Kennel Cough in Dogs: Symptoms, Treatment, Vaccination

After every big dog show I can just about mark the calendar for when the messages will start. First one client writes that her dog woke up in the middle of the night retching, as if a bone had gone down the wrong way. Two days later, two more write. By the end of the week half the group is at home and three dogs turn up to class. The new owners are frightened and googling; the experienced ones shrug, because surely everybody knows about this. They don't. Plenty of people hear the words "kennel cough" for the very first time on the night their own dog starts coughing.

So I went and talked it through with veterinary surgeon Daiga Bokvalde, who sees exactly the same waves from the other side of the door: if there was a show at the weekend, the patients arrive the week after. I am a dog trainer, not a vet. My job is to notice that something is going round the class and to tell an owner in good time that today we stay home. Everything in this article about the illness itself, how it runs and what to do about it, is Daiga's explanation, not my opinion.

In short

• Kennel cough is a highly contagious, acute upper respiratory infection that comes on suddenly and mostly hits young dogs with a busy social life.
• Your dog is not choking and not vomiting, he is coughing. A dry, unproductive, violent cough that often starts in the middle of the night and that owners almost always misread at first.
• It looks far worse than it is. The inflammation stays in the upper airways and complications are rare, so there is no need to panic.
• Two weeks of isolation. No classes, no shows, no dog parks, even if nobody has confirmed the diagnosis yet.
• The only real prevention is vaccination, given once a year as drops up the nose, and Daiga recommends it for young dogs that go out and about.

One thing before we go on. This article is a written-up conversation, not a diagnostic tool. It is one vet's experience and view of how this illness usually looks and how she usually responds to it, not a universal prescription that will fit every dog in every situation. Your dog may turn out to be the exception, which is exactly why the section on when you do need to ring the vet matters as much as all the rest.

What kennel cough is: why owners think their dog is choking

Kennel cough, Daiga explains, is a highly contagious upper respiratory disease. It is acute, it arrives unannounced and it starts abruptly, and it typically affects young dogs that go to training classes, shows and other places where dogs gather. The name is no accident: once it gets into a kennel or any other canine community, practically everyone goes down with it.

The defining sign is the cough, and this is where the biggest misunderstanding begins. Many owners do not register that what they are watching is a cough at all. It looks to them like vomiting or choking. And it happens instantly, out of nowhere: everything was fine in the evening, and in the middle of the night the dog starts coughing, hard, and it does not stop. The owner gets up, looks in the dog's mouth, hunts for a bone or a blade of grass and finds nothing. The longer the dog coughs the more distressed he gets, and the more harrowing it looks, the more certain it is that the owner will be at the vet's first thing in the morning.

How soon after a dog show does a dog fall ill

The incubation period for kennel cough is roughly five to ten days. In practice that produces a fairly predictable rhythm, and Daiga describes it very simply: there was a dog show the weekend before, and the following weekend the dog is in her consulting room. In my client chats it looks the same, just shifted a few days earlier, because the message reaches me before it reaches her.

How dangerous is kennel cough in dogs

Online, and especially in dog groups on social media, you can read some fairly grim horror stories about kennel cough: dogs suffocating, dogs that did not make it. Daiga's assessment is a great deal calmer, and she thinks those stories are heavily exaggerated. It is not a pleasant thing to watch, granted, but the idea that a dog would simply drop dead from it is not how this works.

The reason is straightforward: kennel cough affects the upper airways only. The inflammation sitting there creates enormous irritation, and the dog believes that if he coughs hard enough he will get whatever it is out. The result is the opposite. The longer he coughs, the more he irritates the airways, and no relief comes. This is the dry, unproductive cough that sounds alarming and goes on and on. But it very rarely progresses to pneumonia or other complications, Daiga stresses.

This is the point where I usually have to do two contradictory things in the same conversation: calm down one owner who has already found the worst-case scenario online, and talk another one out of bringing his dog to class because it is only a bit of a cough, what harm can it do.

Your dog is coughing: when to wait and when to ring the vet

The obvious question follows almost immediately: if my dog sneezes or coughs once or twice, is that automatically kennel cough, and am I now stuck at home for a fortnight? Of course not every cough is kennel cough. A dog can simply have picked up a cold, or he may have allergies.

Daiga's yardstick is how the dog feels, not how loud the cough is. If he is coughing but otherwise perfectly bright, active and cheerful, eats his food and wants his walk, then there is most likely nothing to worry about and you can give it a day or two. If he is coughing and also bringing his food back up, and he is flat and miserable with it, then you really do need to see a vet.

How long does kennel cough last

By and large it resolves on its own within ten to fourteen days, and the curve is fairly typical. At first the cough builds up, more and more; somewhere around day five it starts to ease, and by day ten to fourteen it is over. If the bouts are mild, most of the time you need not go in at all. In some dogs, Daiga says, kennel cough turns into ferocious sneezing rather than the classic cough, and that passes on its own too.

The one situation where waiting is not an option is the reverse pattern. If the cough keeps getting stronger and the dog feels worse by the day, there is no sense in letting him suffer while you wait for that day five. That is when you get in the car.

