Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Should My New Puppy Already Have His Injections?

When Bailey had her last litter, I talked to my vet about giving the puppies their injections and was advised not to do so. This quite surprised me considering he was turning away quite a bit of business!

Puppies need two injections, which need to be done two weeks apart. If they’re left more than two weeks before they get their second injection then the first one is wasted and has to be done again.

An injection is quite a traumatic experience for a little puppy so my vets reasoning was that the first injection cannot be given before the age of six weeks and ideally a little older. A responsible dog breeder will not let the puppies leave before eight weeks old so really the breeder would only give the first injection.

When the puppy leaves at eight weeks old to go to his/her new home, this is also traumatic for them. They’ve left the comfort of the only home they’ve known all their little life, their brothers and sisters and their mothers and now they have to get used to a new home, sleeping alone and possibly new animals in the home too. My vet firmly believes that this is enough to any puppy to cope with at such a young age so they shouldn’t have any injections for the first week in a new home so there’s no point giving the first injection as it would be wasted.

Secondly, the new owners really should take their puppy to their vet for a health check - even if the breeder has already had it done. If the puppy had already had his injections then some might not bother so this is also a way to make sure that the puppy has at least two visits to the vet in the first month at his new home. That’s not a bad thing!

To be honest, when the new owners took their puppies, I thought one or two might question this logic, thinking I was just trying to get out of the cost of injections but most seemed quite happy with the arrangement. Of course I would have happily given my vets number for confirmation but most seemed fine with it.

So, rightly or wrongly, my opinion is that no, your new puppy shouldn’t already have his injections before he comes to you.