Puppy and kitten vaccination schedules: what's due when, and which dates to keep

There are three sets of guidelines behind almost every small-animal vaccination schedule: the AAHA canine guidelines (2022, updated in 2024), the AAHA/AAFP feline guidelines (2020), both written for North America, and the WSAVA guidelines (2024), written for vets worldwide. They are guidance for vets, not a calendar to follow without one. Your vet adjusts for the animal, the products in stock and local disease, and rabies is set by law. The tables below are what the guidelines say.

Puppy vaccination schedule

AAHA’s table asks for at least three core doses between 6 and 16 weeks, 2 to 4 weeks apart, and its text recommends repeating them until the puppy is older than 16 weeks, with 18 to 20 weeks preferred where distemper or parvovirus risk is high. A puppy that starts at 8 weeks on a 4-week interval gets core doses at 8, 12 and 16 weeks; one that starts at 6 weeks on a 3-week interval needs five visits to reach 16.

Leptospirosis changed category recently. The 2022 AAHA guidelines listed it as non-core, while noting that some task force members wanted it core. In June 2024 AAHA moved it to core, and WSAVA’s 2024 guidelines call it core wherever the disease is endemic, the relevant serogroups are known and suitable vaccines exist. Leptospirosis vaccines are killed bacterins that protect for about 12 to 18 months, so AAHA keeps them annual.

Kitten vaccination schedule

That is the AAHA/AAFP schedule for general practice. Rabies sits outside the grid: it is given as the law requires, with a booster at the first annual visit, and the AAHA/AAFP guidelines count it as core for cats even where the law does not require it. WSAVA’s kitten schedule is close: doses every 2 to 4 weeks, the last at 16 weeks or older, and revaccination at or after 26 weeks.

Why the last dose has to wait until 16 weeks

Puppies and kittens get antibodies from their mother, and those maternal antibodies block vaccines as well as infections. They fade at different rates in different animals, even within a litter, and there is no way to predict when a particular kitten’s or puppy’s have gone. AAHA notes that maternal antibodies against parvovirus may last 13 to 15 weeks or longer. The series is a way of making sure one dose lands after they fade, which is why the final dose matters more than the number of doses. WSAVA puts it bluntly: if a puppy or kitten can only have one vaccination, for example because of cost, it should be the core vaccines at 16 weeks or older.

The 6-month booster closes the remaining gap. The AAHA/AAFP guidelines cite studies suggesting that up to a third of kittens may not respond to a final dose at 16 weeks and may still carry blocking antibodies at 20 weeks. WSAVA now advises revaccinating puppies and kittens at or after 26 weeks rather than waiting until 12 to 16 months.

Adult boosters: every three years, or every year?

It depends on the vaccine. AAHA recommends core dog boosters every 3 years after the first-year booster and says annual core boosters are not necessary. WSAVA’s position is that core vaccines should be given no more often than necessary, because modern modified-live core vaccines protect for many years, while most non-core vaccines protect for about one. So a typical adult dog has a core booster every third year and some vaccines every year:

• Leptospirosis: yearly.
• Kennel cough (Bordetella with parainfluenza): a single intranasal dose for dogs at risk, then yearly. AAHA notes that dogs at high risk may benefit from a dose more often than that, for example before boarding.
• Lyme disease: for dogs that live in or travel to areas where it occurs. Two doses 2 to 4 weeks apart, finished 2 to 4 weeks before travel, then yearly.
• Canine influenza: two doses 2 to 4 weeks apart, a booster within a year, then yearly.

WSAVA also asks vets to treat the yearly visit as a health check rather than a vaccination appointment, so that visit doesn’t go away when the core shots stop being annual.

What to copy from every vaccination certificate

A vaccination certificate settles questions that memory can’t. For each vaccine, keep:

1. The vaccine as written, product name included. “Rabies, 3-year” and “rabies, 1-year” are different due dates.
2. The date given. For a puppy or kitten, check it against the date of birth: the last dose of the series should fall at 16 weeks or later.
3. The next due date, copied from the certificate rather than worked out yourself, since products and local rules differ.
4. The lot or batch number, which identifies the exact vial if a reaction ever needs reporting. WSAVA encourages vets to report every possible adverse event to the manufacturer and the regulator.
5. The clinic and the vet who gave it.

Keep the certificates themselves, not just notes of them, especially for rabies. Kennels and groomers usually want proof of vaccination, and some want it given a set number of days before arrival; the post on what belongs in a pet’s medical record covers who asks for what.

Where Pawza fits

Pawza is a pet health record app for iPhone and iPad. It does not contain a vaccination schedule and does not decide what your pet needs; the dates come from your vet’s paperwork, so it works with any vet’s protocol and any country’s rabies rules. What it does is keep those dates and tell you when one comes up.

• Scanning a certificate. Pawza reads the page on the device. The review screen lists each vaccine with its name, the date administered, the next due date and an optional lot number, and nothing is saved until you have checked them. With Pawza Pro on an iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 or later) the fields fill in automatically; otherwise you fill them in from the recognised text.
• A reminder for the printed due date. If the certificate gives a next due date, Pawza offers to add a vaccination reminder for that day.
• Adding one by hand. Logging a vaccination record by hand offers the same reminder, set one year from the date given.

One honest caveat, because the schedules above make it matter: both of those reminders repeat yearly by default. That is right for leptospirosis or kennel cough. It is wrong for a puppy or kitten series 2 to 4 weeks apart and for a 3-year booster. Open the reminder, set the date your vet gave you, and change Repeats to Never; add one reminder per dose for a series. A reminder fires on the date you set, so if a kennel wants boosters given some days before arrival, set it earlier. You can mark a reminder time-sensitive so it breaks through Focus, and the list sorts everything into overdue, today, this week and later.

With Pro, the vet-visit PDF lists every vaccination with its last date and next due date, on pages you can hand to a new clinic or a boarding kennel. The free version covers one pet. There is no Pawza account and no Pawza server: records stay on your device, with optional sync through your own iCloud. The reasons are in why vet paperwork should stay on your phone.

The schedule belongs to your vet. The dates on the certificates belong to you, and keeping them is what lets you answer “when was the last one?” without a phone call.