Help with socialization and immunity!

[mimiretz]

Two more thoughts. . .

As the title said, two more thoughts on this issue. First, some of the concern seems to be geographically-based. Parvo seems to be rampant in certain cities/states and not so much of a concern in other places. If I lived in a place where it was rampant, there is no doubt I would react differently than I do. As it is, there just aren't a lot of cases around here. My vet knows what I'm doing with Oberon and hasn't raised any concerns.

The second point is that I think a lot of diseases probably run rampant at vet offices. We use a mobile vet (for a variety of reasons) and therefore don't have that worry at all. I would certainly be hesitant to bring a partially-vaccinated puppy to a place where at least a portion of the dogs were unquestionably sick.

 

[Spazzy Jazzy]

I carried Jasmine through pet stores to socialize with people, for loud noises and scary/strange sounds, a trainer suggested I call the local Lowe's or Home Depot and see if I could bring her through. They are really good about letting you bring a dog into their stores. I carried Jazzy through Lowe's as well, more out of fear of nails/splinters than anything else. I think those excursions helped curb her of the psychotic barking she would aim at the garbage truck.

Crazy thing, Jasmine was more terrified of grass than anything after spring hit this year. I live in Utah and she was born in November. She was 5 months old before she felt grass, can't wait to see if she remembers snow this winter.

 

[Caro]

Not sure if you have this website in the US, but in Australia and NZ Virbac run a website called Disease Watchdog where you can see reported cases of various cat and dog diseases across the country, it's really interesting and esp useful when we travel. This is the ANZ one http://www.diseasewatchdog.org/index.php/map. I can tell you there were 1,402 reported cases of parvo in Australia in the last 12mths, only one in my area but I still wouldn't risk it. The US has 20 times more dogs than Aust and lower vacc rates...