The shape of a year, not the medicine
This page describes what routine care usually covers, so that you know what to ask about and what to keep. It does not tell you what your dog needs. Your veterinarian decides that, and a dog with a diagnosed condition follows their plan rather than any checklist.
The appointment everything else hangs off
Veterinary guidance puts a healthy adult dog at a wellness examination at least once a year. Puppies are seen repeatedly through their first months, and older dogs more often than adults, because things change faster at both ends of a life.
Verification here asks for a veterinary wellness exam dated within the last twelve months. Treat that as a floor rather than a schedule. Book the next appointment before you leave the current one, which is the only reliable way it happens.
Vaccination, and the one the law requires
Rabies is not a preference. Illinois requires every dog four months or older to be inoculated by a licensed veterinarian, with a second dose within a year of the first and boosters thereafter set by the licensed duration of the vaccine used. Chicago will not issue a dog license without proof of a current one.
Veterinarians treat some other vaccines as routine for nearly every dog, and choose the rest by where your dog goes and what it does. Boarding, daycare, grooming, hiking and fieldwork all change the answer, so describe your dog’s actual life at the appointment.
Parasites are a calendar, not an event
The Companion Animal Parasite Council recommends year-round broad-spectrum control covering heartworm, intestinal parasites, fleas and ticks, and annual heartworm testing.
It recommends testing a stool sample at least four times during the first year of life and at least twice a year afterwards, adjusted for lifestyle, and deworming puppies from two weeks of age, repeated every two weeks until regular control begins.
Several of these parasites can infect people. Picking up the yard daily and washing hands afterwards is part of the protocol, not fastidiousness, and it matters most in households with young children.
What to watch between visits
Weight and body condition, appetite and thirst, energy, teeth and breath, limping, lumps, itching, and any change in behaviour. A dog that hides, guards a spot, or stops greeting you is reporting something.
Write down the date a change started. The difference between "he has been off lately" and "this started on the 9th, after the boarding kennel" is the difference between a shrug and a diagnosis.
Keep the paperwork where you can find it
Exam summaries and vaccination history are what verification reads, what a boarding kennel wants, and what a new veterinarian needs if you move. Ask for them as separate documents, which makes every one of those requests faster.