What Shots Do Dogs Need for Boarding?

Almost every boarder asks for two things: a current rabies vaccine and the DHPP combination (distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus, parainfluenza). Kennels and daycares usually add Bordetella and, increasingly, canine influenza, while in-home sitters set their own requirements, which are often shorter.

Key takeaways

• Core vaccines (rabies, DHPP) are what the veterinary guideline bodies recommend for every dog; boarders require them first.
• Bordetella and canine influenza are the "lifestyle" vaccines for dogs who mix with other dogs. Facilities usually require them; sitters hosting one or two dogs often do not.
• Give vaccines 7 to 14 days before the stay, not the day before.
• Bring proof. A rabies tag is not a record; a clinic printout or the certificate is.
• On SitterNation each sitter decides what to require, and you upload records to your pet's profile once so every sitter can see them.

This guide explains what each vaccine does and what boarders typically ask for. It is general information, not veterinary advice. Your vet knows your dog's age, history and risk, and their recommendation wins.

Which vaccines are core and which are optional?

The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) publishes canine vaccination guidelines that vets in the United States follow, and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) publishes owner-facing summaries of the same material. Both split vaccines into two groups.

Core vaccines are recommended for every dog regardless of where it lives or what it does, because the diseases are severe, widespread or a risk to people:

• Rabies. Required by Illinois law for dogs, and the one vaccine no boarder will waive. Puppies get a first dose at around 12 to 16 weeks, a booster a year later, then every one or three years depending on the product.
• DHPP, also written DAPP or DA2PP. One injection covering canine distemper, adenovirus (the hepatitis component), parvovirus and usually parainfluenza. Puppies receive a series starting at 6 to 8 weeks, repeated every 2 to 4 weeks until 16 weeks or older, then a booster at one year and every three years after that under current guidelines.

Non-core vaccines are recommended based on a dog's exposure risk. The three that matter for boarding:

• Bordetella bronchiseptica. A bacterium that is one of the common causes of kennel cough. Given as a nasal spray, an oral dose or an injection; most boarders accept any of the three and ask for it within the last 6 or 12 months.
• Canine influenza (CIV, H3N2 and H3N8). A viral respiratory infection that spreads fast in kennels and daycares. Given as two doses a few weeks apart the first time, then yearly. Many Chicago-area facilities added it to their required list after the 2015 Chicago H3N2 outbreak, and it is still the vaccine most often missing from an otherwise complete record.
• Leptospirosis. A bacterial infection spread through wildlife urine and standing water. The AAHA guidelines now treat it as worth discussing for most dogs, not just hunting dogs, because raccoons and other carriers live in every suburb. Few boarders require it; many vets recommend it anyway.

Your vet may also mention Lyme disease (tick-borne; relevant for dogs who hike or live near forest preserves) and rattlesnake vaccines (not relevant in Illinois). Boarders do not ask for either.

What vaccines do kennels require?

A typical commercial facility, whether a kennel, a daycare with overnight boarding or a vet-attached boarding wing, asks for all of the following, and will ask to see a record before the first stay:

Facilities also commonly require a negative fecal test within the last year, flea and tick prevention, and that the dog be spayed or neutered past a certain age if it will be in a group. Those are facility policies, not vaccines, but they appear on the same form.

The reason facilities are strict is numbers. Thirty dogs sharing air and a play yard is the environment where kennel cough and canine influenza spread, and one case can close a facility for weeks. The requirements protect the business as much as your dog.

Do all boarders require vaccines?

No. Individual sitters who board one or two dogs at a time in their own home are a different environment, and their rules reflect it.

In practice, in-home sitters fall into three groups:

1. Same list as a kennel. Sitters who host several dogs at once, or who also run a daycare, often ask for rabies, DHPP, Bordetella and sometimes influenza, for the same reason facilities do.
2. Core only. The most common position. Rabies and DHPP, because those protect against the diseases that are dangerous to the dog and, in the case of rabies, to the sitter's family.
3. Rabies tag only, or no formal requirement. Usually sitters who host one dog at a time with no resident dog. The risk of a respiratory infection is low when there is nobody to catch it from.

On SitterNation, every sitter sets their own vaccination requirements. A sitter can require that a pet's vaccinations be current before a booking is confirmed, and can additionally require proof documents to be on file. You add your dog's vaccination records to their profile once, with the dates and the uploaded certificates, and the sitter sees them before any booking starts. If something is out of date or missing, you will know before you book rather than at drop-off.

