Veterinary Services

Dog Vaccination

Important Facts About Dog Vaccination

At Cloverleaf Animal Hospital we provide the best dog vaccination services for your pet.

Dog Vaccination

What exactly are dog vaccinations?

Dog vaccines are biological preparations that we give your dog to stimulate their body to make an immune response to any infectious or some of these infectious diseases that they’ll come across.

Dr. Adam Stout
Cloverleaf Animal Hospital

How do vaccinations impact the health and wellbeing of my dog?

They prevent a lot of the common infectious diseases that we see, and if we can prevent those diseases, that extends the longevity of life, happiness, and healthiness of your pet.

Are vaccinations required by law?

That depends on where you live. The only required vaccine that’s out is the rabies vaccine, but that depends on what state you live in and the county within the state you live in. That’s the one that I know of that would be required by law, at least for Ohio.

Does my dog's lifestyle factor into what vaccinations my veterinarian might recommend?

Absolutely. The vaccine standard used to be a cookie-cutter way back in the day. This is what they get. Everybody got the same thing all the time. Once we establish the puppy vaccine series as the baseline, we get them in here at six to eight weeks, and there’s a series every three to four weeks on their vaccine program. Once that puppy program and baseline have been established, that next year or two, we look at their lifestyle. What is this dog going to be exposed to? Or what is this dog not going to be exposed to? And we base those vaccines on the lifestyle and what we think they should be covered for.

How soon should I get my dog vaccinated?

If they haven’t currently been vaccinated or are not up to date, then as soon as possible. Once again, we start puppies on their vaccines at six to eight weeks of age, and we follow a protocol for the next several months. If you have an older dog or a dog we’re not sure of, contact us here at Cloverleaf Animal Hospital. We can guide you through that procedure, but if we’re behind or you don’t know the status, we’ll get you on the right path.

Do I really need to avoid allowing my puppy to socialize with other dogs until they're fully vaccinated?

Great question. We usually recommend that. These guys are like newborn babies. If we give a vaccine today, it doesn’t mean they’re completely covered. It takes a couple of these vaccines and boosters to protect them fully. And you don’t know what’s out there now. If you have another dog in the house that’s vaccinated, you’re fine. But you just don’t know these days; you don’t know who’s vaccinated, and who’s not. As a team here, we want to make sure your puppy’s ready to hit the world regardless of what they may encounter.

Why is it important to avoid missing a dog vaccination?

Research and trials have shown that vaccines have a certain, I guess, lifespan in your puppy’s immunity. The research sets those standards, and they know how long these vaccines last and how long they provide immunity. So we don’t want to lapse on that timeframe and have them unprotected. If they’ve had vaccines in the past, they’ve lapsed, their months or years behind, it opens them up to possibly getting infected by one of these infectious diseases that we do vaccinate for.

If you still have other questions and you’d like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (330) 948-2002, email us, or reach out on social media. But please do reach out, and we’ll get back to you as fast as we can.