CARE FOR YOUR NEW PUP continued Taking your puppy to the vet for a check up between six and eight weeks of age will give you the opportunity to come to an informed decision that you’re comfortable with about what vaccines to use for your pup. Desexing Unfortunately pet overpopulation is a huge animal welfare issue worldwide and many animals are abandoned, aren’t adequately cared for or can’t be rehomed by animal shelters leading to millions being euthanized each year. Desexing is an important tool to help address this issue. Desexed dogs are less likely to have territorial behaviors and get into ghts, which is important in helping to reduce injury and the need to see the vet. Desexing can be done as young as 8-10 weeks of age but as with any surgical procedure there are risks involved and the timing of the procedure can be important. For more information please refer to our Desexing information sheet. Pet Insurance Sometimes health problems develop suddenly and often unexpectedly and especially for occasions such as these, pet health insurance can be invaluable. A good Pet Health Insurance Plan will cover basic health checks as well as major health issues which may crop up. Ideally choose a pet health insurance plan that covers complementary and natural therapies in addition to all the benets of conventional veterinary medicine and surgery so that you can easily give your pet all the healthcare options that they may need. Socialization Dogs that are used to people and other animals are well socialized. Before the age of 4 months is the most important time to expose your puppy to people and other animals and help them to become well-adjusted, condent and friendly individuals. A microchip is approximately the size of a grain of rice. It is inserted under the skin usually between the shoulder blades and offers a reliable means of identifying an animal. This can be a fantastic help when an animal has been found and it has no collar or other identifying features and when the microchip is listed on the national database, it is relatively easy to reunite an animal with their owner. Microchipping can be done at any age but it is a council requirement for dogs to be registered and ideally microchipped at 3 months of age unless they are working dogs. Vaccinating you puppy can be an important way of helping to prevent serious life threatening diseases like parvo-virus. A vaccination is a means of giving the body a much less severe form of a disease than it could potentially contract. This primes the immune system to be prepared for the disease and enables the body to mount an effective enough defence so that the animal doesn’t become severely ill when exposed to the real thing. Homeopathic vaccines are available but don’t carry the scientic weight that our conventional vaccines do in terms of efcacy, however negative reactions to these gentle remedies aren’t an issue. From a holistic point of view, the best support that we can give our animals’ immune system is to nourish them properly, live cleanly and respect the environment that we live in. Vaccination has its place, but each animal needs to be assessed individually and the benets of a vaccination protocol versus potential negatives carefully weighed up. Any vaccine is only as good as the host’s response to it and this requires an animal to have a healthy immune system. This is a big reason why vaccines sometimes fail to provide immunity. As with any medication, there are potential negative effects associated with vaccines such as vaccine reactions. There is also evidence that over vaccination contributes to the development of autoimmune conditions and other degenerative diseases. Microchipping Vaccination and Regular Health Checks