My 10-year-old dog was due for shots so I asked the vet about the difference in price between the 1-year and 3-year rabies vaccination, thinking that my girl wasn’t going to need the extended coverage. “Nothing,” she said. “They are the exact same shot; it’s only about the bureaucracy.”
It seems that if your dog gets its rabies vaccine on or before the expiration date, the State of Iowa considers you covered for three years, but if you miss by even one day you need to get another shot the next year. Apparently, the regulation was designed to serve as an incentive for owners to keep the shots current — and it may have even accomplished that — if anyone knew about it. I have been a dog owner for 30+ years and all this time I thought they were different doses.
When you create a policy to incentivize a particular behavior, include an ongoing communication strategy as part of your implementation. Carrots don’t have much impact if no one is aware of them.
