The illness can be caused by bacteria or viruses and is highly contagious to dogs.
However, it is not notifiable illness, meaning it is unclear how widespread the illness is.
The advice from the States' veterinary officers is that there is a vaccination available and dogs should get it.
‘Avoiding close contact with other dogs will reduce the spread,’ they said.
‘If a dog presents with a dry cough, contact your private vet for advice. It is generally not a life-threatening disease.’
Vetcare Centres partner John Knight confirmed he was aware that the illness had been confirmed in the island.
Uusually it causes an inflammation of the windpipe, and he compared it to whooping cough in humans.
In bacterial cases there are drugs to help the dogs, but viral illnesses usually have to run their course. Mr Knight said most healthy dogs would recover.
‘In very old dogs, or immune-compromised dogs or very young dogs, it can cause more of a problem, as it can cause issues like pneumonia, but that is not common,’ he said.
When it came to vaccination, he said that owners who often travelled overseas or needed to put their dogs in kennels or take them to shows would usually have their dogs vaccinated. But he said the majority were not.
One of the issues that has deterred owners from getting the vaccine in the past has been that it was given by a spray up the nose, which many dogs did not like. But now the vaccine can be given in other ways, such as an injection, and Mr Knight said he hoped that would increase the vaccine uptake.
There are often a low number of cases of kennel cough in the island, but that number has gone up recently.
While people have not been moving, some dogs have been, such as rescue dogs or puppies coming into the island.
That could also possibly have led to the latest outbreak.
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