Welcome and thank you for visiting! My name is Jenna Gates and my cute black and tan canine companion is Snickers, a purebred Shiba Inu. Ever since Snickers came into my life, I've become increasingly interested in promoting responsible dog ownership.

Snickers and I have been involved in numerous canine related activities including meetup groups, training, fund raising for shelters and rescue groups, purebred rescue efforts, animal assisted activities and humane education. I also want to make a difference beyond my local area and started this website as part of that. Please explore the site to learn more about me, about Snickers and about our mission.

My mind at the age of 10 worked very much like this. I thought it would be simple, but taking care of a dog was much more difficult than I had imagined. I had no idea what I was getting into and ABSOLUTELY no idea how hard it would be to take care of a puppy. As a child I didn’t have much knowledge of exactly what feeding, walking, and loving him really meant. I didn’t realize how much of your life included the dog or how important my puppy would end up being to me.

When I first got Snickers I was very surprised at how hard it was just to be in the same room with him. He was chewing on everything and was always having accidents in the apartment. I had been expecting a sweet, little, well behaved puppy. That definitely shows how little I knew about dogs. After some time Snick started to become the smart, wonderful, calm doggy he is today. Of course Snickers turned out to be my mom’s dog since she was the only one who actually knew how to take care of him.

After a while I started to understand the dog world, the reason for having a furry friend. They give you something to look forward to on a hard work day, they keep you busy, and are always there for you. The best friend a girl could ever have. I’m glad I get to have a best doggy friend to cheer me up and keep me busy. I never would have guessed having a dog could make someone so happy.

Starting today, I’ll have occasional guest posts on Jenna & Snickers (.com). Yay!

Our first guest posting is by the Fabulous Miss ~T~, otherwise known as Jaqi (her real name), writing about how much more difficult owning a puppy was than she expected it to be. Read and enjoy!

One thing that took me by surprise when I founded NYC Shiba Rescue, was how often people would ask me "What’s wrong with Shibas? Why do they need to be rescued?" At every event Snickers and I attended representing NYCSR, numerous people would ask this!

What’s wrong with them? I didn’t even understand the question at first, but I soon realized that many people don’t realize there is any such thing as purebred rescue. Often, when a person wants a particular breed of dog instead of a mix, they automatically turn to a breeder or a pet store, not realizing there is another option. This is unfortunate and I want to do whatever I can to spread the word about purebred rescue.

Recently, I had the honor of being interviewed for a Shiba Inu breed profile page on woofpatrol.com. One of the topics we discussed was purebred rescue and WHY purebred dogs end up in shelters. Part of my response was:

Purebred dogs get dumped at shelters, abandoned at vet’s offices and dumped by the side of the road, just like mixes. Others run away without IDs and then aren’t claimed at the shelter. Many purebreds are dumped because people buy them at pet stores on impulse and then decide they don’t have the time or patience to care for a dog. Others are dumped because people don’t take the time to research and select a dog that fits their lifestyle and activity level.

And, now that I’ve had a couple years practice answering questions about Shiba rescue in particular, I was ready for this next question!

Woof Patrol: What are the top 3 reasons Shiba’s end up in shelters?

Me: 1. Unrealistic Expectations. People don’t do the research. Shibas are incredibly cute puppies, like little stuffed animals. Many people buy them without knowing what their personalities are like. Shibas don’t normally like to be held, hugged or handled excessively. They are high energy and therefore need a lot of exercise or they get into mischief. They are also VERY smart, so training them can be quite challenging for novice dog owners.

2. They Are Runners. Having been bred to hunt for thousands of years, Shibas have a high prey drive and will chase anything that runs. They are known escape artists - they bolt through doors, climb fences, slip collars - and then they’re off and running. By the time they stop, they’re usually far from home. They end up at a vet, having been hit by a car, or in a shelter as a stray. If they don’t have ID, sometimes the owner never finds them.

3. "Having A Baby" This applies to all breeds and mixes: way too many young people get a dog for companionship and/or to keep them busy. Then when they start a family, they dump the dog instead of investing some time into integrating the family.

To read more, check out the Shiba Inu breed profile on woofpatrol.com.

Recently, someone on a Shiba board asked for recommendations for a good vet to neuter their dog. One of the responses was "Why do you want to do that to your dog? If you are a responsible owner and control your dog, there is no reason."

Well… there are more than a few reasons why truly responsible owners have their companions spayed or neutered.

