Snickers is definitely LOVING being back in an urban environment. He enjoyed the big yard and the big parks we went to in Indiana, but mostly I think he was almost as bored as I was. When he went outside he would check the fence perimeter and then settle on his park bench and wait for me to sit down with him. Now that we’re back east, he’s back to taking his long adventure walks and enjoying all the sights and smells a city has to offer a curious pup.

Here’s a photo I took of Snick during a long walk around Jersey City a few weeks after we arrived. (That’s downtown NYC in the background.)

Snick and the City

As most of you know, I started a new blog shortly after I moved, specifically for the dog-related material. I will continue to use Jenna & Snickers (.com) as Snick’s primary site, so if you’re looking for dogs, Shiba Inu, or Snick the Dog, that’s where you want to go.

Please, still visit me here also. I will try to think of non-dog related things to say here occasionally!

The "Snick the Dog" posts continue on the new site. To read the past posts, scroll down. To read all the new posts about life with Snickers, Shiba Inu, click through.

OMG, these are the cutest squirrels you can imagine. Unfortunately Snickers thinks they look incredibly tasty. If I am not VERY careful he is going to break one of my fingers and/or get away from me when he sees one of these cuties dashing across the park.

Debbie clicked this photo with her phone when we were walking. Click through to see the next one!

At least that is how I am thinking of it. Let’s please not call it “leaving NYC.”

<sigh>

I moved here 21 years ago, still a teenager and totally in awe of everything around me. I made the mistake of leaving in 1991 and spent the next few years desperately trying to find my way home from SoCal and then MS. In 1995, I landed back in midtown Manhattan and swore I would never make the mistake of leaving again. Over the years, the city has become an inextricable part of who I am. Sometimes it feels like the city has woven itself into me. It’s not a "place." It is more of a being. NYC is a friend and it is home.

Although there are many things I love about NYC, it’s a tiring, expensive, and challenging place to be a single parent. As most of you probably know, Miss T went to Florida last summer to live with her dad. The choice was hers regarding whether to stay there for high school or come home. At first, she said she wanted to stay in Florida, but then she decided a few months ago that high school in Florida was not in her plans. Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about a bigger place to live and a decent place to enroll her in school. (She was in private school up until the year before she went to Florida. We tried one year of NYC public school and it was horrendous.) I really can’t afford to put her back in private school for four more years or to move to a neighborhood with a rocking public high school. (There are specialty public high schools, but the application and enrollment process takes a year and a half.)

What’s a single mom in the city to do?

Well… my sister’s entire neighborhood was recently purchased by a developer, so she’s been house hunting and just bought a big house in a commuter town outside Indianapolis. The day before she put the offer on the house, she IM’d me… "So, do you wanna move to Indiana?"

Hmmm… what had always been a kind of running "what if" scenario between us suddenly seemed like it could be a really good idea!

Long story short… I decided to do it and I’ve spent the last couple weeks figuring out what it would take to make the move. T is psyched about living with her Aunt Debbie and also about what looks like a nice high school. Debbie and I have been planning paint colors and furniture arrangements. My little foster dog, Penny, was adopted this past Friday. I found someone to sublet my midtown apartment so I don’t have to give it up. NYCSR is all taken care of. I’m looking for a new organizer for my meetup group. I started packing boxes last weekend and, today, I gave my job three weeks notice!

The only thing I have NOT figured out is what I will do for work after I get there. I need to get myself and T settled before school starts, so I haven’t had time to job hunt long distance along with everything else. For now, the plan is to live frugally, do some freelancing, and start serious job hunting by mid August. If anyone has contacts in Indianapolis, let me know!

hmmmm… How can there be a show with that name and it not be about Snickers???

And apropos to absolutely nothing, I just had to find an NYPD officer to haul the big, drunk guy off my front step so I could get inside with the dogs at the end of our walk. Best part was, he thanked ME for rescuing him from the drunk, belligerent suit who was talking his ear off.

