Your dog doesn’t need an annual rabies shot, and if your vet says he does then he/she is either not aware of current recommendations or is hamstrung by outdated public health laws. The fact is that the exact duration of immunity varies from individual to individual and can be difficult to determine. Titers can help for some diseases, and these will probably come to be more commonly used in the future. Still, they are not always reliable, and with low risk of adverse effects and greater risk of disease, in some cases it’s better to be safe than sorry. With rabies that’s certainly the case. There are plenty of vaccines for which it’s not, and these non-core vaccines are not given routinely for that reason.

If you support scince-based medicine, then you understand that getting the right answer is a complex and evolving process, but in the end it provides better care for our pets than simple, universal rules like “vaccinate everyone annualyl” or “don’t vaccinate at all.”

I’m all for good science based medicine for my dog, but can’t figure out why he needs an annual rabies shot, but if I lived 15 miles away in a different state he would only need one every three years. The only answer is he is either over-vaccinated, wasting time and money and exposure to complications, or he would be not properly immunized risking his life as well as mine, if we lived down the road. Well, which is it?