Even if “you are a responsible owner and control your dog” there is no guarantee that your dog will never be loose without permission (how many of us have had our Shiba slip or break their lead?). If you aren’t there to control your dog, you can’t be sure he won’t impregnate another dog (or get pregnant if she’s female).

Dogs that are not spayed/neutered are not welcome in as many social situations (like daycare and some dog parks) and therefore can’t be as well socialized and enjoy as many fun activities.

Unneutered males are attacked more often by other males - regardless of how well behaved the unneutered dog in question may be - because other dogs can smell the testosterone and it makes them more aggressive and defensive.

Unneutered males are more likely to develop prostate cancer. Unneutered males can develop testicular cancer. Unspayed females are more likely to develop breast cancer. The odds of all these things are pretty low, but why take the chance?

I will admit, I am absolutely pro-spay/neuter, although I am not a fan of early spay/neuter. (I waited until Snick was 14 months old to have him neutered because my personal conviction is that no hormone production should be altered until after the dog is physically mature.)

I have seen too much pain and suffering caused by the overpopulation of companion animals in this country - overpopulation caused by irresponsible owners, backyard breeders and puppy mills - to not be pro-spay/neuter. I don’t believe anyone should own intact dogs other than responsible, knowledgeable breeders who are breeding selectively to better the breed. I strongly encourage everyone who loves the breed in general and their dog in particular to have their dog spayed or neutered.

If you haven’t already read Our Mission for this website, please take a minute to do so and then come back.

Done? OK, great.

Now… what suggestions do you have to help me build this website as a resource? What information can we include to help educate current and potential dog owners about responsible dog ownership? There’s already a lot of info on the web… but what isn’t there? Or isn’t easy enough to find? Or isn’t well presented? How will people find this website? Why will they stay?

Pages I could add?
Blog topics to blog about?
How can I encourage more conversation and visitor input?
How can we make new visitors feel welcome to join in?

I’d love to hear any and all suggestions you may have, either in the comments (preferred) or via the contact page.

Thanks!!!

Snick doesn’t want the new blog to be ALL about serious stuff, so here’s one just for fun.

I met some of my bestest friends through the Shiba Meetup group that Snick and I started in NYC a couple years ago, so we’ve started one here in Indianapolis too. The Indy Shibas have had two meetups so far. Below are some photos from our second meetup, which was this past Sunday afternoon in Fort Harrison State Park. You may click the smaller images to embiggen.

Snickers and Sachi waiting for the rest of the group to arrive	Takara cozying up to Snickers before the hike	Snickers had SUCH a good time on the hike!	Snickers and Koda hiking together.
This is the full hiking crew, including "Honorary Shiba (aka Poodle)" Texas. From left to right: Texas, Takara, Snickers, Koda and Sachi.

One thing I said I would do more of after moving to Indiana… READING! I have shelves of books I’ve never had time to read. So, what does my daughter do the first or second week after she arrives in Indiana? She drags me into a BOOKSTORE and I end up buying another book.

How Dogs Think
What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do

by Stanley Coren

Rating:

In any and all training and behavior endeavors, my primary interest is understanding as much as possible about what Snickers is communicating to me and how he is perceiving what I am trying to communicate to him. Several of my recent book purchases have been on this subject. When I picked this book up in the store, I was impressed by the following three testimonials on the cover.

"Coren’s love for dogs shines like a beacon throughout this thoughtful and fascinating exploration of the mind of a dog."
      - Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D., author of The Other End of the Leash

"The thinking dog owner’s guide to everything they ever wanted to know about their dog. Truths expanded, myths exposed, common sense prevailing. Dr. Coren tells it the way it is. Two dew claws up for the this excellent book."
      - Nicholas H. Dodman, BVMS, MRCVS, DVA, author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much and If Only They Could Speak

"Meticulously researched, highly readable, and essential for anyone who loves and lives with a dog."
      - Jon Katz, author of A Dog Year

Of course, I brought it home and read it and now I have my own good things to say about it.

How Dogs Think is full of details about the physiology of dogs’ perceptions. I’ve always known that dogs don’t see, hear, feel, taste and smell the same way we do, but I didn’t have any information on how they do experience the world. After reading this book, I have a much better idea of how dogs experience their environment (and our actions), why they react the way they do and how they communicate back to the world. If you want to learn as much as you can about how your dog interprets and responds to the world around him, add this book to your library (and read it). Here are a few interesting facts and quotes from the book.

