Puppy Safety and Vaccines

Puppy Safety and Common Misconceptions about Vaccines
Some families try to protect their puppies by isolating them from other dogs until the pup has had a full set of vaccines. This is both harmful and helpful.

Harmful to Puppies
The pup’s brain is most open to socialization and new experiences when it is young so that depriving a pup of exposure to a wide variety of stimuli increases the likelihood it will be anxious around these stimuli as an adult. No other period in a pup’s life will be as significant in terms of socialization as it’s first few months of life. More dogs have trouble with anxiety and fear-based biting than have trouble with parvo or distemper.

Isolation to prevent infection prevents proper socialization and learning. This is harmful.

Helpful to Puppies
Isolation is helpful because it prevents a pup from being overwhelmed by bacteria and viruses from sick dogs or from infected secretions and feces of sick dogs. This isolation allows a pup’s immune system to mature so it is better able to fight any germs it comes across.

The compromise
To provide a pup with experiences it needs during critical period of social development, think of all the places it needs to see and experiences it needs to have in order to be a healthy adult. Then rank the places and experiences as likely to be germ-laden or free of pathogens. Consider the physical environment—soil, floors, furniture, carpets. Consider the animals—immature immune systems, weak immune systems, or healthy. Consider the people—healthy, happy, frail, immune-suppressed, or robust. The way you’ve ranked these exposures will help you generate lists like those below:
· Things to avoid
· Things to do.

Things to avoid to keep your pup safe
Protect your pup by avoiding environments that are potentially harmful, such as the following:
· pet playgrounds
· pet stores
· roadside pet areas
· vet clinic (Have the vet come to your home)
· puppy classes
· dog photo shoots
· parades
· SPCA
· Humane Society
· foster home with newly arrived foster pets

Things to do to keep your pup safe
Enjoy doing as many low-risk activities with high socialization potential as possible, such as the following:
· Visit the breeder and play with the parents if the breeder has only a few dogs (Don’t visit a breeder with so many dogs they are kenneled.)
· Visit your parents and their adult dogs.
· Have your neighbors bring their adult dogs over for play dates
· Visit places with animals and people, but few visiting dogs, such as a horse farm, you-pick orchard, or Christmas tree farm.

Enjoy
This is an ideal time to begin questioning many of the beliefs you have about puppies and health, vaccines, and germs. Life with your pup can be both safe and full of the joy of new experience.