Quarantine: why a coughing dog should not come to training class

As a trainer I consider this the single most important part of the article, and it is the only one where I am speaking for myself. If your dog has started coughing, please stay away from public places. No dog parks, no shows, no training class. You will in all likelihood infect the lot.

I have watched it play out several times and the script never changes. First one client tells me her dog has kennel cough. Within a few days everyone else writes in to say their dogs are ill too. The group grinds to a halt for a fortnight when one dog could have stopped instead.

We have all had years of hearing about social distancing, so in theory we all know how viruses travel. In practice it comes down to something simple: if your dog is coughing, keep him at home or take him somewhere you will not meet other dogs, a quiet stretch of woodland or fields. That applies even if you are not sure it is kennel cough. Let us not waste each other's time, because an infected class costs everyone far more than one missed session.

For the avoidance of doubt: isolation runs for two weeks, and only then should the dog go back into circulation. And there is one more awkward detail that cannot be left out here. All these viruses share an unhelpful trait: they are at their most contagious before any clinical signs show up. The best spreading happens roughly a day or two before the dog himself falls ill, and at that moment there is nothing you can do about it, because you simply cannot see that he is unwell. Which is why behaving responsibly once symptoms appear is only half the answer. The other half is vaccination.

Kennel cough vaccination: who needs it, how often and how it is given

Daiga's position is simple: the only way to protect a dog is to vaccinate. She would certainly vaccinate young dogs up to the age of three or four if they have an active social life, meaning training classes, competitions, shows, dog meet-ups and walks in large groups of dogs. That is precisely where kennel cough thrives. The vaccine is given once a year.

The procedure itself surprises almost everyone the first time round, because the kennel cough vaccine, widely known as the Bordetella vaccine, is not injected but dripped into the nose. That means the dog has to be sociable enough, or at least calm enough, for the vet to get near his nose at all. Most dogs will put up with that once a year, though Daiga admits with a smile that getting drops up the nose of a French bulldog could be something of a challenge, since the nose is a different proposition and the French bulldog is not the world's most placid dog.

Why flat-faced breeds need it most

The irony is that the dogs in which the vaccine is hardest to administer are the ones with the most to gain. Brachycephalic dogs have a different airway architecture, and they get sicker and in a different way. The retching in them is genuinely awful to watch. So one awkward moment at the surgery is a cheap price.

Daiga frames it as a choice rather than an obligation: the brave can sit and watch their dog cough, but sensible owners who want to plan their year, travel to shows and go to classes are better off vaccinating. The first three years of life are her recommendation. And it is certainly cheaper than the vet visit plus the cough syrups that follow.

What you can buy over the counter and what to expect from it

A high street pharmacy will most likely have no idea what you are asking for. What you want is a veterinary pharmacy or your own practice, where there are over-the-counter products for softening a cough, syrups and the like. You can use them.

Daiga's verdict on how well they work is refreshingly honest: she would not claim they help a great deal, but at least you have the satisfaction of doing something, and perhaps the cough does soften a little. I like that answer precisely because it promises nothing. An owner who has not slept for two nights needs an action to take, and a syrup meets that need better than anything else you can buy without a prescription.

Why kennel cough comes in waves

Kennel cough has no season. What it does have is an ally, and that ally is the public dog event. When a big show has been on, Daiga can feel it in her workload.

The most convincing evidence of all was delivered by the pandemic years.

During that first Covid year, when people really were keeping their distance, there was no kennel cough at all, not a single case. And then, the moment the first show was allowed again, there was a proper wave of it.

I tend to bring this up with owners who believe their dog does not get ill because he is tough. No, he has not got ill because he has not yet been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Common mistakes

These are the ones I meet most often, and nearly all of them can be avoided without a vet being involved at all.

• Deciding the dog has something stuck and spending two nights peering down his throat instead of recognising a cough.
• Turning up to class or the dog park with a mildly coughing dog, on the grounds that nobody has confirmed it is kennel cough.
• Going to an empty dog park because there is nobody there. You will leave your viruses behind and they will be waiting for whoever comes next.
• Judging how serious it is by how loud the cough sounds, rather than by appetite, energy and general demeanour.
• Waiting for it to pass on its own even when the dog is visibly worse every day.
• Putting off the vaccination until after show season, which in practice means never getting round to it.

In closing

Kennel cough is one of the few canine illnesses whose spread is determined not by the dog's health but by the owner's decision. The virus does not pick its victims; we do, in the moment we decide whether to drive to Friday's class with a dog that is coughing a bit.

So the one thought I would like you to take away from this conversation is not really about coughing. It is that in the dog world we are all in the same room: one class, one field, one show hall. What we call responsibility towards our own dog nearly always turns out to be responsibility towards the other twenty as well.

This article is based on a conversation with veterinary surgeon Daiga Bokvalde and reflects her practical experience and opinion rather than a universal course of treatment. The conversation was held in Latvian and all quotations have been translated. If your dog is coughing, seems unwell or is getting worse, speak to your own vet.