To vaccinate or not?

Our dogs are coming up to needing their boosters done and happened to mention this out with a fellow dog owner friend the other day. She said that she never vaccinates hers as she gives them supplements to keep them healthy and doesn't want them full of chemicals.
Now i personally like to keep things as natural as possible i.e. i don't give them flea treatments unless they need it but it had not really occurred to me to not vaccinate them. As it is, it is a requirement of my insurance (as i would therefore assume it is for most), but are there dogsey members who don't vaccinate? If not, why? Would be interested to hear some view points.

I vaccinate both of mine, a regularly worm/flea treatment them and both are VERY healthy! Our old dog trainer did not believe in vaccinations and preached to the class about this - which I did not think was appropriate - so I left. It is up to the indiviual owner- but personally I wouldn't risk it!!

Better full of chemicals than a life threatening disease
I too have heard a few people say they never vaccinate their dogs (more finacial than anything) I have never considered not vaccinating.

As annual boosters are now only for kennel cough and lepto (coz the vacs are now for 3 or even 5 years in some cases!) I don't see the need now. I had a long chat with my vet about it last time and he explained to me that the lepto virus had so many strains in it anyway (bit like our flu one) that even if my dog was around rats urine and managed to pick it up, it probably wouldn't be the one he was vaccinated against anyway, again, same as our flu jabs! He never goes into kennels, so I don't need the kennel cough because it's probably a million to one chance that he'd catch it, and apart from that, he already has ummune system problems, and of course any jab would hinder that even more!

I have always stopped any boosters/vaccinations in all of my dogs over 10 years of age, coz I felt they had enough cover during their life up until then, and I have to say, I've actually had 2 vets agree with me on that one!

I have 5 dogs they are all fully vaccinated , wormed etc and always have been . My oldies are 11 , 12 , 13 and 15 and are in perfect health and are on no medication etc .
My puppy is 5 months old and has had her vaccinations to date and always will have too .
I just don't think it's worth the risk not to

Have always had our dogs annual boosters done , our dogs vaccine cards are checked yearly by our dog training club, no booster no membership.

I would always vaccinate dogs, and feel that the argument about them being full of chemicals is a very poor one. Have these people ever seen a dog die of parvo etc.

My mum accidentally missed one of her booster jabs for her 10 year old dog. Two years later he was struck down with viral Hepetitis which would have entered his system the year he missed his jab and sat dormant in his system until his immune system was compromised by a stomach bug. This was last year and he was on a drip every day for over two weeks and it was touch and go as to whether he would survive. He was gravely ill and it took him a very long time to recover.

As with the human population, the dog vaccination programes rely on a certain number of the poppulation of dogs to be vaccinated for the program to be succesful. The more people who don't vaccinate their dogs (and children, come to that matter) gradually reduces the effectivenss of the programe putting more dogs (and children) at risk.

Since the triple vaccine MMR scare some parents chose not to vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella and we are now seeing an increase in all these diseases as a result.

I dont do my lot every year

I always have done, and most definately will make sure i always check that i am up to date with them after having to watch what my parent's Dewi went through...knowing that it would have been avoidable if only he had not missed his jab. It was heart breaking to know that my parents mistake was the cause. My mum couldn't bare to think about the cause of it because she knew she was responsible....thank god it he survived!

Ours were done when we got them at 8 weeks and then a year later.
But haven't had a card from the vets saying about any more.