I want to enter my dog in a show when my new puppy Will be 9 weeks and 5 days old. I am debating because the new puppy was bottle-raised from around 5 days of age onward. She will have had her first vaccination at age 6 weeks, and the second at around age 9 weeks. Five days later is the show, obviously I will not be taking the puppy to the show, but am concerned about bringing something home to a puppy with zero maternal antibodies. Is it a unreasonable risk to go to the show, and I should I just skip it? Or am I being overly protective? I have my own theory, but am having a family debate about it as well, and thought I would get some thoughts? Thank you in advance!

I think if your careful you can go. Just make sure you disinfect the dog your going to the show with and yourself, I use A464N on my dogs and myself before coming back in the yard if I have young pups that aren't fully vaccinated and take a bath before going to the puppy(s)
Aloha,
Jackie

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Replying to:

I want to enter my dog in a show when my new puppy Will be 9 weeks and 5 days old. I am debating because the new puppy was bottle-raised from around 5 days of age onward. She will have had her first vaccination at age 6 weeks, and the second at around age 9 weeks. Five days later is the show, obviously I will not be taking the puppy to the show, but am concerned about bringing something home to a puppy with zero maternal antibodies. Is it a unreasonable risk to go to the show, and I should I just skip it? Or am I being overly protective? I have my own theory, but am having a family debate about it as well, and thought I would get some thoughts? Thank you in advance!

Your puppy did get maternal antibodies from the colostrum which is the milk from the first couple of days. Plus now she will have had two distemper/parvo shots. And you are leaving her home. There won't be any problems. Just follow your normal routine of good hygiene. Make sure your show dog has had kennel cough vaccine and also the pup since that's been making the rounds.

Sometimes I think that keeping them in a bubble is worse - they only develop immunity from being exposed to something, and at 9 weeks the immune system is functioning.

I agree with Nancy. Your pup got as many maternal antibodies from the first few days of nursing as any other pup gets, so don't be overprotective, germs can help build a good immune system.

It is awful to have a young pup have kennel cough.
In fact, a young pup, cannot fight off things as well as an adult. Things like kennel cough, and cocci, can be detremental to a young pup.
Better safe than sorry. I have to disagree. My health on my pups is more important. Once you been there, I am sure you will change your tune.

If you have a way of isolating your "show" dog from the puppy, then I would go. If not, I'd be very careful if I went, to stay away from other dogs as much as possible, and not potty where everyone else potties too. When I go to a dog show when I have a pregnant bitch or young puppies at home, the "show" dogs stay outside in the kennel - they can't come inside for 2 weeks minimum. I shower as soon as I'm home, after stepping in a bleach solution then leaving my shoes in the kennel, and throwing my clothes into the washer when I walk in the house. Kennel shoes stay outside and hands are washed prior to coming back inside. In short, treat the "show" dogs as if they were infected until proven not.

Keep your dogs outside for two weeks? I would NEVER>

They are not outside - they are out in the indoor/outdoor/heated/air-conditioned kennel. I spend plenty of time out there with them and they run the acreage as well. It's worth it to me for peace of mind to keep my puppies healthy. You don't have to do it that way, that's just how I do it, and I'd expect there's a large number of people here who similarly quarantine their "show" dogs when there are susceptible animals in their homes. Maybe they don't want to sign their names to avoid the judgemental attitude of the idealists on this list, but I frankly just tell it like it is!

Amen to what Patty said! I'd never risk it either.

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Replying to:

They are not outside - they are out in the indoor/outdoor/heated/air-conditioned kennel. I spend plenty of time out there with them and they run the acreage as well. It's worth it to me for peace of mind to keep my puppies healthy. You don't have to do it that way, that's just how I do it, and I'd expect there's a large number of people here who similarly quarantine their "show" dogs when there are susceptible animals in their homes. Maybe they don't want to sign their names to avoid the judgemental attitude of the idealists on this list, but I frankly just tell it like it is!

Thank you for the replies.

For the record, I was thinking that I should skip the show, and wait until after the third set of vaccinations before we take the older one out to shows. I think it might have been okay, maybe, but I would have felt terrible if the puppy got sick because I went to a show. I can be patient for a few more weeks.