Dog Vaccines: What Every Vet (And Dog Owner) Should Know

              ARE YOU CONFUSED ABOUT HOW OFTEN YOUR DOG NEEDS VACCINES?

           You’re not alone … your vet probably is too. It’s the number one 

question we’re asked here at Dogs Naturally and it’s a good question. 

Because, as you’ll find out, most dogs are being vaccinated too often. 

And that’s dangerous.

      So let’s look at the core vaccines and what research has to say 

about how often they should be given. But before we do, you should 

first understand that the core dog vaccines (parvovirus, distemper and 

adenovirus) are not required by law. 

      Only rabies is legally required in the all states in the US and some 

(not all) Canadian provinces.So apart from rabies, nobody can force 

you to vaccinate your dog with any other vaccine you don’t want to give. 

Period. 

       This is a decision best left up to you and your vet. But before you 

decide, make sure you’re aware of the duration of immunity of those 

vaccines – and the potentially lethal consequences of over-vaccinating

 – because most vets don’t (but don’t worry, we’ve got a handout you 

can share with our vet at the bottom of this post).

         More Is Not Better When it comes to immunity and duration of 

immunity for dog vaccines, there’s one clear expert. Dr Ronald D Schultz 

is one of perhaps three or four researchers doing challenge studies 

on veterinary vaccines – and he did these studies for 40 years.  

      In fact, it’s Dr Schultz’s work that prompted the AAHA (American Animal 

Hospital Association) and AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) 

to re-evaluate

 vaccine schedules. In 2003, The American Animal Hospital Association 

Canine Vaccine Taskforce warned vets in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) 

that: 

       Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our 

profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating 

decreased frequency of vaccination’; ‘Immunological memory provides 

durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the 

traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.’   

      ‘This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information  as 

well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates 

immunity induced by 

vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.’

     “The recommendation for annual re-vaccination is a practice that 

was officially started in 1978.”  says Dr Schultz. “This recommendation was 

made without 

any

 scientific validation of the need to booster immunity so frequently. In 

fact the presence of good humoral antibody levels blocks the anamnestic 

response to vaccine boosters just as maternal antibody blocks the response 

in some young animals.”

     He adds:  “The patient receives no benefit and may be placed at 

serious risk when an unnecessary vaccine is given. Few or no scientific 

studies have demonstrated a need for cats or dogs to be revaccinated.”

     

Below is the result of duration of immunity testing on over 1,000 dogs and on every major 

vaccine.

Both challenge (exposure to the real virus) and serology (antibody titer results) are below:

It’s important to note that this is the MINIMUM duration of immunity. These ceilings reflect 

not the 

duration of immunity, but the duration of the studies.

Dr Schultz explains “It is important to understand that these are minimum DOI’s and longer 

studies 

have not been done with certain of the above products. It is possible that some or all of these 

products

 will provide lifelong immunity.”

Dr Schultz has seen these results repeated over the years.  In 2010, he published the following 

with 

newer generation, recombinant vaccines.

    

Only one dose of the modified-live canine ‘core’ vaccine (against CDV, 

CAV-2 

and CPV-2) or modified-live feline ‘core’ vaccine (against FPV, FCV and 

FHV), 

when administered at 16 weeks or older, will provide long lasting (many 

years 

to a lifetime) immunity in a very high percentage of animals.”

But the problem is, many vets are ignoring this research … and your vet is vaccinating your 

dog every year – or even every three years – he’s vaccinating too much! Your dog is already 

protected and the vaccine will give him all of the risk with no benefit.

Protect Your Dog From Disease AND From Vaccine Damage It’s critical to understand 

that we need to protect our dogs and cats not just from infectious disease, 

but also from vaccine damage. And that recently became a lot easier (and a lot cheaper) …

We now have inexpensive in-house titer testing (Vaccicheck and TiterCHEK) – titer 

tests will determine whether your pet has responded to his vaccines and 

formed immunity. With in-house titer testing, there’s never any reason 

to give any cat or dog over the age of 16 weeks another vaccine 

without a negative titer test first.

Vets no longer have to guess at when to re-vaccinate.

