Dog Vaccination Cost: Puppy Shots Cost by Age

Dog vaccination cost is one of the first recurring veterinary numbers an owner meets, and it is more confusing than it should be. Ask what dog shots cost and you will hear everything from a few dollars at a community clinic to a few hundred at a full-service hospital, because the answer depends on the dog’s age, how many shots are due, what the price includes, and above all where you go. The gap between a low-cost vaccine day and a full wellness visit is real, and knowing how to read it is what keeps this line small.

The short version: individual dog vaccines commonly run an illustrative $15 to $40 each, a settled adult dog’s yearly core shots plus the exam land around $75 to $250, and a puppy’s full first-year series totals more, often $200 to $400, because it stacks several visits into the first months. Low-cost vaccine clinics can cut the price sharply for a healthy dog that only needs its shots updated.

This cost read pulls those numbers apart into something you can plan around. It covers core versus non-core vaccines, the puppy series and its schedule, adult booster costs, what actually drives the price, and where to find low-cost dog vaccine clinics without cutting the medicine. It sits alongside our vet visit cost read, which prices the exam these shots often ride along with, and our first-year dog read, which folds the vaccine series into the whole startup budget. You can drop your own dog into the cost calculator to see where vaccinations sit inside the bigger picture.

The short answer: what dog vaccinations cost

For a healthy dog, plan on an illustrative range of roughly $15 to $40 per individual vaccine at a general practice, which rolls up into two very different yearly numbers depending on the dog’s age. A settled adult dog due for its core boosters and an exam commonly lands around $75 to $250 for the year, most of which is the exam fee plus one or two shots. A puppy working through its full first-year series sits higher, often an illustrative $200 to $400 once every visit and shot in those early months is counted.

The reason no single figure works is that a vaccination bill is really two things stacked together: the shots themselves, which are individually inexpensive, and the veterinary visit they ride along with, which carries an exam fee. At a full-service clinic the exam is often the largest single line on a light vaccination year. At a low-cost vaccine clinic, where the model is shots without a full physical exam, the same core protection can cost a fraction as much.

The rest of this read builds those numbers up piece by piece, then hands you a worked example and a calculator so you can turn the ranges into a figure for your own dog. Treat every dollar amount here as an illustrative planning range rather than a quote, because real prices move with your city, your clinic, and the shots your dog is actually due for.

Core versus non-core dog vaccines

The first thing that shapes a vaccination bill is which shots your dog actually needs, and vaccines fall into two groups. Core vaccines are recommended for essentially every dog because the diseases they prevent are severe, widespread, or a matter of public health. The usual core set covers rabies, distemper, parvovirus, and adenovirus, and the distemper, parvovirus, and adenovirus protections are often delivered together in a single combination shot, with rabies given separately. These are the non-negotiable base of the budget, and rabies specifically is legally required for dogs in most places.

Non-core vaccines are recommended based on a dog’s individual lifestyle and local risk rather than given to every dog. The common ones protect against kennel cough (bordetella), leptospirosis, Lyme disease, and canine influenza, and whether your dog needs them depends on how it lives. A dog that boards at a kennel, attends daycare, visits dog parks, hikes in tick country, or spends real time outdoors is more likely to need several non-core shots, while a strictly indoor companion in a low-risk area may need few or none beyond the core set.

The budgeting consequence is that two dogs of the same age can have quite different vaccination costs purely because of lifestyle. The core shots are broadly similar for any dog, but a boarding, hiking, park-going dog may carry an extra $40 to $100 a year in non-core vaccines as an illustrative figure. This is not a place to guess: which non-core vaccines a dog genuinely needs is a medical judgment tied to real exposure, so it belongs in a conversation with your veterinarian rather than a default yes or no.

The puppy vaccination schedule and its cost

The puppy year is the most vaccine-intensive stretch of a dog’s life, and it catches many new owners off guard because the shots cluster so tightly at the start. A puppy is typically vaccinated in a series of visits that begin around six to eight weeks of age and repeat every three to four weeks until roughly sixteen weeks, because the immunity passed from the mother fades over those weeks and the series builds the puppy’s own protection to replace it. A rabies vaccine is usually added toward the end of that window, and a booster follows around a year old.