SitterNation's starting point, which each sitter can change, is this. For dogs, rabies is required for every service; DHPP is required for boarding, daycare, house sitting and dog walking and optional for drop-in visits; Bordetella is required for boarding and daycare and optional for house sitting and walks; canine influenza is optional for boarding and daycare. For cats, rabies is required; FVRCP and FeLV are optional for boarding. By default a booking cannot go ahead while a required vaccination is missing, or expires before the stay ends; proof documents are optional unless the sitter asks for them, and uploaded certificates are reviewed by the SitterNation team. To see when each of your dog's shots is due, use the pet vaccination schedule tool.

Whichever group a sitter is in, ask. "What vaccines do you require, and do you want to see the records before the stay?" is part of question 13 on our list of questions to ask a dog sitter, and it takes ten seconds.

How long after vaccines can a dog board?

Most boarders ask that vaccines be given at least 7 to 14 days before the stay. Two reasons:

• Immunity takes time. A vaccine does not protect on the day it is given; the immune response builds over one to two weeks. For a first-time vaccine series the full effect comes after the final dose, so a puppy halfway through its DHPP series is not protected the way an adult with a booster is.
• Side effects. A minority of dogs are tired, sore at the injection site or off their food for a day or two after a shot. Nobody wants that to coincide with the first night somewhere new.

The nasal Bordetella vaccine is the exception that some boarders accept closer to the stay, because it acts faster in the nose and throat, but the 7-day buffer is still the sensible default. If the stay is in a week and your dog's Bordetella has lapsed, call the boarder before you call the vet: some will accept a dose given a few days out, others will not, and it is better to know.

The same buffer applies to puppies. Facilities generally will not take a puppy until it has completed its DHPP series and its first rabies vaccine, which usually means 16 weeks or older plus the wait. In-home sitters are often the only boarding option for a younger puppy, and the responsible ones will host it only if they have no other dogs in the house.

What records should I bring?

A rabies tag on the collar proves a vaccine was given at some point; it does not show the date or the product, and boarders will not accept it on its own. Bring one of these instead:

• The rabies certificate your vet issued, which lists the date, the vaccine and whether it is a one-year or three-year product.
• A vaccination summary or history printout from the clinic, which most practices will email on request and which covers everything in one page.
• A photo of either, if the boarder accepts photos. Most do.

Check the dates before you leave the house. The commonest reason a dog is turned away at a kennel is not a missing vaccine but an expired one, usually Bordetella, which has the shortest interval.

If you board regularly, store the records somewhere you can find them from your phone. On SitterNation that is your pet's profile; once the certificates are uploaded there you do not need to dig them out for each new sitter.

The pet vaccination schedule tool turns your dog's birth date and last known shots into a timeline, so you can see what is due before a stay instead of discovering it at the counter.

What sickness can dogs get from boarding?

Even a fully vaccinated dog can come home with something, and knowing what is likely makes it less alarming.

Kennel cough. The most common one. A dry, honking cough that starts a few days after exposure and usually clears in one to three weeks. Bordetella is only one of several causes, so a vaccinated dog can still catch it, generally in a milder form. See the vet if the cough comes with a fever, loss of appetite or labored breathing, or if your dog is very young, very old or has a heart condition.

Canine influenza. Looks like kennel cough at first but tends to last longer and more often turns into pneumonia. This is why facilities in the Chicago area ask for the vaccine.

Stomach upset. Diarrhea or a skipped meal in the first day or two home is usually stress or a change of food, not infection. Send the dog's own food for the stay, in portions, and most of this disappears.

Parasites. Fleas, and occasionally intestinal worms, which is why facilities ask for a fecal test and monthly prevention. Keep your dog's prevention current through the stay.

The risk of all four scales with the number of dogs your dog shares space with. That, more than the vaccine list, is the real difference between a facility and a sitter's home, and it is the argument our pet sitting vs boarding guide makes in detail. If the stay is your dog's first, the first-time boarding guide walks through the vet visit and the records a few weeks out, so none of this is a last-minute scramble.

Does the vaccine list change the price?

Not directly. Boarding is priced per night, and whether a facility requires three vaccines or five does not change the nightly rate. What vaccines cost you is the vet visit beforehand, which for a Bordetella or influenza top-up is usually a short appointment.

What does move the price is the type of boarding. Here is what in-home boarding currently costs across SitterNation sitters:

The dog boarding cost guide explains what sits behind those numbers. When your dog's records are in order, find in-home dog boarding near you; each sitter's profile says what they require, and your dog's vaccination records travel with every booking request.