Puppies - Socialising and vaccinations...

Reading some threads recently have got me thinking

When I got Jake, I didn't think of letting him down until after he had both of his vaccinations, and I waited a week after the second lot.

Now, when I did some reading about boostering, I read an interesting bit about puppy vaccinations. It said that puppies get two lots of vaccine because you don't know when the natural antibodies decrease, if they haven't then the body will fight against the first lot of vaccine. But, if they have then the pup is susceptible to catching the diseases vaccinated against so they do it early. The second one is done, incase the body fought against the first lot. Correct me if that is wrong I just hope I explained it properly

I have been thinking about that, and I might be thinking about this completely wrong, but if that is right... then won't the chance of catching something be relatively small? Won't the time window of them being unprotected, either by their natural antibodies, the first vaccine and the second, be quite small?

Also, some people suggest not vaccinating until 10 weeks, sometimes 12 weeks, so if those pups aren't around dogs in that time they they will be missing an important chance to socialise...

Lastly, I was wondering when do you let your pup down?

Like I said, with Jake I waited until a week after his second vaccination... with future pups though, I am not sure... I don't want to be risking the pup but also don't want to miss on important socialisation.

I've been letting mine on the ground since first vaccine

Rosie had her first vaccination at 8 weeks, the day after we got her and went down on the ground for a pee break and very short walk to get her used to the lead the day after that.

She was mostly carried, but did go down and was allowed to meet dogs that I considered to be safe.

My reasoning is that we desperately need to get in as much socialisation as we can so we carry our dogs. We encourage people to fuss our dogs whilst being carried (and even if we don't, they do). If those people have infected dogs, they can pass that infection onto the pup. We can carry infection into the house on our clothes and shoes. To me, provided we are sensible, there is little increased risk in letting puppies have a wander around on the ground. Just my opinion, of course.

My two pups had their final jab at 10 weeks and we didn't allow them to set foot out of our garden until a week later. A neighbour four doors down bought a puppy at 9 weeks old that hadn't had its first jab and it developed parvo virus a couple of days later (the vet thinks it probably bought the virus home with him). He did survive but we were extra vigilant knowing the virus was possibly on our grass verge. Parvo virus can live for ages on hard surfaces.
However, from 8 weeks we carried them out every day to see traffic, buses, trains and took them on daily car drives. Once they had had their final jab we took them to the local school at 'home time', again in our arms.
Normally the area I live in is classed as very low risk for parvo, but the road I live on had suddenly become a high risk area for that short period of time before my dogs could be allowed down to walk for themselve.

Thankfully Ben was so tiny I carried him everywhere from the day I got him
For some reason he had 3 sets of vaccinations - one lot just before I got him at 8 weeks, another at 10 weeks and another lot at 12 weeks
I figured waiting till a week after the last one was missing out on some really important dog meeting skills
so 2 days after the 10 week jab he was on the floor meeting other dogs

My min pin was desperately ill for a month after I got her. This meant that all vaccinations were put off until she was better so it was some time before she was 'considered safe' to go down on the ground.

Fortunately, weighing in at about 750g, I was able to carry her round with me everywhere I went and I got one of those pincy poncy dog shoulder bags and she loved it and looked SO cute sticking her head out of it that she got more attention than she probably would have if she had been walking!

I made every effort to get her out every day so she would not miss out on the socialising, at least with people.

Once she was considered 'safe' I was very wary at first - they put poison down for dogs here. And she was far too leapy jumpy yappy with bigger dogs (not all of whom were puppy friendly) But I held my nerve and decided she wasn't going to have much of a normal dog life if she wasn't going to be able to muck in with all the other dogs and have a free run off roads and streets. And, two years later, I am glad I did. Her absolute FAVOURITE thing is to get stuck in there with all the big dogs, even if she does get the occasional clout round the lughole from one who isn't impressed with her antics!

I have a pal who won't let her min pin near any other dogs because a bigger dog 'went for it' a year or so ago. Her dog has now become the anti social one!

I think a Greek pal of mine summed it up perfectly - he said 'God made Bella very small so he had to make her very BRAVE!'

And a few of the much bigger dogs are VERY protective of Bella. Especially the Labradors and the Rottweilers. They are very 'mumsie' with her.

I let mine go on the beach straight away, but was careful other places I took them. I do think socialisation is very important, but you have to know whether certain viruses are prevalent in your area at the time, so ask your vet to out your mind at ease, and also then you can avoid certain areas whether your dog is vaccinated or not.

Funny you should say that about the beach Loki. When I got my CKC Spaniel, I lived down in Newlyn in West Cornwall almost right on the beach.

When I was asking my vet about when the dog could safely 'go down' he was telling me places that should be considered safe but made a point of telling me NOT to let her down on the beach until she was protected by her vaccinations?

I don't know why. I do know there were rats on the beaches (not when you are sunbathing on them - but they are there) and maybe it had to do with that?

But I was surprised coz I thought that would be a safe place?

I live in a built up area where there are a lot of dogs and I'm prepared to bet a fair few are unvaccinated so I went with the vet's advice and waited. Pup was still taken out and about, just carried.

Always follow vets advice