Older dogs and puppies are different. Understanding this can help you spot what all the noise is about.

Older dogs

Just like people older dogs have health issues. Arthritis pain, feeling achy in cold weather, sensitivity to cold/heat/draughts and simply less tolerant and more irritable. This can cause barking at events that didn’t bother them before such as other dogs, cars, trucks or planes. Vision and/or hearing can add to the problems by causing the dog to be startled. Some older dogs have bitten people they have been friendly with because they were startled. Afterwards they are often ashamed.

As hearing goes, he may often bark first and ask questions later on a better safe than sorry principle. Confusion and even dementia can cause sudden barking. If so there are drugs to help.

If he barks at specific things like cars and trucks find a way to not let him see them. Close curtains, build a fence or move the dog to different room. If a dog suddenly starts barking for no obvious reason, check his physical condition and the surroundings. If there’s nothing obvious…go to a vet. Be empathetic…imagine how you would feel if you were the aging dog.

Puppies

Puppies are almost universally adorable but after a few days and nights of a puppy whimpering and barking …it is decidedly not so cute. You must resolve puppy barking as it leads to adult barking.

If a puppy has been taken from their mother early, he will often bark when left alone. But several ideas have been used successfully to calm puppies: put a blanket or toy around the puppy that was used by the litter, play the radio on low, or put a small ticking clock in his bed (assumed to remind the puppy of his mum’s heartbeat) or even something unwashed of yours can often work as a comforter.

A method of preventing a lonely puppy becoming an adult barker is to allow him to spend time alone while he’s still a puppy. This can be very hard for people to do – as who doesn’t feel the need to have the cute puppy at their side…but try and avoid this constant attention…train them to be independent with this alone time. Give him toys to play with alone. The key is not to spend every second with your dog, in a way it’s training yourself (and him) to do your own thing. And relax a well-trained, well-behaved dog will still need and love you.

Give your dog a bed immediately (and not your bed) and walk him to it every night. This will pay off massively. It gives him his own place to sleep (or hide) but more importantly it gives YOU your own bed with no massive hound demanding your attention every minute! Not to mention no pools of drool to step in or wipe up. Many vets/trainers recommend using a crate rather than a bed however if you don’t travel much, or your dog is well behaved, a pet bed will often do.

Puppies should start training at two months of age -don’t wait. If your puppy barks try turning away and walking out. This will disconnect the link the puppy is trying which is that barking = attention (even if it’s bad attention). You don’t rush to him if he calls you. It may take a few weeks to ingrain that in his brain so keep going…if you give in, in his mind it will be “Hmmm if I just bark long enough and loud enough, I get attention” and that is bad for you.

Do not comfort a dog who is barking. Again by doing this you reinforce that barking = attention. I know I know you feel guilty sometimes but just don’t do it. The habit will be harder to break when you try again.

Breast cancer stages are based on whether the cancer is invasive or non-invasive, whether the lymph nodes have been affected, whether the cancer cells have already spread beyond the breast, and the size of the tumor.

The purpose of identifying the stage in breast cancer is to organize the different factors and features of the cancer. In organizing the factors involved, the prognosis or the most likely outcome of the disease will be identified. The doctor can also provide the patient with the best treatment guide for the disease.

Stage 0. In this stage, the breast cancer is non-invasive. It just simply means that there is no sign of non-cancerous abnormal cells or cancerous cells getting out of the part of the breast where they started. These cells have not yet invaded other neighboring normal tissues in the breast.

Stage 1.

In this stage, the breast cancer is said to be invasive. The cancer cells are already breaking out of the part of the breast where they started and they have already invaded neighboring normal tissues. But in Stage 1, the lymph nodes are not affected or involved and the tumor measures up to 2 centimeters.

Stage 2.

Stage 2 is described as invasive breast cancer and is subdivided into two categories: Stage 2A and Stage 2B. In Stage 2A, there is no tumor in the breast but a 2 centimeters or less tumor can be found scattered in the axillary lymph nodes, which is the lymph node found under the arm.

Another case of Stage 2A is that, the tumor is larger than 2 centimeters but not more than 5 centimeters and has not spread in the axillary lymph nodes. In stage 2B, the tumor is also larger than 2 centimeters but not more than 5 and has already spread to the axillary lymph nodes or if the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters, the tumor has not yet spread the axillary lymph nodes.

Stage 3.

Stage 3 is described as one of the invasive breast cancer stages and is subdivided into 3 categories: Stage 3A, Stage 3B and Stage 3C. In Stage 3A, there is no tumor in the breast but it is found in the axillary lymph nodes or the lymph nodes near the breast bone. The tumor has the size of less than 5 centimeters or more and they are clustered together or they may stick to other structures.

In Stage 3B, the tumor may be of any size and found in the lymph nodes under the arm or near the breastbone, chest wall and/or skin of the breast, clustered together or sticking to other structures. In Stage 3C, there can still be no sign of cancer in the breast. The tumor may be of any size and found to be spread to the chest wall, lymph nodes above or below the collarbone, lymph nodes under the arm or breastbone.

Stage 4.

Stage 4 is described as one of the invasive breast cancer stages in which the cancer has already spread to other organs of the body; usually the brain, lungs, liver or bone.