For the last month, Snick and I have been visiting a small school for developmentally challenged children once a week. We visit three classrooms ranging in age from four to nine and each class has about 10 kids in it. Each visit is only about 20 minutes long. One class has invited us to the playground with them for the last two weeks, so our morning has been like this

9:00 to 9:20 – 7 to 9 year olds
9:30 to 9:50 – 5 & 6 year olds
10:00 to 10:15 – 4 year olds
10:30 to 11:00 – playground with the 5 & 6 year olds

I think Snickers has mixed emotions about his school visits so far. Parts of it are fun and other parts are really hard work. It’s been a great learning experience for both of us.

When we first started, a large percentage of the kids were nervous with Snickers and would only reach out tentatively to pet him. He figured that out pretty quickly and would become very still. The kids sit in a circle and take turns asking if they may pet him and then approach to pet him. Snickers can tell who is the most nervous and will lie down and turn his head away from them. (I’ve explained to all of them that in his doggie body language he’s trying his very best to tell them he is not a threat.) I’m amazed at how sensitive Shibas are to human emotions. I feel sort of bad for Snickers too though, because he loves kids and he wants to PLAY. I can tell he is working hard at being non-threatening and also that he is disappointed/sad that we’re not romping around having fun. I feel guilty about making him work so hard, but I think he trusts me enough to know there must be a reason for it.

With each visit, more kids become comfortable with him and we have progressed to things like letting them give him treats (which of course he loves). He’s even given a few high fives and KISSES on command to the most comfortable children. There are still a few that are very scared but he makes himself small and still and they have all at least approached and petted him now. One girl who was scared to get near him a month ago gave Snickers (and then me!) a HUG last week. It was awesome.

Last week, most of the students in the older class walked him around the roof. (They held his leash. I walked behind them holding a long line.) That was fun. I played a little squeaky toy fetch with him in the hallway – on his long line – between classes and that was lots of fun for him. The second class mostly still just pets him and talks. Snickers laid down in the middle of the circle this week while we talked. The third class was having an emotional melt down this week, so we didn’t do much. We’d done some team dog walking around the classroom the week before, but this week they were too worked up. Snick said hello to the ones that aren’t afraid of him and we left.

Between the last class and the playground time, we sit in the front lobby and chat with the receptionist. Snickers hops up on the bench next to me and sits so quietly. Everyone who walks by stops to pet him and tell him how beautiful and well behaved he is. He gets lots of extra treats and love from me.

Going to the playground the last two weeks has been the most fun, because Snick can stretch his legs and also only has to interact with the kids who are really comfortable with him. There are two boys in this class that really love him. One of the boys sticks with us the whole time at the playground – hugs and pets Snickers, talks to him, and has walked him around the playground (with my help of course). This class has asked us if we’ll “come and play” some during the summer term too and, of course, I said that we will!

We were planning to go this week (their last day) but their schedule for the day changed and we had to skip it. We’ll be going back for the summer session though, beginning July 11. Overall it has been a good experience. I’m so proud of Snickers for being so good at reading the kids – knowing which ones are scared and which ones are comfortable. They can’t fool him either. When they are only pretending to be brave, he knows and is very careful not to move too quickly.

If it is possible, I think I love him even more than I did before we started.

Something I did not know until last week… this is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. I received an email asking if I would blog about it and at first I thought "I’m not a dog trainer. What do I know about dog bite prevention?" Then I realized, it isn’t about training dogs so much as it is about training people and I do know a little about preventing dog bites!

First off, the statistics… according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention each year, 800,000 Americans seek medical attention for dog bites; half of these are children. Of those injured, 386,000 require treatment in an emergency department and about a dozen die. The rate of dog bite-related injuries is highest for children ages 5 to 9 years, and the rate decreases as children age. Almost two thirds of injuries among children ages four years and younger are to the head or neck region.

Educating Dogs to Prevent Biting

One thing I’ve learned for sure in this past year with NYC Shiba Rescue… most dogs bite because they were not raised, trained and socialized properly by the humans who were supposedly their caretakers. We’ve had a few tough cases that we’ve taken into NYCSR and we’ve rehabilitated each one of them.

