My personal opinions on vaccines:
Rabies: If your dog is exposed to rabies its a guaranteed death sentence if not vaccinated. Even if it wasn't required by law I'd get it for both my dogs, however I'd consider titering instead of auto-revaccinating if it was allowed in my area.
Distemper/Parvo: Both also really nasty diseases. Although treatments are availible they're costly and the rate of death even with treatment is still pretty high. My dogs are titered for both in place of automatic booster shots. If the antibody levels fall below the prefered levels they'll receive more shots. Note: in some areas titers are more expensive than the vaccine. I'm lucky and live about an hour from Cornell, so they don't actually cost me all that much. (also note: neither of my dogs received their 3rd puppy shot, we titered before administering and both passed with flying colors)
Bordatella (aka Kennel Cough): Kennel cough mutates at a rate to do the human flu proud, therefore you can vaccinate for it every year on schedule and your dog can still get it with no warning. Unless your dog has lung problems that would make them prone to pnumonia if they got it then I don't personally see the point. HOWEVER: there are a large number of places that require it. If you plan to ever board the dog, take him to doggy day care, fly with certain airlines, or even have planned hospitalizations (neutering, Pennhip, etc) at your vets, then you may be required to have it done anyway. They're covering their butts.
Canine Flu: see the above comments for kennel cough
Lyme: check the stats for your area, but personally, even though I live in a high risk lyme area neither of my dogs are vaccinated for it. The reason: the vaccine doesn't protect against even half of the diseases and parasites that ticks carry. You STILL need to keep an eye on your dog, use tick preventitive and check the dog for ticks after being outside. Besides the symptoms of lyme are generally pretty obvious if you're paying attention to your animal, and its generally treatable with little problems if caught early.
Leptopirosis (aka: lepto): This one is also nasty. Again check your area's stats. Again treatable if caught early, and the signs are pretty obvious. The vaccine's controversial, older versions caused alot of bad reactions, plus there are multiple types of the disease and not all vaccines work for all types. There are also indications that the vaccines may not last the full year that they're supposed to. Some reports state that the older the dog the better they tolerate it. After going back and forth about it I decided that both dogs would be vaccinated for it, BUT only after they were a year old AND at least 4 weeks apart from any other shot or illness.
If you decide not to vaccinate for everything make a point of learning the symptoms by heart so that if your dog ever does fall ill you know what to look for, also be prepared to remind your vet that the dog hasn't been vaccinated for X when you take them in showing those symptoms. For the vaccines that have titers seriously consider doing a titer in place of the booster.
---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:10 PM ----------
Definetly sound out your vet about titering in place of automatic boosters. Might be a bit more costly, but I personally think its worth it. If your vet goes through the roof at the idea find a new vet no matter how much you like him or her. If they argue with you a bit, but agree, and don't give you hassle every year then keep it up, maybe your experience will change their minds.