Each of those visits usually bundles an exam fee with the shots due that day, which is what makes the first-year total climb. Individually the shots are modest, but three or four visits, each with an exam and a combination shot, add up. As an illustrative figure the full puppy series commonly totals $200 to $400 at a general practice once every visit is counted, and it can run higher where exam fees are steep or extra non-core vaccines are added for an active puppy.

The practical move is to treat the puppy series as a known, one-time bump rather than a recurring rate, and to budget it into the first-year plan our first-year dog read and puppy cost read both break down. Ask your veterinarian for the specific schedule and the price of each visit up front, because a puppy vaccination plan is one of the few veterinary costs you can preview almost entirely in advance. The one thing not to do is skip or stretch the series to save money, because the diseases it prevents, parvovirus above all, are far more expensive and dangerous than the shots.

Puppy shots cost, visit by visit

Because the puppy year is where most of the money lands, it helps to see puppy shots cost broken into the visits that produce it rather than as one lump. A typical schedule runs three to four appointments between roughly six and sixteen weeks, and each one is built the same way: an exam fee, plus whatever is due that day. As illustrative planning figures at a general practice, an exam commonly sits around $40 to $60, a combination core shot around $30 to $45, a rabies vaccine around $15 to $30, and a non-core shot such as bordetella around $25 to $35.

Stack those and the shape becomes obvious. The first visit is exam plus combination shot, so somewhere near $75 to $105. The second is the same, another $75 to $105. The third often adds rabies alongside the final combination shot, pushing it to roughly $90 to $135. A fourth visit, or a bordetella shot added because the family plans to use daycare, adds another $65 to $95. Add them together and the puppy year lands inside the illustrative $200 to $400 band this cost read uses, with the exam fees, not the vaccines, accounting for a large share of the total.

That breakdown points at the only real lever. The shots themselves are inexpensive and non-negotiable; the exam fee repeated across three or four visits is the part that compounds. Some practices sell a puppy package that bundles the whole series at a flat price, which can be a genuine saving if you would have used every visit anyway, and low-cost clinics can cover parts of the series for a healthy puppy. What is not a lever is stretching the interval between visits to save an appointment, because the schedule exists to close the window as the mother’s immunity fades. Ask your veterinarian for the full schedule and the per-visit price at the first appointment, and the puppy year becomes one of the few veterinary costs you can preview almost exactly in advance.

Adult dog booster costs

Once a dog is grown and through its first-year series, the vaccination line settles down considerably. A settled adult dog does not need the full stack every year: core vaccines are typically boosted on a one to three year cycle depending on the specific vaccine, so many years bring only the exam plus a single booster or two. Rabies, for example, is commonly given every one to three years after the initial doses depending on the vaccine and local law, while lifestyle-based non-core shots like kennel cough are often annual for dogs that need them.

As illustrative figures, a routine adult booster visit with the exam and the shots due that year commonly runs $75 to $200, with the exam fee itself frequently the largest single component. A light year, where little more than the exam and one booster are due, sits near the bottom of that range; a heavier year, with several vaccines coinciding or non-core shots added for an active dog, sits higher. Because the count varies year to year, the adult vaccination line is naturally uneven, which is worth remembering so a heavier year does not feel like a surprise.

This is where a full wellness visit earns its place over a bare shots-only clinic. The adult booster visit is usually folded into the annual wellness exam, where the veterinarian looks the dog over, catches early problems, and updates vaccines all at once, the value our wellness exam cost read walks through in detail. The vaccines are a small part of that visit; the exam is the part that quietly saves money by catching the expensive problems early. For an adult dog, budgeting the whole wellness visit, with vaccines inside it, is the honest way to plan this line.

Dog vaccination cost for a senior dog

Owners often assume the vaccination line keeps shrinking as a dog ages, and mostly it does, but senior years bring their own wrinkles worth planning for. The core schedule itself usually does not change: rabies and the core combination continue on their one to three year cycle regardless of age, so a senior dog’s shot count in any given year looks much like a middle-aged dog’s. What changes is the visit around the shots.

Senior dogs are commonly seen more often, and the wellness visit that carries the vaccines tends to grow. A senior exam may add bloodwork, a urine check, or other screening that a young adult visit skips, and those additions can turn a modest booster appointment into a larger bill even though the vaccines are unchanged. That is not a vaccination cost increase so much as a wellness cost increase that the vaccines happen to ride inside, and it is worth separating the two lines when you compare a quote against the illustrative $75 to $250 adult band used throughout this cost read.

