Stbea

Dear Scottish Terrier owners and breeders,

The subject of vaccination and re-vaccination is an area of much discussion and consternation with many owners choosing to use different strategies for various reasons. We have previously conducted a large study looking at the strategies around vaccination with one pedigree dog group. This provided some very interesting results. After discussions with several other pedigree dog groups about vaccinations and the risks of contracting vaccinal diseases, we have decided to expand this research and conduct a similar survey looking into what owners of other breeds are choosing to do. Our aim is to expand our database of information by surveying owners a number of different pedigree and non-pedigree dog breeds to understand what strategies they are using. In addition to this and perhaps as important, is for us to understand what the influences and motivations are behind these strategies.

We hope that by collecting this information we will be able to understand more about the motivations behind the vaccine strategies used. We will also be able to determine whether there are particular trends for vaccinations amongst the owners of different pedigree and non-pedigree dogs for. This will help us understand more about the risks of contracting vaccinal diseases. It is hoped that the discoveries from this project will enable us to use the information to help with the long-term health of the breeds involved. We will be forwarding the link to the survey as soon as this active and the project will initially run for 7 weeks from the beginning of October.

This project has undergone ethical review by the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. If you have any questions then please contact sv-dogs@nottingham.ac.uk or Megan the project student working on this on: svymjr@nottingham.ac.uk

We look forwards to working with you as always to help improve the long-term health of all of the dogs involved.

With best wishes

Megan Robson and Mark Dunning