#dogvaccinations, injections or puppyshots are crucial to give young dogs healthy start in life. In this video, four Great Dane puppies arrive at Abbey House Veterinary Hospital for their first vaccinations. Vet Laura Smith explains what a #doginoculation is and why they're so vital to dog's health. The veterinary advice given in this video is of a general nature only. If you are concerned about your own dog's health, always take them to your vet. The vets at Abbey House Veterinary Group see 700 dogs every week across their three branches in West Yorkshire. If you have a puppy or new dog one of the most important reasons you’ll visit your vet is for their #doginjections.

When puppies are born they are usually protected from infections by their intake of colustrum – the rich milk provided by their mother during the first days of their life.
However, this protection only lasts a few weeks so puppies need regular vaccinations from an early age.
Vaccinations are something that we recommend for all puppies. They’re standard vaccinations that vaccinate them against distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus, which is something that is quite common, parainfluenza and leptospirosis. Most of those are quite rare luckily at the moment, and that’s because so many dogs are vaccinated. It’s parvovirus that is the one that’s still out there that we do see quite a bit of. Most of these are transmitted from dog to dog. So that’s why it’s really important to get your dog vaccinated.
If the number of dogs protected by vaccines drop– your pet could be at risk of an outbreak of infectious diseases – some of which can be transmitted to humans.
Puppies are typically vaccinated at eight and ten weeks with an initial course of two injections. Your dog should then be given a booster 12 months after their first vaccination.
It’s also advisable to have your dog vaccinated against a highly contagious disease called kennel cough. The condition may not be life threatening but it can be very irritable and uncomfortable for your dog.
We do recommend kennel cough vaccination, especially if your dog is going to come into contact with other dogs. So if it’s going into kennels, competing in any shows, going to training classes, then it’s the correct situation for a dog to pick up kennel cough, so we do recommend the kennel cough vaccination. Because kennel cough is caused by so many different bacteria and viruses, the kennel cough vaccination in itself is not 100 per cent effective, because it doesn’t cover all the different causes, but it does rule out most of them. So if your dog is going to be put in that situation, we’d recommend it vaccinated.

Puppies and dogs also need to have regular flea and worming treatments. The most common internal parasites that infest puppies are roundworms and tapeworms. Unfortunately there’s no preventative treatment that will stop your dog from becoming infected but there are a number of effective products that will kill the parasites.


We recommend regular working for all dogs. Puppies should have been wormed by the breeder before you’ve got them, but it not then go to your vets and they can provide some worming treatment for you. We recommend all puppies are wormed every month until six months old, and then dogs every three to four months throughout the year.
Most puppies, you see no side effects after they’ve had their vaccination.