The other senior wrinkle is that the low-cost clinic route narrows. A shots-only clinic is a good fit for a healthy adult dog that needs nothing but an update. A senior with any ongoing condition, or one on medication, is generally better served in the practice that knows the history, where the veterinarian can weigh whether a given vaccine is appropriate right now. That judgment is exactly what a volume vaccine day is not set up to make, and it is a medical decision rather than a budget one. Our monthly cost of a dog read shows how the wider health line tends to grow in the later years, and the honest planning move is to expect the exam side to rise while the vaccine side stays flat.

What drives the price of dog vaccinations

Several factors move a vaccination bill, and knowing them turns a confusing number into something you can more or less predict. The single biggest driver is the one owners least expect: how many shots are due that year, not the price of any individual vaccine. A puppy in its series or an adult with several vaccines coinciding will always cost more than a dog due for a single booster, regardless of the per-shot price.

The other drivers stack on top. Whether an exam fee is included is often the largest swing, because a full-service visit charges for the veterinarian’s time while a shots-only clinic may not. Clinic type matters enormously: a general practice, a low-cost community clinic, a shelter program, and a mobile vaccine event price the same core shots very differently. Location tracks local costs, so the same vaccine can cost more in an expensive metropolitan area than a smaller town. Lifestyle decides how many non-core vaccines are added. And which specific vaccines are due nudges the total, since a combination shot sits toward the top of the per-shot range while rabies sits near the bottom.

The useful takeaway is that the two levers you control most are the exam and the clinic. You cannot change how many core shots your dog is due, and you should not want to. But you can choose whether to get those shots inside a full wellness exam or at a low-cost vaccine clinic, and that single choice moves the price more than anything else on the list. The next two sections are about exactly that choice.

Low-cost dog vaccine clinics and where to find them

The biggest safe saving on this line is the low-cost vaccine clinic, and it exists in more forms than most owners realize. Because keeping dogs vaccinated, rabies especially, is a public-health goal, a wide network of reduced-price options has grown up specifically to make core shots affordable. For a healthy dog that only needs its vaccines updated, these clinics deliver the same core protection at a fraction of a full-service hospital’s price.

They take several forms. Many nonprofit and municipal animal shelters and humane societies run their own low-cost or community vaccine clinics, sometimes on set days each month. Some pet-supply retailers host visiting vaccine clinics where a licensed veterinary team sets up periodically. Veterinary teaching hospitals attached to universities often offer certain services at lower prices under supervision. And some regions run periodic community vaccine events, sometimes tied to low-cost rabies drives. The common thread is licensed staff giving the same vaccines, with the savings coming from volume and a stripped-down format rather than from cutting the medicine.

The way to find them is direct: call your local animal shelter or humane society and ask about vaccine clinics, check whether nearby pet stores host periodic vaccine days, ask your regular veterinarian whether they know of community options, and search for low-cost or community vaccine clinics in your area. The same nonprofit and shelter clinics that run subsidized spay and neuter days, which our spay and neuter cost read covers, very often run low-cost vaccine days too, so one call can surface both. Availability varies widely by location, which is exactly what a national range cannot capture for your specific town, so local calls are the real answer to where to find low-cost dog shots near you.

The honest tradeoff is worth stating plainly. A low-cost vaccine clinic gives shots efficiently but usually does not include the full physical exam that catches early problems. For a healthy adult dog current on everything else, that is a fine and sensible saving. For a puppy, a senior dog, or any dog with a health concern, the full wellness visit, where the vaccines ride along with an exam, is often worth the higher price because the exam is where the expensive problems get caught early. Use the low-cost clinic for what it does well, and do not let it replace the wellness visit entirely.

Low-cost clinic versus full-service vet

The choice between a low-cost vaccine clinic and a full-service veterinary hospital is the largest single lever on this cost, so it is worth seeing the gap laid out. Both give the same core vaccines from licensed professionals; what differs is the format, the exam, and the price.

A full-service hospital gives you the shots inside a full wellness exam, a standing relationship with a veterinarian who knows your dog, and the early detection that exam provides. That care is real, and for a puppy, a senior, or a dog with any health question it is often worth the higher price. A low-cost vaccine clinic focuses on shots alone, performed efficiently and in volume, and keeps the price down by dropping the frills rather than the medicine. For a healthy adult dog that only needs its core protection topped up, it is a common and sensible choice.

