The Truth About Cancer Treatment For Dogs

There are varying opinions concerning the ethics of canine cancer treatment. One of the reasons many people give for this line of thinking is the opinion the money on research and cancer treatment should be directed toward humans rather than animals. While this may appear to be a realistic line of thinking, the reality is that veterinary hospitals work completely separate from hospitals that treat people. In addition, the work oncologists do treating animals provides more knowledge and a better understanding of cancer, a step that can only help provide more effective cancer treatment for humans.

Another reason people give for feeling cancer treatment for dogs is unethical is because they have the misconception that animals endure the same side effects of chemotherapy that humans do. In humans the treatment is more invasive because oncologists are attempting to kill the cancer where canine oncologists are working toward slowing the spread of the cancer rather than killing the cancer cells completely. In some types of cancer the only solution is amputation, and only those who are directly involved can decide if the loss of a dog’s limb is too unpleasant for either dog or owner to accept. Strangely, people do not have as much reluctance about treating dogs for other severe conditions including kidney failure or heart disease even though the treatments seldom provide the quality of life a dog acquires following cancer treatment. In fact, the side effects from the treatment of many of these potentially debilitating conditions are often worse than the side effects of canine cancer treatment.

Another reason some people believe treating animals for cancer is unethical is because they believe there is very little extra time added to the dogs lives. Any treatment is a gamble, even for humans—there are many cases of people who undergo invasive chemotherapy and radiation and still do sometimes only live a few months because the cancer is so aggressive and quick moving. There is never a way to determine with any degree of certainty how much longer your dog will live if you agree to treat him for his cancer. However, if you don’t provide some kind of treatment for malignant dog carcinoma, it is unlikely they will survive more than a few months. In addition, you may be lucky enough to discover the tumor is benign and will not cause any additional harm to your dog.
The Truth About Cancer Treatment For Dogs

Dog Training | Dog Training – Make Your Dog Listen To You

How many times have you seen dog owners shouting at their dog while the dog blatantly ignores them? Often I presume!

However, if you consider what normally happens in situations like this it is quite easy to understand why. An owner starts shouting at their dog to come to them. The dog ignores them and the owner starts shouting louder and louder and more angrily (often not the same command). The dog continues to ignore them. Then the dog owner walks after the dog at which point the dog starts sulking towards the owner in full appreciation that its owner is annoyed. Upon reaching each other the dog is treated roughly (e.g. a rough pull of the collar or even a smack).

You can see two problems here. One, the dog starts associating whatever come command you are using with a form of punishment. Hardly surprising the dog does not want to come to you. Secondly, the owner has often used several commands, which mean absolutely nothing to a dog. In case you forget a dog can’t speak your language!

Long term the relationship between dog and owner is one of fear rather than respect.

Generally a dog will disobey for two reasons (I use the word disobey lightly for the two reasons below):

1. Your dog doesn’t understand the commands.
2. Your dog is simply ignoring you.

When training your dog you need to establish commands that your dog understands. In essence, this is teaching your dog to understand a bit of your language. These should be short, ideally one or two word commands. They should be different enough from each other that it is clear what each command is. Commands that sound the same will only make learning them harder for your dog. Once you select different commands, keep the same commands forever. Remember, your dog lives in a world where people are constantly talking in a full breadth of language that they will only ever realistically pick up 20 words of.

In teaching your dog the commands, you should also adopt hand signals specific to that command. As dogs can be trained very quickly by associating a command with an action, dogs often learn what the hand signal means before they really associate the voice command with it. As with the voice command, be consistent with the hand command and make it clear. Bad example, but you don’t want to associate the sit command with folding your arms – how often do you fold your arms and how many times would you do it solely to get your dog to sit?

The presentation of your commands is also crucially important. Your commands need to be short, sharp, clear and obvious that you mean what you say. A weak or playful voice command will not work and your dog will firstly think they have an option and secondly think you are not the alpha dog.

In the case of a dog simply ignoring you, the dog understands the command but just chooses to ignore you. It

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