Can I prevent my dog from getting kennel cough?

The best way to prevent kennel cough is to vaccinate against it, especially if your dog mixes with lots of other dogs or spends time in kennels. Vaccination is the best way to prevent kennel cough, and is especially necessary if your dog spends lots of time with other dogs or goes into kennels. Kennel cough vaccine lasts 12 months - so should be repeated every year. Like any vaccine, the kennel cough vaccine doesn’t give 100%, guaranteed protection, however, it does significantly reduce the chance that your dog will catch kennel cough and reduces symptoms if they do catch it. Most reputable kennels and doggy day care centres will request that every dog has the kennel cough vaccination two to three weeks before staying with them. Speak to your vet about adding kennel cough into your dog’s vaccine schedule. Dogs with kennel cough should be kept away from other dogs and public spaces (while they are showing symptoms and for two to three weeks afterwards), as this is where spread is most common.

To help prevent your dog from becoming infected with kennel cough, there are several precautions that can be taken. After coming home from shows, you should disinfect crates, bedding, and bowls. During shows, dogs should not be allowed to have nose-to-nose contact with other dogs or be allowed to drink from common water sources. Handlers should wash their hands between touching one dog and another. For dogs that are at high risk for the disease, there is a vaccine that they may benefit from receiving. The vaccine will not prevent the disease, but will lessen the symptoms and duration of the disease. It can also decrease the amount of time that the sick dog can shed the disease. If you have a dog that becomes ill, it is best to isolate that infected dog until at least two weeks after the last cough. Once kennel cough has come into a kennel, it is best to clear out the kennel for one-to-two weeks and clean with common disinfectants, such as bleach.

You can minimise the chance of your dog contracting infectious tracheobronchitis by having your dog vaccinated. This vaccination is given by a squirt up the nose, not an injection, which gets the immunity right where it is needed. Although the vaccination does a great job of reducing the risk of infection, it doesn’t completely prevent your dog picking up kennel cough as there are so many different pathogens that can cause it. In most cases however, if your dog does pick up kennel cough despite the vaccination, the signs are much milder than they would have been otherwise, and recovery time is shorter. Having the vaccination is a quick and effective way to give your dog as much protection as you can from infectious tracheobronchitis. The only other way to protect your dog from kennel cough is to keep them inside and away from all other dogs, which would be very sad for you both. It is important to note that your standard yearly booster does not protect against infectious bronchitis/kennel cough, so you’ll need to make sure you get this for your dog as well as their standard annual injection. Both can be done at the same time, so you don’t have to make an extra trip, and each kennel cough vaccination lasts a year.