But vets continue to guess anyway and they vaccinate every three years or more … and they’re 
reluctant to use titer tests instead. Your dog relies on your vet to make the right decisions when 
it comes to vaccines. So please download this printable PDF and discuss it with your vet before 
you vaccinate your dog again.

 

UNDERLYING GENETIC BASIS FOR SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN DOG AND PEOPLE

Dogs' ability to communicate and interact with humans is one the most astonishing differences between them and wolves. A new study published today in the journal "Science Advances", identifies genetic changes that are linked to dogs' and human-directed social behaviors that suggests there is a common underlying genetic basis for hyper-social behavior in both dogs and humans.

      An interdisciplinary team of researchers, including those from Princeton University, sequenced a region of chromosome 6 in dogs and found multiple sections of canine DNA that were associated with differences in social behavior. In many cases, unique genetic insertions called transposons on the Williams-Beuren syndrome critical region (WBSCR) were strongly associated with the tendency to seek out humans for physical contact, assistance and information.

    In contrast, in humans, it is the deletion of genes from the counterpart of this region on the human genome, rather than insertions, that causes Williams-Beuren syndrome, a congenital disorder characterized by hyper-social traits such as exceptional gregariousness.

     "It was the remarkable similarity between the behavioral presentation of Williams-Beuren syndrome and the friendliness of domesticated dogs that suggested to us that there may be similarities in the genetic architecture of the two phenotypes," said Bridgett vonHoldt, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton and the study's lead co-author.

      VonHoldt had identified the canine analog of the WBSCR in her publication in Nature in 2010. But it was Emily Shuldiner, a 2016 Princeton alumna and the study's other lead co-author, who, as part of her senior thesis, pinpointed the commonalities in the genetic architecture of Williams-Beuren syndrome and canine tameness.

     By analyzing behavioral and genetic data from dogs and gray wolves, vonHoldt, Shuldiner and their colleagues reported a strong genetic aspect to human-directed social behavior by dogs. Monique Udell, an assistant professor of animal and rangeland sciences at Oregon State University and the paper's senior author, collected and analyzed the behavioral data for 18 domesticated dogs and 10 captive human-socialized wolves, as well as the biological samples used to sequence their genomes.

     First, Udell quantified human-directed sociability traits in canines, such as to what extent they turned to a human in the room to seek assistance in trying to lift a puzzle box lid in order to get a sausage treat below or the degree to which they sought out social interactions with familiar and unfamiliar humans. Then, vonHoldt and Shuldiner sequenced the genome in vonHoldt's lab and correlated their findings.

     Consistent with their hypothesis, the researchers confirmed that the domesticated dogs displayed more human-directed behavior and spent more time in proximity to humans than the wolves. The also discovered that some of these transposons on the WBSCR were only found in domestic dogs, and not in wolves at all.

    VonHoldt's findings suggest that only a few transposons on this region likely govern a complex set of social behaviors. "We haven't found a 'social gene,' but rather an important [genetic] component that shapes animal personality and assisted the process of domesticating a wild wolf into a tame dog," she said.

    Anna Kukekova, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is familiar with the research but had no role in it, said that the paper points to these genes as being evolutionarily conserved, or essentially unchanged throughout evolution. "The research provides evidence that there exist certain evolutionary conservative mechanisms that contribute to sociability across species," she said. "That they have found that this region contributes to sociability in dogs is exciting."

Survival of the friendliest

   The researchers' evidence also calls into question the role of domestication in the evolution of canine behavior. Most experts agree that the first domesticated dogs were wolves that ventured into early human settlements. These proto-dogs evolved not only in their looks, but also their behavior, a process likely influenced by the species' cohabitation, according to vonHoldt.

     However, unlike previous research which suggests that, during the process of domestication, dogs were selected for a set of cognitive abilities, particularly an ability to discern gesture and voice, vonHoldt and Shuldiner's research posits that dogs were instead selected for their tendency to seek human companionship.

     "If early humans came into contact with a wolf that had a personality of being interested in them, and only lived with and bred those 'primitive dogs,' they would have exaggerated the trait of being social," vonHoldt said.

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