We like to stick to those three weeks in between, as it really helps with immunity. But if you’ve gone a little time passed that, it’s not a big deal. If you go much past five weeks, we may have to reconsider this whole time period of boostering certain vaccines.

I would say absolutely. By law, the core vaccines DATPP and rabies should be given. But I also recommend the other ones that I mentioned, such as lepto to prevent kennel cough.

Yeah. We don't live in a bubble. Even in this world of coronavirus, we don't live in a bubble. We are going to be exposed to airborne pathogens, things like that.
Parvo, for example. If your dog never goes outside, not to say that's great, but okay if that's your choice, but parvo can still find its way inside. Why? You go outside. What happens if you are around another dog and there are viral particles on that dog? Maybe they have a bowel movement or had a bowel movement that you didn't see, you step in it, it's on your shoes... something like that. If that viral particle makes its way back into your house, well, guess who's going to find it? Your dog will. Is it as common in indoor dogs? No, of course not, but it's still possible. And once again, as I said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when you're dealing with potentially fatal viruses like parvo.

Yeah, unfortunately, the honest answer is yes, of course, there is. I mean, you're putting a foreign substance into a living creature. Animals are going to react differently, no different than people might do. So, yes. It's hard to predict which vaccine they're going to react to because, again, every animal is different, but the most common ones that we'll see reactions to are things like rabies and sometimes lepto that I mentioned earlier.
You know that old expression, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I am one of those guys that really like to vaccinate my own dogs, because I would much rather take that rare chance of them having a vaccine reaction but know that they're protected, because I can tell you, as a veterinarian, I've seen too many puppies die of parvovirus right in front of me that could have been prevented with adequate vaccination.

On the whole, everything that we're injecting into an animal does come with associated risks. Most of the time it's perfectly benign and actually helps much more than it hurts. The leptospirosis vaccine, in particular, often causes a mild vaccine reaction with some swelling or pain at the injection site. Thankfully, that’s a pretty simple fix. Just call your veterinarian, and they can prescribe pain meds as needed.

This is really important. So you’ll start them between six and nine weeks and then every three weeks after that, up until their fourth-round—especially for that parvovirus vaccine. We definitely don't want them to be exposed to unknown environments or unvaccinated dogs even three to four weeks after their last puppy vaccine.