Our first, and most serious, was Ella. Her name was Sheba when she arrived. She was less than a year old and had lived in the basement of her "home" for most of her short life after being purchased from a pet store as a Christmas gift for children. Ella had serious resource guarding issues and was also a fear biter. The worst part was that we couldn’t figure out her fear triggers, so training her was challenging. With the help of a great trainer and several amazing foster homes though, Ella learned SELF CONTROL and SELF CONFIDENCE and after about 8 months with NYCSR she was adopted out to a wonderful couple who have continued her training very successfully. You can read more about Ella here.

Our latest case, is my little foster dog Penny. She was surrendered to NYCSR because she was an ankle and foot biter, snapped at visitors in the home and pretty much tried to bite anyone if startled. Her owner was going to put her to sleep if we didn’t take her. When I met her, I saw PURE FEAR in her face… not aggression! She’s been living with Snick and me for about a month now. She learned very quickly that we will protect her from the scary world and she stopped trying to bite everyone. I’ve been introducing her slowly to the things she fears (really big dogs, men who move toward her quickly, things that roll on the sidewalk) and she makes HUGE improvements every day. Now there is one less biter in the world! You can read more about Penny here.

Educating Humans to Prevent Dog Bites

Of course, the flip side of socializing and training dogs correctly is socializing and training humans correctly. Kids need to learn

• to treat dogs humanely, so they don’t become fear biters, and
• to approach strange dogs with respect and caution.

A lot of kids are not raised around dogs or, even worse, are raised in neighborhoods where the only dogs they see have been trained to fight and/or protect. How can these children be raised with a respect for, and appreciation of, dogs? Is there a way to teach them that dogs are living beings who deserve to be treated with kindness? How can they know what wonderful companions well-trained dogs can be if they are never exposed to them? This is where a good humane education program can help.

Our school system, unfortunately, is asked to take up a lot of slack these days – teaching so many lessons that ideally would be taught by extended families and neighbors – and humane education is on the list. Snickers and I recently became a Delta Society Pet Partners team, specifically so we could get involved in humane education. When Snickers and I walk around midtown Manhattan, we get mixed reactions from children on the sidewalks. Most kids react appropriately – neutrally – and will ask if he is friendly if they want to pet him. Some are afraid of him and will freak out trying to avoid him. (This, of course, makes him notice them and try to check them out.) A few will simply reach out to touch him without any warning. I never let that slide. I immediately stop them, get on eye level with them, and explain that reaching for a strange dog can get them bitten. They usually jump back at that point and then I explain that SNICKERS is friendly and they can pet him if they approach him nicely, but that doesn’t mean ALL dogs are friendly. Then I ask "what if he weren’t so friendly and you reached out without asking and he BIT YOU?" That’s when their parents invariably chime in and agree with me. (Although, once, a woman got really upset with me when I started talking to her son, but it was only because she didn’t see that he had tried to grab Snickers as we walked by. When I told her why I stopped, she thanked me for being understanding and helped me talk to her son about asking permission and petting nice.)

As Pet Partners, Snick and I spend one morning per week visiting three separate classrooms. The students range in age from about 4 to 9 and they are following a curriculum created by the ASPCA. Last week was our second visit and their first lesson, entitled "May I Pet Your Dog." During our visit, the students took turns approaching us, asking politely if they could pet Snickers, and then approaching him gently. There were a few students who were especially afraid and Snickers laid down for them. When we go tomorrow, we’re going to review that lesson and then let the children interact more with him. As the lessons progress, they will get to groom him, feed him, walk him, and play with him. I think this kind of exposure to animals is incredibly important in avoiding both dog bites and animal abuse.

Dog Bite Prevention Tips

Susan Daffron, the founder of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals, has these
great tips to help children avoid dog bites.

