Scrappi&Monty

Yeah that is probably a good idea, the immunity levels would drop off, especially in certain older people or people with low immunity anyway. Your vet sounds like she/he has a good schedule! Unfortunately some people though never bother to take their dogs to the vet unless they are obviously sick. I have a friend whose dog only had puppy vaccines and has never been to the vet since, not even for a checkup.

Oh wow, that's a bit worrying then if they are supposed to last double that!! You would just expect the vaccines to last as long as they say at least!

Oh that's no good Sandgrubber, you were just trying to do the right thing! :-/ I'm glad rabies is something we don't have to worry about in Australia (and I believe NZ too?), so that's why our quarantine is so strict! Good luck with your move btw. That rabies challenge thing doesn't sound pleasant at all! edit; Did you mean they were only vaccinated 1.5yrs ago? or 4.5yrs ago and were only 1.5yrs overdue? I am skeptical of the "good for life" claims too...

I agree Mrs Rusty Bucket, I wouldn't want them to go without vaccinations completely. Way too risky and not worth the risk of the disease. (of course that's the point of vaccinations) I think that it is strange though that some vets (incl. mine) still recommend annual vaccinations when the AVA and the vaccine companies have proven only every 3yrs is necessary. Us humans don't need vaccinations yearly, we only have them as babies, as teenagers and then we're pretty much good to go. (depends on the vaccine though) I definitely am 100% for human vaccines, it really pisses me of when parents don't vaccinate children "for the risk of Autism" etc. Once we had a fill in teacher at school who told us A) her political opinions and that "Greens are w@nkers" excuse the french, and B) that immunisation is "rape" two rather inappropriate things to be talking to a class of students about in a Geography class. A family we know had a little boy before the parents divorced, and his mother wouldn't get him vaccinated. The dad now has a new wife and a new little baby, and the little boy isn't allowed to see or play with his baby sister because if she caught something she could die or be horribly effected for the rest of her life. Despite this, the little boy's mother still won't vaccinate him in case he "gets autism". (not how that works but anyway). The point of vaccinations is that they are supposed to have everyone vaccinated to stop the diseases existing, the reason vaccinated people (or dogs) can still get the diseases is because non-vaccinated kids (or dogs) pass it on. It sucks that tiny little babies die from diseases they couldn't be vaccinated for yet, just because some people are too selfish (oops sorry!)

Lisa, your pics of the kids & dogs are so gorgeous

Just found this pic on Instagram by Best Friends Rescue and thought I'd share;

That's a pain, I haven't quoted yet but will do next year. And that's a bit worrisome "what is that?" Haha.

Yes we got all the vaccines done (C5) and will think about changing it next year. I will ask my vet about titre tests too. I heard about the parvo outbreak on the radio this morning, I heard it was out west (NSW)? Suppose the south west. Terrible though, it's a nasty nasty thing, wish it didn't exist!

Oh that's a hard situation. You can't treat parvo at home sorry! Plus it's extremely contagious so any near by animals could get it. Ask all the vets that you could get to if they will let you pay off the treatment gradually. Or do you have a family member who would lend you some money that you could definitely repay them? I'm so sorry, if you can't find a way soon you can't let your pup suffer, sorry, parvo is extremely nasty!

Perse & RuralPug; Maybe they are worried the loose dog is dog aggressive and could attack the tracking dog. But then again the poor thing has it's snout taped shut. But maybe another dog could scare the loose dog? I suppose humans would/could too. The poor thing, does anyone know if there has been any news? Has it been found?

With having a dog as a child, I think that's an interesting discussion (sort of related to OP but nevermind) Both my parents had dogs growing up, Dad got a corgi x kelpie for his 2nd birthday, and my Pop was a shearer so Mum always had both pet and working dogs around. When I was little, Dad worked in the hospitality industry and would be shifted about for jobs and I lived in about 8 houses/hotels by the time I started school haha. That's probably why we never had a dog as it would be very irresponsible to have a dog when we moved about like that. So I didn't grow up with a dog. But I think part of that caused me to be TERRIFIED of dogs, I obviously didn't understand them (despite much trying by my parents, I had several books), and if I saw a dog on a leash 50m up the street I'd cling to Dad's leg or try and climb up on him if the dog was getting closer. Even if it was a small white fluffy or something completely un-threatening in the slightest. I had a few "bad" experiences with dogs that I think I decided they were scary somewhere in my little 2 year old brain. The kelpie next door would get out and chase me wanting to play. I'm sure I'd think she was lovely now but she was definitely hyperactive and disobedient. Enough to knock my confidence. When I started school, lots of parents would bring their dogs while walking the kids to school, and they were allowed up to the classroom pretty much. So myself and a few other little kids got dogs banned from school (sorry!! I would love to bring my dogs walking to school now, but in consideration for worried/unconfident kids it's not a good idea ) Anyway until I was maybe 7 or 8 I was scared of dogs, except there were a few calm ones that I liked. I was obsessed with horses but I wasn't allowed one despite much trying to convince my parents. I decided dogs weren't so scary and that they were pretty cute, then somewhere along the line I decided I wanted a puppy, and after even more convincing I think Mum and Dad were glad I was finally not scared of dogs. So we got my first dog when I was 9 and I've been obsessed since then haha. But I feel if we had a calm dog since I was a baby I would've never been so scared.

