Just how contagious is kennel cough?  I have been away leaving people staying in my home caring for my animals.  Fine.  As previously arranged, they left this morning for their holiday and I returned just after lunch from mine.  Fine again.  Now the BUT!  Rather than leave my dog at home on his own for a few hours a neighbour took my boy in even though she knew her dog had kennel cough!!! Grrrrrrr!  I am going away again on Thursday and this time my dog has been booked into a kennels.  Obviously they won´t want him if he develops kennel cough.  Am I up a gum tree, or what?

Up a gumtree I'm afraid. Kennel cough is extremely infectious. Dogs can pass it on to other dogs even before they start to show symptoms themselves, so there is no way any decent kennels would take him.

Doesn't the kennels insist on kennel cough vaccination?

Obviously they didn´t Goldmali.  I´m fuming!  Not to mention that I really don´t want my poor little lad to be unwell unnecessarily (or at any time of course).

I had a visiting dog a few months ago.  The owner didn't mention kennel cough.  But 10 days later 2 of my dogs went down with it.  Then another the following day. It took 6 days before all of my dogs had been hit.  I honestly think it's unlikely that your dog will get away with it.

Very likely he will get it, I'm afraid. But even if he doesn't you will have to alert the kennels to the fact that hes been exposed to it. I doubt they will take him in case he is carrying it, it can rip through a kennels like wildfire, all those dogs sharing the same air space.

There are various strains of it, not all covered by the vaccine, so even if all the dogs in there had the vaccine, he could still be a risk to them.

Thanks everyone.  I went to my vet this morning and of course he confirmed what I already knew.  I was just clutching at straws.

Doesn't the kennels insist on kennel cough vaccination?

Sadly the vaccination doesn't prevent all types of KC.  I get all mine done as I occasionally go to shows & my husband works his labs, but one has still gone down with kc (a few years back) with it after vaccinating.  It's a bit like our 'flu jab :-(

Highly contagious, can be really awful, can also be a killer.  I was always paranoid for my old girl as she had bronchitis, luckily she never caught it...