1. In many rural areas, animal control resources are limited, so it’s especially important that you gain an understanding why dogs bite and educate your children on dog safety. Statistically 50% of children will be bitten by a dog before their twelfth birthday. Don’t let your child become part of that statistic!
2. Many dogs are friendly, so it’s not like you have to walk around fearing every canine you meet. But it pays to be cautious. The majority of bites are from a dog the person knows. Never assume a dog is friendly; always ask the owner first (if one is around).
3. Dogs bite for three main reasons: to defend territory or to express fear or dominance. Often it’s a combination of all three, so pay attention to the behavior of any unfamiliar dog. If he seems edgy, afraid, or behaves oddly, he’s more likely to bite.
4. Don’t look an unfamiliar dog straight in the eye. If a dog knocks you down, curl up into a ball and cover your face.
5. Teach your kids not to approach any dog that looks tense or aggressive. If a strange dog approaches, they should stand still. Make sure your kids also know that they should not run or scream. Teach your children not to tease dogs or disturb a dog when he’s sleeping or eating. Also explain that they need to tell an adult whenever they see a stray dog or a dog that is acting “weird.” Never leave little kids alone with a dog unsupervised.

For More Information

• The CDC’s page about National Dog Bite Prevention Week
• The HSUS’s information for dog owners on preventing dog bites
• The ASPCA’s humane education website (GREAT RESOURCE)
• The Delta Society Pet Partners program

I learned what could have been a devastatingly difficult lesson this morning. Snick’s leash broke while we were out for our morning walk. He was running at the time (he does this weird “run away from it” thing after he poops) and the end hardware attached to his collar just POPPED out of the hardware piece sewn into the leash. You know the part where it swivels? Just popped right out! I guess the metal must have worn over time.

There are few things quite as frightening as seeing your heart dog running away from you on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk during the morning rush hour!

Luckily, I’ve done some training in case the leash ever broke or I dropped it. I keep him close to me and then suddenly release all but the end handle of the leash so it feels suddenly loose. Then I drop to the ground, call him, and give him big rewards for returning. I think that’s what brought him back to me this morning because shortly after it popped, he put the brakes on and turned back towards me, instead of continuing to run. He stopped to say hello to two pedestrians, who – even though I asked nicely and quite desperately for them to grab him – just looked at me, looked at him, and kept walking. Then I started calling him and he trotted back to me and started playing the “dancing just out of reach” game. I chose my moment carefully and managed to lunge for him and grab his collar. At most, he got about 50 feet from me and he never left the sidewalk, but I think my heartbeat and breathing completely stopped from the time the leash broke until the time I had my hands on him again. When I caught him, I just sat down on the sidewalk until I had recovered enough to stand up again.

I learned two things:

1. Check equipment regularly for wear and tear!!!
2. Training him would work better if I had learned too. He did the right thing (turned and came back), but I DID NOT. I did not drop to the ground and cheerfully call him with “Snickers, Come,” and then give him a handful of treats. I totally panicked and froze and didn’t even reward him after I caught him! I need to train MYSELF better.

We have a new little foster dog, Penny. She makes the fourth confused Shiba girl that has moved in to Snick’s territory. (Counting? Secret, Shayna, Lola – who didn’t stay long – and now Penny.) I’ll write more about Penny in a day or two… the point is that watching Penny and Snick made me realize what a great host and teacher Snickers has become.

To add to that feeling of pride, when I opened the mailbox today, mine and Snick’s Delta Society Pet Partner IDs were in there! We are registered Pet Partners now. I’m excited because that means Snickers can go into the public schools. We’re one step closer to my goal of being involved in humane education.

Good boy Snickers.

Snick and I Got to Meet Janet Yesterday

Janet is in NYC for the weekend and stopped by our Shiba Meetup yesterday for her Shiba fix. I didn’t know she was coming, so when she introduced herself I was like "oh, hi" and then "wait! oh, hi!" I’ve known Janet online for a few years now, so it was cool to meet her in person.

Even My Dog is a Fire Sign

I’ve always thought it was interesting that almost all the significant people in my life are fire signs (as am I). My parents and my daughter are all Sagittarius. All three of the men I’ve been "serious" about in my life are Aries. I’m a Leo. I just happened to realize that Snickers is a Sagittarius too! That’s a little weird, eh?