You might need to teach him what a bed is for. You can train to go to a place on command, and teach him "go to bed" or whatever you want to call it. Search it on YouTube if you can. I believe kikopup has a video that I used. Basically just have a marker/clicker and some small treats. You can use a proper training clicker or just say "yes" in a consistent tone, if you don't know clicker training you can find how to do that on YouTube too, it's easy. Here's one video;

To the OP, hoping all goes well with your pup :) CavNRott, I never thought of that, thanks for bringing that up, that might be one of the factors into Monty developing an underbite. It's not that bad and the vet didn't say anything about it but it's definitely an underbite. He does a lot of tug of war with Scrappi, and also a little bit when he plays with us. (Sometimes as a reward in training, or at practicing drop/let go) I better teach him fetch properly and use that as our game instead! Often though he'll swap the game to "keep away" or chasies silly boy :)

Hahaha sounds familiar! Ours like raw eggs. They would like them cooked too I suppose.

That's very clever :)

That makes me so sad and angry. Some people are truly truly evil. I wish I could help, I hope they find it soon! ????????

Thanks Rubiton, just wanted to get an idea of what everyone's opinions were. I didn't discuss it this time with my vet, she already had the vaccines ready and Monty did need his booster as he is 1yo. But we might talk to her at next checkup about not doing it annually.

Thanks for the AVA link, that's what I was looking for the other day but I couldn't remember. We don't do heartworm injections, it's included in their worm meds. Don't want to risk it.

The triennial vac is the same as the annual, only listed and priced differently. It is the same vaccination. You are paying extra for the extra 2 years on your certificate that you do not have to return. A lot of vets will say it is different cause they feel uncomfortable charging so much extra for the same vaccine. Hmm that sorta makes sense. Do you reckon we could just vaccinate and not ask for them to be vaccinated for a few years? Scrappi was supposed to be done in Nov 16 but we thought we'd wait until Monty needed his too. We've never even had a vaccination certificate nor really needed it. We don't board as they can stay at a family members, and we won't be doing training classes for a while until Monty learns to calm down and we get on top of his occasional/selective dog reactivity. But that's another story.

I feel exactly the same way PK haha! I feel like maybe we'll just do annuals like usual because that's easy and what our vet suggests, but then again I don't want to be over vaccinating which can lead to other problems. There's so much conflicting advice and I don't know who knows best. Regardless of how often they are vaccinated I would still take them for annual checkups as it's best to be on the safe side and also I like our vet, she's lovely. Does anyone know how much a titre test would cost (im in the Hunter Valley/Newcastle area) vs a standard annual vaccination vs a Nobivac DHP + KC?

It's interesting you've commented about the intra-nasal causing KC, Starkehre, because early Dec my dogs were given their annual KC only vax (subcut) and poor Kirah suffered a horrible reaction. The injection site swelled up and was radiating heat for about a week after. A visit to the fabulous Dr Jaime saw that she's actually done something to her shoulder area and I'm not sure if the KC injection flared something up, caused it or if it's just completely unrelated to the KC injection. Due to this, I was going to go back to having it administered intra-nasally, but now, I don't think I'll bother with it at all -- I never board my dogs anyway so it shouldn't be an issue. I think we will stick with some form of Kennel Cough vaccine as we might as well, next door neighbor's dog had kennel cough a few months ago and he hadn't been kenneled or anything, probably caught it off a dog walking by (I suppose they can catch it from that?) I'll speak to my vet this afternoon but as she's quite traditional she will probably want to stick with annual C5 (if that's what he usually has)

That's awful! Sending hugs.

Thanks Simply Grand, I'll have a speak to my vet about triennial. Possibly get them both done today then wait 3 years for next ones... With C5, wouldn't that need to be annual though to cover KC? No, only if you have the nasal spray done for the KC component. Finally the vets and reps are agreeing that the nasal spray is causing KC in too many dogs for it not to be a coincidence and are moving back to C5 all in one injection. They still do a C5 vac injection. I'd never do the nasal spray again and have spoken at length to a wonderful vet about this. Thanks Starkehre, so is C5 ok to be done every three years and it will cover everything? We have just always gone with the flow of what our vet does for Scrappi as we thought it was all the same, and Monty was done at the shelter. The RSPCA used Nobivac KC and DHP, KC is the intranasal one isn't it. So you don't reccomend that? So would it be ok to give him C5 instead, every 3 years? What we were told was he needed his booster after a year and then I assume every 3 years as that's what the company says, but KC annually. Is there a nasal spray alternative in needle form? Ahhh sorry for so many questions! Haha

Thanks CavNRott. ???? I think we might do every 3 years. Not sure I want to risk never vaccinating again... I agree that us humans should be vaccinated, so I think my dogs should be too. Only thing is that we aren't vaccinated annually, and the dog vaccine companies say there is no need, so why do dogs need annual vaccines supposedly?

Thanks Simply Grand, I'll have a speak to my vet about triennial. Possibly get them both done today then wait 3 years for next ones... With C5, wouldn't that need to be annual though to cover KC?