I went with my heart and my gut and my brain and adopted a pit bull mix male from Animal Control. They vaccinated him with a 5-in-1 and gave a kennel cough vaccine as well. Magically 7 days after the kennel cough vaccine he got sick... and of course they gave him antibiotics for a viral infection.

The policy at this shelter is to vaccinate dogs every two weeks until they've had three boosters regardless of age, weight loss, or obvious illness/disease. I adopted him the day he was supposed to get his second booster. The very next day (today) he was to be neutered AND receive a rabies vaccination. He's not recovered from kennel cough so he's sick, underweight, coming from a stressful place, and going into surgery.
I begged them to reconsider vaccinated him yesterday and... they listened! I was able to pull up information on my phone thanks to links from this forum and show them my reason for waiting after his surgery. Sadly he had to have the rabies shot the same day as his neuter because it's the law, but I was so thrilled to see on his paperwork 'Adopter requested no extra vaccines. Will have own vet vaccinate. Request approved.'

No pictures of the newbie yet. He's lanky, probably 10-12 months old, reverse brindle, and very sweet. Right now he's throwing a hissy fit about being in the kennel. He alternates between high pitched whining and chewing on a cow hoof quietly.

 Quote: SamanthaTopper

The policy at this shelter is to vaccinate dogs every two weeks until they've had three boosters regardless of age, weight loss, or obvious illness/disease.

I wonder how much money/time is wasted by that policy considering that frequent vaccination suppresses the immune system. It would be interesting to compare shelter illness rates between a group that had a single vaccination upon entrance and the multiple booster group.

Great that they were willing to listen to you! Congrats on the new pup.

Not only is it a potential waste of resources but they only charge $60 per animal. I'm not sure how they manage to stay afloat.

My local AC charges between $40 and $150 depending on the desirability of the dog. Breed, health problems, age, etc are considered.

I have serious mixed feelings when AC wants to claim a dog is pure or desirable. To me that's the same as selling. Make the fee reasonable across the board. The humane society charges $120 for adult dogs. I went with AC because its a high kill shelter and I honestly didn't like any of the animals they had. Lots of barrier frustration that presented as 'stick your hand in here and I'll have a snack.' I'm not a fan of dogs that threaten me just because I walk by.

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

I wonder how much money/time is wasted by that policy considering that frequent vaccination suppresses the immune system. It would be interesting to compare shelter illness rates between a group that had a single vaccination upon entrance and the multiple booster group.

Great that they were willing to listen to you! Congrats on the new pup.

+1

Just wanted to say congratulations on your addition, Samantha! Looking forward to updates.

He's doing really well and 'back to his old self' that I saw at the shelter. Once he's fully recovered we'll head to the fenced in park for him to burn off some energy. For now we're doing a couple short walks a day but he's so excitable that he's not able to focus on training of any sort.

 Quote: SamanthaTopper

He's doing really well and 'back to his old self' that I saw at the shelter. Once he's fully recovered we'll head to the fenced in park for him to burn off some energy. For now we're doing a couple short walks a day but he's so excitable that he's not able to focus on training of any sort.

"He's doing really well and 'back to his old self' that I saw at the shelter."

Excellent. How's his excitement level?