First of all welcome!! We love pictures and would love to see your little fella. We all think of our little ones as our babies as you think of yours, and personally I would feel EXACTLY as you do! If you don't mind, I'm going to tell you what I would do if he were mine. Thankfully you have already been told by your county they will accept the medical exemption. I would fight like crazy for that!! He would NEVER have that shot again! I would explain that to my vet, explain to my vet that I never want him to have that shot again, and to please give me the necessary paperwork for exemption. If your vet won't do that find a vet that will. Also, I would find a vet that titers. Truthfully, once your dog has had his puppy shots (which the number of shots that are given to puppies is too many) he should be immune. It is not cumulative--they are either immune or not. Titers tell you that. To continue annual vaccinations when they are already immune is just setting your dog up for a great possibility for the many side effects that come with over-vaccination. Also, I personally don't think a dog needs to be vaccinated against anything but distemper or parvo and only if titers show they have no immunities. Bordatella and Lepto both do not cover the many strains of each disease nor do they even last a full year. Now I think they even have a flu shot for a dog. This is just my opinion based on the studying I have done on vaccinations. We had a Maltese once. She died in June just before she would have turned 5 years old in August. She had her annual vaccinations in late April before she died in early June. I believe with all my heart her vaccination killed her, but I have no proof. Of course, her vet at the time would never tie her death to vaccinations, but he also could not tell me why she died. Since then I have studied and learned a lot and found this wonderful forum with many knowledgeable people. You do what you feel is comfortable with your dog that trusts you for his well being!