriggle. Mine's a Lurcher, so had ridiculously long legs that always seemed to get in a tangle or end up with a foot in my pocket when I carried him.

I used to find a bench in our local town on a Sunday, as it's quieter than Saturdays and sit there with a big tub of treats. It's amazing how many people will approach you if you have a puppy and then you can supervise contact with all sorts of different people. We also saw a surprisingly large amount of dogs that way and my pup got to watch them from a safe distance, whilst stuffing his face with treats, which could be another reason why he's happier with on than off-lead dogs I suppose.

Park benches are another good place to go, as long as they're far enough away from most of the action, so-to-speak, as you can sit and watch other dogs interacting without having them actually approach your pup.

Another thing we did was go to a busy shopping/trading park with him in his crate in the boot. I would sit next to the crate and treat him, while dh ran errands - this got him used to lots of hustle and bustle and again, people did tend to approach and I got them to feed him a treat, after explaining why he wasn't allowed out of his travel crate.

Hardest thing we did was take him to a big vintage car show. It was a hot day, the walk from the carpark to the show was really long and dh and I nearly collapsed under the strain of carrying him. In the end I found a space under a big shady tree, away from most of the action and he sat on my knee and watched it all going on and stuffing his face with treats.

U2 in that case it may well be that she has actually had both her parvo vaccinations already and is only due a lepto booster at 13 weeks. Talk to your vet - they will be able to clarify.

I would call the vet to check, our pup had a course of 3 and the vet explained it was to do with the lepto having to be done 4 weeks apart. The parvo was given in first 2 and we were able to take her out one week after the second jab. She was 11 weeks old then and getting very heavy and wriggly to carry around!

It will depend on your area. We are also high risk for Lepto here so recommend pups don't go down till after the Lepto portion in high risk areas such as by the canal.