I'm getting a puppy and telephoned my vet for an appointment just to check her over.   The breeder states her vet vaccinates at 8 and 10 weeks.   My vet says she vaccinates at 10 and 12 weeks.  She says if the breeder vaccinates at 8 weeks she will still vaccinate at 10 and 12 weeks.  Isn't this overload? I know on this forum (that I cannot find) there is a topic about not using the same brand being a problem.
Any thoughts?

Personally I would not do 3 vaccinations. Either ask the breeder not to do the first one and let your vet do the course or just ask your vet to do only the second vaccination. My vet no longer does the second vaccination at 10 weeks as they had a few cases of parvo in vaccinated pups. They think perhaps the pups still had maternal immunity which stopped the vaccination working. They now do 8 and 12 weeks.

My vet does 9&12weeks,my pups leave here fully vaccinated, I wouldn't let a pup go part way through the vacs due to past experience of trying to find a vet using the same vaccine brand and having to do 100mile round trip back to the breeders vet to complete the course.

I agree the second one should be delayed till 12 weeks having heard of pups dying of something the vacs should have covered at 6 months old, some dams will allow pups to have a suckle right up to when they leave passing on her antibodies which then knock out the vaccine.

After reading the answers I telephoned my vet and got straight through to her.  She said to still have the 8wk vac as it does not necessarily take because of the mothers anti-bodies but it does give some protection so having 10 and 12 wks is necessary.  I went on another site about puppies weight and put in her weight and it says she is 15% underweight.  B****y hell what next?

if you post a link to the weight site I can put my puppies weight in which will give you an idea about how accurate it is. Does your pup seem small or underweight?

Can you not see if another vet will do 8 and 10 weeks?  All vets around my area do.

but vaccinating at 10 weeks possibly leaves the pup unprotected. Safer to vaccinate at 12 weeks.

A puppy I bred had her jabs at 8 and 10 weeks and went on to get parvo at 7 months old!! From the titre tests she had when she recovered,they showed she had no immunity from her puppy jabs at all. I now recommend that my pups are done at 10 and 12 weeks although the recommendation by Ron Schultz ,the leading world authority on dog vaccinations, is that the optimum time for puppy vacs is at 14 and 16 weeks. It is a very emotive subject.

Hello newyork, I don't know how to post links but the site I went to was puppyweights.com

This is the most up to date guidelines from the WSAVA.

http://www.wsava.org/guidelines/vaccination-guidelines

At the end of the day the puppy is yours not your vets so read as much as you can and then make your own decision.  I personally would not do three vaccinations.

I think I have some other links, but not sure how to copy and paste more than one at a time.

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adobe/IVIS-Considerations%20in%20Designing%20Effective%20and%20Safe%20Vaccination%20Programs%20for%20Dogs%202000.pdf

Another study worth looking at.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/vet-distemper-dog/

This is mainly about the distemper vaccination, but goes on to give information about the other core vaccines.

I'd be a bit concerned about a breeder who will vaccinate at 8 weeks whilst knowing that many vets will want to start the process again resulting in a further two jabs...  How old will yr pup be when you get her?  Why does she need to be vaccinated before leaving the breeder?

She will be exactly 8 weeks.   In the past pups were always vaccinated at 8 weeks.  If I remember correctly the buyer had them done.  Buyers didn't usually bother so I think it became common for the breeder to do it.  When you read the advertisements it always says, wormed, flead and vaccinated.  It has just jogged my memory, when I had one of mine done before, the vet asked where I lived and said it would be quite safe for her to go out without the full course because of the area I lived in!!

Strictly speaking if the pup is vaccinated at 8 weeks it shouldn't go to its new home for another few days because of the unneccessary additional stress to its system. The worst vaccine reaction we had was in a pup that was vaccinated the day it was collected by its new owners.

Hi BunnyFluff. I probably wouldn't worry too much about what that site says about your puppys weight. When I put my puppies weight in it says she will be 35% below the breeds avarage when fully grown!!! I am happy with what she weighs now and is the same as her mum at this age

I would wait and have her doen at 10 and 12 weeks.  Somw pups will still have too much maternal antibodies and the vaccination won't take (it's one reason two are given).

Have a look here: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/taking-the-risk-out-of-puppy-shots/

> In the past pups were always vaccinated at 8 weeks.

Actually that is not true.

20 years ago pups were vaccinated at 9 and 12 or 10 and 12 weeks.

It is only in the last 10 years that the manufacturers maintained they had improved vaccines enough to counter maternal antibody interference sooner.

One of our posters is an example of how this isn't always the case when her fully vaccinated pup (done at 8 and 10 weeks) contracted parvovirus at 4 months old.

After recovery titre tests were conducted that showed no antibodies for anything except for Parvo (which of course she had due to being ill).

My personal view is that of course we want to socialise pups early, but do we really need to take them to heavy risk areas at 10 to 13 weeks?  Plenty can be done with low risk exposure, being carried visiting friends, and dogs with known health status etc.

Of course more care should be taken if there is a local outbreak.

With human babies vaccinations start at 3 months.  We do not wrap them up in cotton wool. in fact most people will be coming to see, hold and kiss new baby long before, and many of these don't even get the protection of antibodies in breast milk.

> When you read the advertisements it always says, wormed, flead and vaccinated.

Generally that is the case with commercially motivated breeders to make their pups seem more attractive (as frankly the parents may have nothing else to commend them in quality).

Adverts saying parents hip scored, eye tested DNA tested etc. Perhaps also mentioning parents level of achievement in show or working field.  This would point to a better class of breeder.

Well reared puppies should not need routine flea treatment, should be wormed as a matter of course so should not need mentioning.

As for new owners not bothering to vaccinate, that would point to very poor vetting of new owners, or ones who have looked at all the issues and do not vaccinate.

What breed is it?
My vets only do 2 lots 8 and 10 weeks, all of them do around here.
I've had one breeder do the first vacs and I had to get the 2nd one done, had to find a different vet as this vacs was a different brand to my own vets, no issues in finding a local vets to complete though.

Some breeds they say can be more stubborn and some recommend 3 sets for good measure, mine is one of them however the breeder didn't mention this, its only in some books and online, however i only did 2 and no issues..
I don't like to over vaccinate anyway.

I think alot depends on when/what age the puppy is picked up by the new owner.
The last few pups I have bought in, have been around 9 weeks(most convenient for all parties). I have then taken to my vet for the 1st jab a few days later, then obviously the next jab 2 weeks later.
From my most recent litter, the first pup went at 10 weeks without any jabs. I was very late with the others with 1st jab at 14 weeks & they certainly didnt suffer, as they are extreamly outgoing pups.
I personally feel that its better for the pup(going around this age) 8-10 weeks) to have both jabs in their new home/vets.

I'm getting a puppy from The Netherlands later this year, the breeder tells me that they vaccinate at 6, 9 and 12 weeks with rabies at 13 weeks. I see no point in/need for vaccinations at 6 weeks but that is apparently standard there, at least they follow up at 9 and 12 weeks which should be fine.

I've had my medium sized pups vaccinated at 8 & 10 weeks for over 15 years and by different vets with no queries. My toy breed however do not vaccinate until at least 11 weeks