Puppy Vaccination Schedule: What Your Dog Needs and When

Most people expect vaccination to be one visit and one injection. It is not, and that single misunderstanding sits behind a great many unprotected puppies.

A puppy is protected by a course given over several weeks, and the spacing between doses does real work. Skip the gaps, or stop halfway, and the puppy looks vaccinated on paper but is not properly protected at all.

The schedule

Age	Vaccine
6 to 8 weeks	DHLPP, first dose
9 to 11 weeks	DHLPP, second dose
12 to 16 weeks	DHLPP, third dose: the one that matters most
From 12 weeks	Rabies, often given with the third DHLPP dose
From 8 weeks, if your vet advises	Kennel cough
Every year after	A booster of DHLPP and rabies

Deworming runs alongside: at 2 weeks and 4 weeks old, then every month until 6 months. Worms and vaccines are separate problems, and treating one does nothing about the other.

Our free puppy and kitten vaccination schedule turns your puppy's date of birth into every one of these dates, ready to add to your phone's calendar.

Why puppies need several doses

A newborn puppy carries antibodies from its mother, absorbed in the first milk. They protect it early on, but they also block vaccines from working. As they fade, the puppy becomes vulnerable, and nobody can tell exactly when that happens for a particular puppy.

The course solves that by repetition. Give several doses across the weeks in which the mother's antibodies disappear, and at least one will land at the right moment. That is the whole logic, and it is why a single early injection is not enough, and why the last dose matters most.

What the vaccines prevent

Parvovirus

The one that kills puppies. It causes severe bloody diarrhoea and vomiting, dehydrates a puppy within a day or two, and treatment means days on a drip with round-the-clock care. The virus survives in soil and on surfaces for months, so a puppy does not need to meet a sick dog to catch it.

Distemper

It attacks the gut, the lungs and then the nervous system. Dogs that survive are often left with permanent twitches or seizures. There is no cure, only supportive care.

Leptospirosis

Spread in the urine of rats and other animals, often through standing water and floods, so the risk rises sharply in the rainy season. It also infects people.

Rabies

Fatal once signs appear, in dogs and in people. This is the vaccine with consequences beyond your household, and in Nigeria it is the one a dog bite case will turn on. Keep the certificate somewhere you can find it.

Where owners go wrong

• Stopping after the second dose because the puppy seems fine. The third is the one most likely to take.
• Stretching the gaps by weeks. Late doses leave holes in the cover.
• Assuming the breeder finished the course. Ask for dated records. "It has had its injections" is not a record.
• Buying vaccines to give at home. A vaccine stops working if it is not kept cold all the way from the factory to the clinic, and with power cuts you have no way to know it was.
• Skipping the yearly booster after a healthy first year.

Side effects worth knowing

Mild tiredness, a slight fever or a small lump where the needle went in are normal and settle within a day or two. Call your vet at once for facial swelling, hives, repeated vomiting or difficulty breathing. Real reactions are uncommon, but they are treatable when caught quickly.

Keep the record

Kennels, groomers, travel and any move abroad will all ask for proof. Photograph the vaccination card after every visit, so a lost booklet does not mean repeating the course. Your puppy's free Pet ID on the National Animal Database keeps the record in one place too.

None of this is complicated. What stops owners finishing the course is rarely doubt about whether it matters; it is the timing of the cost: three or four visits in the same weeks a puppy arrives and everything else needs buying too.

That is what the Cublings Plan is for. For puppies and kittens under 12 months, it pays for three rounds of DHLPP or FVRCP vaccines, a rabies vaccine and regular deworming, at any vet clinic in Nigeria, so the schedule becomes something in your diary rather than something you weigh up each month.