The move most owners find works best is to blend the two: use the full wellness visit at least once a year or as your veterinarian advises, where the exam catches problems and the due vaccines ride along, and use a low-cost clinic for straightforward shot updates in between when appropriate. That way the exam, the part that actually protects your dog and your budget by catching illness early, still happens, while the routine shots cost as little as they safely can. Run your own dog’s scenario through the companion to see how the clinic choice moves the yearly figure.

Dog vaccination cost after a shelter or rescue adoption

A dog that arrives from a shelter or a rescue often arrives partly vaccinated, which changes the first-year number substantially, and it is one of the most commonly missed pieces of the budget. Most shelters vaccinate on intake as a matter of basic disease control, so an adopted adult dog has frequently had at least its core shots and often its rabies vaccine already, and the adoption fee typically reflects that. An adopted puppy has usually had the first one or two rounds of its series, with the remaining visits still to come on schedule.

The practical consequence is that you should never budget a full puppy series or a full adult vaccination year for an adopted dog until you have read the paperwork. Ask the shelter or rescue for the vaccination record, which vaccines were given, on what dates, and by whom, and take it to your own veterinarian at the first visit. That record decides how much of the series remains, and it is the difference between paying for two more visits and paying for four.

Two honest cautions belong here. First, records from an unknown or informal source are not always complete, and a veterinarian may reasonably recommend restarting or repeating parts of a series when the history cannot be verified, which is a medical judgment rather than an upsell. Second, an adopted dog’s first veterinary visit is usually worth doing at a full-service practice rather than a shots-only clinic, because it is the visit that establishes a baseline and catches anything the shelter did not have time to find. Our first-year dog read folds adoption fees and the remaining vaccine visits into one startup figure, which is the honest way to see what an adopted dog actually costs to get current.

Does pet insurance cover dog vaccinations

A common hope is that pet insurance will pay for vaccines, and the usual answer is that a standard policy will not. Accident-and-illness insurance is built to cover the unexpected: the emergency, the injury, the sudden illness. Routine vaccinations are the opposite kind of cost, predictable and preventive, so they fall outside core coverage by design. If you are counting on your accident-and-illness policy to absorb the yearly shots, it almost certainly will not, a point our choose pet insurance guide makes about routine care generally.

Where coverage can appear is through an optional wellness or routine-care add-on. Some insurers sell a rider that reimburses part of the cost of vaccines, wellness exams, and other preventive care, alongside things like parasite prevention, for an extra monthly fee. Whether that rider is worth it is a simple arithmetic question: add up the routine care you expect to use in a year, vaccines included, and compare it to the rider’s annual cost. If you would use most of the bundled services anyway, it can roughly break even; if not, you are prepaying for care you might skip. Our pet insurance worth-it read runs exactly this kind of math.

For most owners, though, the more dependable way to lower the vaccination line is the low-cost clinic, not an insurance product. Insurance earns its keep against large, unpredictable bills, which is a genuinely different job from a scheduled, inexpensive shot you can shop for in advance. Use each tool for what it does well: insurance or a fund for the emergency, and a low-cost clinic for the routine vaccines.

A worked example: one puppy year and one adult year

Numbers land better carried all the way through, so here are two illustrative dogs, one in its puppy year and one settled adult, fully costed at a full-service general practice. The figures are planning numbers, not quotes.

The puppy year. A new puppy goes through three visits from eight to sixteen weeks, each with an exam fee around $50 and a combination core shot, then a rabies vaccine near the end and a bordetella shot because the family plans to use daycare. Add the exams across the visits, the core combination shots, the rabies vaccine, and the one non-core shot, and the first-year vaccination total lands near an illustrative $330. That is a real number, but it is a one-time bump tied to building the puppy’s lifelong immunity, not an ongoing rate, and it belongs in the startup budget our first-year dog read lays out.

The adult year. The same dog, now four years old and settled, comes in for its annual wellness visit. The exam is around $60, one core booster is due this year at roughly $35, and because the family still uses daycare, an annual bordetella shot adds about $30. The vaccination-related total for the year lands near an illustrative $125, and in a year when no core booster is due it could be lower still. Had they taken the dog to a low-cost vaccine clinic for the shots alone, skipping the exam that year, the shot cost might have dropped toward $45, though they would have given up the physical exam that catches early problems.

