I was watching a show on animal planet where the dog was taken to a SPCA or some other animal shelter. After saving it from abuse, they decided to euthanize (kill) it because it got a little angry when you put a fake hand during feeding. Sure, the dog is not perfect, but even my dog of 11 years didn’t like it if someone came near his food. The dog wasn’t even a pittbull, so its not like the dog would have killed his owner. It got me thinking that not all animal shelters truly are there to save animals under every condition.

There are animal shelters called “No-kill animal shelters” because they don’t euthanize a dog after a certain time period, just because it is not adopted. This is the usual procedure in all the standard government county animal control sites. The definition of “no kill animal shelter” seems to be a little blurry depending on the animal shelter. They vary in how they handle aggressive or dogs with medical problems. It is very important that before leaving your dog with an animal shelter, you find out their policies on euthanasia.

Some no-kill animal shelters are very good and will take dogs that have been rejected from other shelters and will even help with their medical problems. No Kill animal shelters rely on private donations, so they usually have limited funds and can only take a limited amount of animals. This makes it hard for them to accept dog that have bad medical problems or behaviour problems. Here is a currently maintained list of no-kill animal shelters in the u.s.

Last year our family dog Rex, started getting very restless at night with heavy panting. He also was drinking a lot and he started losing his appetite for food, so we decided to take him to the vet. The vet noticed a tumour growth in his mouth. We had him stay overnight to have some of his teeth and the growth removed that had been bothering him. The next day we got a call from the vet, that during the surgery she felt some lumps in his throat area and she suspected cancer. I cried that day because I knew he wouldn’t be with us much longer most likely. Test results came a few days later and the vet said it appeared to be positive for dog lymphoma.

Lymphoma is cancer of the lymph nodes and happens in both humans and dogs. You can detect it by looking for lumps in common areas where the lymph nodes are located at. Our dog was already suffering from many fatty tumours throughout his body for most of his life, so it would have been difficult for us to realize he had lymphoma. He had the lymphoma lumps under his throat area.

You have two choices with a dog with lymphoma. Either give chemotherapy or just give him prednisone which isn’t a cure but helps temporarily shrink the tumour. We decided to not pursue chemotherapy because it costs thousands and usually only extends the life of the dog for a few months and our dog was already 11.5 years old. Life expectancy is only a few weeks on average without chemotherapy.

We took Rex home and we decided to try to give him the best time for what he had left. I wanted to fight it and tried everything I could think of to improve his health and maybe somehow fight it. I decided to even give him that prescription food by Hill’s diet, specially made for dogs with dog lymphoma. We also gave him healthy mix of food and vitamins in addition to it. He gave us 3 more weeks of his life. He seemed much better from the prednisone until one day he suddenly lost his appetite. He quickly then got very sick and barfed if he ate any food at all or even if he had a tablespoon of water. He also started getting diarrhea at about the same time. With the advice of a vet we decided it was time to humanely put our friend to sleep. I still miss Rex to this day and that was a year and half ago.

I never thought dog lymphoma would be the cause of my dogs eventual death, but apparently it is a pretty common disease in dogs. Dog Lymphoma seems to be partly caused by genetics because some breeds are more likely to get it. Golden retrievers are the most likely to get it than any other breed. Our dog is german shepherd mix. German shepherds are also one of the breeds that have a higher likelihood than the average dog breed to get lymphoma.

When I was searching for ways to naturally help with Rex while he was alive I started reading websites about how the rate of dog lymphoma has increased by a large percentage the last few years. I recently came across a study that I believe explains why dog lymphoma is even more prevalent. A study done back in 1992 Cancer Res. 1992 Oct 1;52(19 Suppl):5485s-5488s says that lymphoma has increased by 50% in the last 15 years. They cite multiple studies where certain pesticides, especially one type in particular, increases risk of lymphoma. They have also cite how dog lymphoma has been associated with lawn pesticide treatments using these chemicals.

I believe strongly that if you want to help prevent your dog from having lymphoma then you have to do a couple things. If you look at commercial dog food it is full of corn, wheat, and other ingredients full of pesticides and none of it is organic. These pesticides are getting in our food supply and causing cancers. I recommend you buy organic foods for yourself and your dog at a place called Only Natural Pet Store. Organic dog foods contain no pesticides of any kind including the meat sources. I also think you should avoid using herbicides or pesticides on your lawn or backyard where your dog plays. You also have to be careful about taking your dogs on walks because it means he will be running through lawns that may contain. Unlike humans, dogs like to rub their nose and fur on the grass etc. when they walk on lawns, so they are more susceptible to ingesting the pesticides than us.

Leapfish has joined forces with the make a wish foundation calling it the tweet-a-cause because through your twitterings leapfish will donate 5 cents up until 10,000 dollars is raised. This will allow him and his family a paid vacation to disneyland.

Jacob is the boy they are raising the money for and he is 4 years old and his one wish is to go to disneyland. He has a life threatening disease and he may not ever get the chance later on to live to see that if we don’t do it now. You can see a picture of him on the site. The campaign runs from November 16 through November 27, 2009.

Leapfish is an advanced web search engine. Make a wish foundation has for years been helping sick kids get their dreams fulfilled through donations. I encourage you to support both sites in the future for their kind acts such as this. I’ve used leapfish before its a nice little search engine thats different from your normal yahoo and googles of the world.

Please do a few tweets every day. Its only a few minutes out of your time and most people have time to kill in between tasks on the net. Ill be doing my share today. Thanks guys for your support of him! I believe in the future innovative ideas like what leapfish is doing, will be commonly used to help charities raise money.

Animal Behavior College is one of the most prestigous dog training universities in the world. The university is for those who want to enter a career in dog training. They also have a Animal Behavior College Veterinary Assistant Training Program, allowing you to become a certified veterinary assistant. Animal Behavior college is centered in California, but it is mainly based on a long distant learning program, so you can get educated right from your home. Animal behavior college can also help you after you graduate, get job placement in a career as a Petco as a professional dog trainer. They are the only dog training college that can do this because Animal Behaviors sister company, ABTA, had an exclusive relationship with Petco Animal Supplies, in which ABTA supplied all training classes for Petco.

ABC’s comprehensive curriculum is 11 stages long and expands over 800 pages. You first start learning the theoretical curriculum from your home study. Eventually towards the end of the program then you ABC Mentor Trainers to finish your curriculum program. The maximum time allotted for each student in the ABC program is 60 weeks, but you can finish the program in as little as 40 weeks. Tuition for Animal Behavior College $2815 to $3570 depending on the payment arrangements and available tuition discounts for all US students. You can also be eligible for low interest student aid loans to assist you with the cost of tuition.

Animal Behavior College is a private vocational school approved under California Education Code Sections 94915 and Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. This approval indicates that Animal Behavior College has been visited and reviewed pursuant to state standards, and that the curricula is consistent in quality with the curricula offered by traditional institutions. You can learn more about Animal Behavior College at Animalbehaviorcollege.com

If you want to get good at Dog training without a formal school education, I recommend you check out the popular e-book Secrets to Dog Training