A few of you know I’ve been working on a new website recently. Well… ta da! It’s here.
nycgadgetgirl.com isn’t going anywhere. I still plan to use this site for my freelancing. All the archives will remain online and I will probably blog occasional personal and geeky things here.

All the dog stuff is moving over to the new site though! Please visit Jenna & Snickers and let me know what you think by commenting on the first post.

My last few days in NYC were busy and stressful and difficult, but also amazing and illuminating. I spent several days feeling loved, appreciated and valued.

• Wednesday, the 23rd, my boss took me and some coworkers out to dinner.. FOR ME. Since I expect Japanese food to be something I will desperately miss, we went to one of the top sushi spots in town: BONDST (Bond Street). Sooooooo delicious! It was a unique happening and made me feel super appreciated.
• Thursday, the 24th, was my last day at work and, of course, I worked till 2am trying to finish everything. Wonderful things happened that day too though.
  • My boss gave me a "half year bonus!" Who gives you a bonus when you’re leaving? (I almost cried.)
  • I got lots of hugs and special words from coworkers one by one as they left for the day.
• Friday, the 25th, was mine and Snick’s last visit to the Gillen Brewer School. (I’ve been stuck at this part of the entry for over a week.) These kids are just amazing. When we started visiting them a few months back, several of them were really afraid of dogs, but when we saw them on the 25th, they were hugging and kissing Snickers goodbye. They made a wonderful card for us (mostly for Snickers. LOL) to say goodbye. This was also when Snickers realized something big was happening, because he could feel the energy from the kids. I am going to miss our school visits very, VERY much.
• The rest of Friday I packed. Or at least I tried to.
• Saturday, the 26th… mine and Snick’s last time to enjoy our regular weekend routine. We dropped off laundry, picked up coffee, went to the dog run and hung out on our bench. We went to the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market to hang with our friend Judy for a bit and then off to the neighborhood pet store for TREATS. This routine has been a shared favorite part of the week for a long time.
• Saturday afternoon was our last meetup with the NYC Shiba Inus and their Human Companions. For anyone who may not know, Snick and I founded this meetup group in June 2006 and it’s grown to 240+ members and had 50 meetups. NYCSR was founded by a group of Shiba-owned humans who met in the meetup group and the group continues to support NYCSR in many ways. Some of my BEST BESTEST friends are people I met through this group and I owe a lot of happy times to them, the group, and NYCSR. About 40 people and 25 Shibas showed up for our last meetup at Animal Haven and Snickers had SO MUCH FUN. What I was NOT expecting though was for most of the Board of Directors and key volunteers of NYCSR to be there and have gifts for us. They gave me one of those digital photo frames and they had preloaded it with a slide show of ALL the NYCSR rescue dogs so far. It was incredible. They brought a treasure chest of treats and toys for Snick also and he loved all of it. All of it really touched me and showed me that Snick’s impact on people’s (and Shibas’) lives extends way beyond just me.
• For the rest of Saturday, I packed. And packed. And PACKED.
• Sunday, the 27th. Moving Day. After about 3 hours sleep, Snick and I dashed to the dog run and back and then I was off to pick up the U-Haul. My bestest buddy Zennia and her fiance, Scott, met me at the U-Haul place in Chelsea so Scott could help park the truck back at my apartment. Long story short… we got back to the apartment around 9:45 AM and my other peeps started showing up around 10am to help. Besides Z and Scott (and 2 paid helper guys), I had my good buddy Brian, my wonderful friend Mary, another wonderful friend lulu and her main man Joseph, my good neighborhood friend Drew (the human “dad” of Snick’s buddies Benno and Lily), and last but but never least, my best friend - who I’m "maybe just a little bit in love with" - Jack. Having so many friends come over to help me finish packing and move (out of a FIFTH floor WALKUP) really meant a lot to me. I love all you guys. THANK YOU so much for being there.

So, those were my last few days in NYC. They were filled with friends and love and good things and I’m very grateful for that.

PS I know I haven’t been blogging much since I moved. My life/world is just sooo different now and I miss my friends desperately. I will probably set up a new blog for inspiration. When the words return, I’ll blog. I promise.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.