Do you require the canine influenza vaccine?

The requirements Dogtown publishes are short: Rabies, DHPP or an equivalent distemper combination, and Bordetella on file, plus a current license from your city or town. They are checked once, at the free evaluation, before a dog's first daycare day, Academy day, overnight stay or at-home walk. Canine influenza is not among them. Grooming needs no evaluation, so if you only book baths, ask the front desk what records a stand-alone groom needs.

That is the list as published at the time of writing, and lists can change. A facility sets its own vaccine rules and may respond to illness reported in the area, so the useful habit is to ask the front desk for the current requirements when you book, and again before a long stay. If your vet has already given the flu vaccine, bring that certificate along with the required three so the whole record sits in one place.

When canine flu appears in a region, the pressure falls on any setting where dogs share air, water and floor space. Merck's advice for facilities is routine infection control, good hygiene and keeping sick animals well away from others, and a facility may add the flu vaccine to its entry list for a time. The reasons are in the numbers: Merck says dogs should be treated as contagious for up to four weeks after exposure, and that about 20 percent of infected dogs show no signs yet still shed the virus.

Isolation is long by kennel standards. Cornell's diagnostic center recommends a 21-day quarantine for dogs with H3N2 influenza, against 7 days for H3N8, and reports shedding of up to 24 days with H3N2. So a dog that has had flu, or lives with one that has, is a conversation with the front desk before any booking, exactly like a dog that has been coughing. During any local outbreak, ask the front desk what applies that week; the answer on the day is the one that counts.

The evaluation runs on weekdays between 6:30 and 9:30 AM by appointment at 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester: a temperament test, then a few supervised hours in a playgroup of 7 to 10 dogs. The records come with it. Ask your vet to email a summary that shows each vaccine by name with its date, check that your dog's name matches the license, and add the flu page if there is one. A missing certificate means rebooking the morning.

After the evaluation, the Pup Van can collect and return your dog for $10 each way in Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, and overnight stays are $78 a night with the daycare day included. First-time daycare customers can use the code FIRST15 for 15 percent off that first visit. None of that changes the vaccine question, which stays between you and your vet, but it is worth having the paperwork settled before the first booking rather than the night before.