Put side by side, the two years show the whole shape of dog vaccination costs: a front-loaded puppy series, then a lighter, uneven adult line that rides along with the wellness exam. Run your own dog through the companion to see where your figure lands, and treat both totals as illustrative.

Ways to lower dog vaccination costs

You can bring this line down meaningfully without shortchanging your dog, as long as you pull the right levers. These are the moves that genuinely lower the number.

• Use a low-cost or community vaccine clinic for a healthy dog. The single biggest saving. Shelters, humane societies, and visiting clinics give the same core shots for a fraction of the price when a full exam is not needed.
• Keep the core series on schedule. Skipping or stretching shots to save money risks a far larger treatment bill, and parvovirus or a rabies-exposure scare costs many times a year of vaccines. Prevention is the value here.
• Match non-core vaccines to real lifestyle. A strictly indoor dog may not need every optional shot an active dog does. Ask your veterinarian which non-core vaccines your dog genuinely needs rather than defaulting to all of them.
• Bundle shots with the wellness visit you were doing anyway. Since the exam fee is the big line, getting the year’s due vaccines during a visit you already needed spreads that fixed cost rather than paying it twice.
• Ask about low-cost rabies drives. Because rabies vaccination is required and public-health funded, community rabies clinics often price it very low, and it is a required shot worth keeping current cheaply.

The corner never to cut is the core series itself, or the timing of the puppy schedule. Save on the format and the clinic, never on whether the dog is protected, because the diseases these shots prevent are exactly the expensive, dangerous bills the whole budget is trying to avoid. Our lower your vet bills read carries this same principle across the rest of veterinary care.

Common dog vaccines and what each protects against

It helps to know what the shots on a vaccination invoice actually are, because the names blur together and understanding them makes the bill readable rather than mysterious. The core vaccines cover the diseases every dog is advised to be protected against. Rabies is a fatal viral disease and a public-health matter, which is why it is legally required and usually given on its own. Distemper, parvovirus, and adenovirus (hepatitis) are serious, often deadly viral diseases, and they are commonly bundled with parainfluenza into a single combination shot, frequently labeled DHPP or a similar acronym, which is efficient and keeps the core protection to one injection plus rabies.

The non-core vaccines are the situational ones, added by lifestyle rather than given to every dog. Bordetella, which protects against a major cause of kennel cough, is often required by boarding kennels, daycares, and groomers, so a dog that uses those services needs it even though a strictly homebound dog might not. Leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through water and wildlife, is recommended in many areas and for dogs with outdoor exposure. Lyme disease vaccination matters most where ticks are common and a dog spends time in tick habitat. Canine influenza is advised for dogs that mix with many others, at daycare, shows, or boarding.

The budgeting point is that the core shots are a fixed, non-negotiable base that costs roughly the same for any dog, while the non-core shots are where two dogs diverge based on how they live. This is also why a boarding-and-daycare dog reliably costs more in vaccines than a homebody: the services that require bordetella and make influenza sensible are the same ones that add those line items. None of this is a place to self-prescribe, since the right non-core set depends on genuine local risk and lifestyle, which is exactly the judgment your veterinarian is there to make.

What skipping or delaying vaccines really costs

Because vaccines are a recurring line, it is tempting to see them as a place to economize by skipping or stretching them, and this is the one false economy this read wants to head off clearly. The diseases the core vaccines prevent are not mild. Parvovirus, which mainly strikes unvaccinated puppies, causes severe illness whose treatment, intensive hospitalization, fluids, and round-the-clock care, commonly runs an illustrative several hundred to several thousand dollars, many times the cost of the vaccine series that prevents it, and it is often fatal without that treatment. Set against that, the puppy series is not a cost to trim; it is insurance at a bargain price.

The costs of skipping vaccines also show up in ordinary life, not just in worst-case illness. Boarding kennels, daycares, groomers, and dog parks routinely require proof of core and certain non-core vaccines, so an unvaccinated dog can be turned away from the very services an owner needs, forcing more expensive last-minute alternatives. Rabies vaccination is a legal requirement for dogs in most places, and being out of compliance can carry fines and serious complications if a bite or exposure incident occurs. These are avoidable costs that dwarf the price of staying current.

