Our Proven Method
How does Good Canine Academy choose dogs for Support and Cancer Detection?
Choosing the best dogs for the position
We are thankful that throughout the many years of being a top breeder and acquainted with other such breeders, that we have many contacts throughout the world when it comes to great dogs. First and foremost is the health and temperament of the dogs we choose and the lineage that is behind them. Each pup or dog we choose is evaluated for one job or the other; however, some dogs that are chosen for Support may not fully commit to it and might have too much drive to become a Support Dog. The wonderful thing about Good Canine Academy is we don’t have to add them to the “Wash Out List” like other organizations and place them in a companion home, they actually get another chance. We want the drive when working with Cancer Detection Dogs. They need the ability to stay strong for hours at a time and keep on task. Only a dog that is highly motivated but not off the wall will work for this. Support, Service, and Therapy dogs usually need to have a more even temperament.
Good Canine Academy does not train other people’s dogs, nor do we pull from shelters or rescue dogs as a main source. We totally promote the use of rescues; however, our ability to recruit dogs from breeders that we know allows us to minimize the risk of wasting precious time training dogs with hereditary or health issues. For these reasons we almost always acquire our dogs from the breeders we have known for years that understand the standards we are seeking.
HERE ARE THE FACTS from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- No tumor marker identified to date is sufficiently sensitive or specific to be used on its own to screen for cancer
- Of all breast cancers detected by screening mammograms, up to 54% are estimated to be results of over diagnosis (false positive).
- 50% of women screened annually for 10 years in the United States will experience a false positive, or whom 7% to 17% will have biopsies.
- Up to 46% with invasive cancer will have negative mammograms, especially if they are young, have dense breast, [13,14] or have mucinous, lobular or rapidly growing cancers – this means that if you have the really bad, fast growing cancer, it’s 46% likely to be missed altogether by a mammogram.
- Annual mammograms in woman aged 40-80 years may cause up to one breast cancer per 1,000 women” – so mammograms are actually causing some cancers.
- The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, which biopsied men with normal PSA levels, estimated a negative predictive value of 85% for a PSA value. – In English, the PSA test gives around 85% false positives.
- Dogs have shown in hundreds of published studies and in published medical journals, to be consistently accurate in both sensitivity and specificity at detecting prostate, breast, ovarian, colorectal, melanoma, lung and many other types of cancers.