Vaccination is one of those things that feels solved until it is not — until a boarding facility asks for records, or a rabies certificate turns out to be dated a week too early for an export.

This is general guidance. Your pet's actual schedule depends on their age, health, lifestyle and where they are going, and should be set by a veterinarian who has examined them.

Puppies and kittens

The broad pattern is a course of vaccinations starting in the early weeks of life, given as a series rather than a single visit, because maternal antibodies interfere with the response until a certain age. The course finishes with a booster, after which protection is considered established.

Two practical points:

Do not shorten the intervals. Giving doses too close together can leave a pet less protected, not more.
Do not let them meet the world in between. Full protection comes after the course completes, not after the first dose.

Rabies vaccination is given at or after the minimum age set for it, which varies by product and by the requirements of any destination you might later travel to.

Adult pets

Adults need boosters to maintain protection. How often depends on the vaccine and your pet's exposure — a dog that boards, walks in public or meets other dogs has a different risk profile from one that does not.

The practical rule: keep the record, and do not let a booster lapse. A lapsed course sometimes has to be restarted rather than simply resumed, which is slower and more expensive than staying on schedule.

Where boarding fits

Any reputable boarding facility will require proof of current vaccination and recent parasite treatment before a stay. Ours does.

If you are planning to board, check the dates weeks before, not the day before. Some vaccinations need to be given a minimum period before entry to allow protection to develop, so a booster on the morning of drop-off may not qualify.

Where travel changes everything

International travel imposes two rules that ordinary vaccination practice does not.

Rule one: microchip first. For most destinations, a rabies vaccination given before the pet was microchipped is not accepted, because the record cannot be tied to an identity. It has to be repeated after the chip — restarting every waiting period that depends on it. This is the most expensive ordering mistake we see.

Rule two: the dates are the document. For export purposes, the vaccination's value is in its recorded dates: given after the microchip, at or above the minimum age, within a validity window, and far enough before travel to satisfy the destination's waiting period. A vaccination that was clinically fine can still be documentarily useless.

Where a rabies titer test is required, it sits on top of all this and has its own timing — see our guide to titer testing.

What to keep

The vaccination card or certificate, with dates and product details
The microchip number and its implantation date
Parasite treatment records
Anything from a previous country, if your pet has moved before

Bring all of it to any appointment about travel. Gaps in a record are much easier to fix eight months out than eight weeks out.

If you are even thinking about moving abroad

Get the microchip in and the rabies vaccination recorded against it now, before dates are firm. It costs very little, it is useful regardless, and it buys you months later.

Book an appointment and bring whatever records you have.

Vaccination schedules, and why travel changes them