There is a real and legitimate conversation to have with a veterinarian about vaccine schedules for an individual adult dog, including which shots are due how often and whether any can move to a longer interval, and that professional-guided tailoring is different from simply skipping to save money. Some owners ask about titer testing, a blood test that checks existing immunity, as a way to decide whether a booster is needed; it has its place but carries its own cost and is a medical decision, not a guaranteed saving. The honest rule is the same as everywhere in pet care: economize on the format and the clinic, never on whether the dog is actually protected, because the diseases these shots prevent are exactly the expensive, dangerous outcomes the whole budget exists to avoid.

How dog vaccination costs fit your yearly budget

Vaccinations are one line in a much larger pet budget, and seeing them in context keeps them in proportion. On their own the numbers can feel like a nuisance, but against the full cost of owning a dog they are one of the smaller and more predictable lines, especially once the puppy year is behind you. The puppy series is a one-time front-loaded cost that belongs in the startup budget, while adult boosters settle into a modest, slightly uneven yearly line that rides along with the wellness exam.

In the first year, the vaccine series sits alongside the adoption or breeder fee, the spay or neuter, the startup gear, and the first months of food, the full stack our first-year dog read and puppy cost read break down. Across the steady adult years, vaccinations fold into the annual wellness visit and the recurring health line that our monthly cost of a dog read prices, where they are a small part of a health bundle dominated by preventatives, routine care, and either insurance or a fund. Over a whole life, the vaccine line is one of the more stable and plannable costs a dog carries.

The reason to fold vaccinations into the bigger budget rather than treat each shot as a standalone expense is that it makes the whole thing calmer and cheaper to manage. A puppy series you have planned for is a known bump, not a surprise, and an adult booster bundled into a wellness visit you were doing anyway spreads its cost sensibly. Build your own dog’s yearly figure into the calculator and vaccinations stop being a mystery line and become one of the easier parts of the budget to control.

A dog vaccination cost checklist

Before your next vaccination visit, or when comparing where to take your dog, run through these points so no part of the bill catches you out and no shot gets missed.

• Ask which vaccines are actually due this year. The count of shots, not the price of any one, drives the bill, so knowing the schedule in advance lets you preview the cost almost exactly.
• Ask whether the quote includes an exam fee. This is the biggest swing between a full-service visit and a low-cost clinic, so compare like with like before deciding one is cheaper.
• Match non-core shots to real lifestyle. Confirm with your veterinarian which non-core vaccines your dog genuinely needs rather than defaulting to all or none.
• Check whether services you use require proof of vaccination. Boarding, daycare, and grooming often require bordetella and core shots, so plan those in before you need the service.
• Look for a local low-cost clinic for straightforward updates. Call your shelter or humane society and check for community vaccine days for a healthy dog that only needs its shots.
• Keep rabies current. It is inexpensive, legally required, and not the shot to economize on, and low-cost rabies drives exist specifically to keep it affordable.

Work these top to bottom and the vaccination line becomes one of the most predictable and controllable costs in your dog’s whole budget.

The bottom line

Dog vaccinations cost an illustrative $15 to $40 per shot, which rolls up into roughly $75 to $250 for a settled adult dog’s yearly core boosters and exam, and more, often $200 to $400, for a puppy’s front-loaded first-year series. The honest driver of the bill is how many shots are due that year and whether an exam fee is included, not the price of any single vaccine, and the core shots that matter most, rabies among them, are individually among the cheapest.

The smart approach is to treat the puppy series as a known one-time bump, budget adult boosters as part of the yearly wellness visit, and use low-cost vaccine clinics for straightforward shot updates on a healthy dog while keeping the wellness exam that catches problems early. Do that, and vaccinations become one of the smaller and more controllable lines in a dog’s financial life. Build your estimate from local prices, run the calculator to see it in context, and let your veterinarian decide which vaccines your dog actually needs and when.

One honest note from the MuttMark team before you go: this cost read exists to help you plan and compare, and it is not veterinary or medical advice of any kind. Every figure here, from the per-shot ranges to the worked examples, is an illustrative planning number rather than a quote, and your real cost will move with your city, your clinic, your dog’s lifestyle, and the shots it is actually due for. Which vaccines a particular dog needs, and on what schedule, is a medical decision only your own veterinarian can make, so use these numbers to build a budget and ask good questions, and leave the medical calls to the professional who knows your dog.