Read the rest of this entry »

A couple years ago at a Shiba meetup in NYC, there was a young, female Shiba. She was a bit overwhelmed by the other dogs in the run. From what I remember, she was communicating appropriately with the other dogs… giving calming signals so they knew she wasn’t a threat, but also some warnings to keep them from crowding her. Another dog pounced on her anyway and she snapped at him and a tussle broke out. The female’s owner yelled at her, then ran over, grabbed her, flipped her on her back and held her down, staring into her face. The other dogs were still right by them - over her - which must have made her feel extremely vulnerable. Her owner said something to the effect of her being aggressive and needing to respect him.

If she’d been mine, I would have stepped between her and the other dogs, to let her know I was there to protect her and to break the attention of the dogs that were in her space. Hopefully, that would have given her some time to get accustomed to the situation and the confidence to explore without feeling like she had to protect herself.

I think the primary difference between her owner’s take on the situation and mine was that he saw her actions as aggressive while I saw them as defensive. Was rolling her the right response if he was right? I don’t know. Did her owner do it right? I don’t know that either. I’m also not sure what he really taught her that day, but I’ll bet it wasn’t that she could count on him to protect her.

I think about this incident every time this training method comes up in conversation. I’m not a dog trainer, so I’m not qualified to offer recommendations on how other people should train their dogs. It’s frustrating though, to see people misusing techniques that they see on television, hear about at the dog park, or read about online.

So, back the present… a couple weeks ago, someone posted to a mailing list I’m on that their otherwise friendly ten month old dog was becoming overly aggressive with their other dog and had bitten that dog and a couple of human family members during fights. There was no other information given about what was happening before the fights or about the other dog’s behaviour. One lister’s response was "I would put her on the floor and put your hand on her chest and don’t let go until she stops struggling to let her know that you are in charge."

This seemed like dangerous advice to me. My thoughts were that if a dog is not actually aggressive (like the one I remember in the dog run), rolling it would be uncalled for and frighten the dog, which would damage the owner/companion relationship. If the dog is truly aggressive, the alpha roll might be effective but if the human doing the rolling didn’t know what they were doing, they could probably get bitten in the process.

The dilemma stuck in my head, so I emailed Pete Campione of Kindred Souls Canine Center in New Jersey and asked for his thoughts on the alpha roll. Pete is an experienced dog trainer who teaches owners how to socialize their dogs and communicate with them. I’ve found Pete to have a special insight into aggression cases and I have a lot of respect for his ideas. This is what Pete had to say: "The Alpha Roll is a viable and integral part of canine communication and ritual. It has many versions hence ongoing debates. The Alpha Roll, like many canine rituals, must be done correctly and it takes time to learn as it requires a good "read" of canine body language (this means many people dismiss it rather than take the time to study the nuances of how to use it effectively). It is also done differently on puppies vs adults. The key to the "Roll" is in the release (loads of praise and precise timing) and the key to proper release is recognizing submission in the dog. Done correctly it is highly effective. But it must be done specific to the dog."

I guess I’m one of the people who has dismissed the alpha roll instead of learning about it. Funny… this post started off to be about how evil it is, but I guess I’ve learned along the way that isn’t the case. I’d like to learn more about it now - when it’s useful, when it’s not, how to do it correctly. The thing that REALLY bothers me though is that most people won’t learn those things… they’ll either dismiss it or use it incorrectly.

I wonder how often that happens with other training ideas?

And why does it seem that there are always more questions than there are answers?!?!?

To learn more about Pete Campione and his training philosophies, visit the Kindred Souls Canine Center online.

Snickers and I went to our first Indiana meetup last weekend. It wasn’t a Shiba meetup, unfortunately, because I haven’t yet figured out where we’re going to hold those. It was a general meetup, but with a twist. It’s a new group in Indianapolis called the Downtown Dog Walk, which gets together every Sunday night and walks along the canal or through downtown to a bar or restaurant with outdoor space and then hangs out outside.

You know how people say New Yorkers are rude? And, of course, we New Yorkers can’t figure that out because we’re SO NICE. We think the tourists are rude because, well, they’re always in the way. And GEEEEZ they take FOREVER to do or say anything. Clearly, if you look at what I just said objectively, you can see that it’s just cultural. New Yorkers are speedy and efficient. Outsiders think that’s rude, while we think you’re being rude when you slow us down.

Apparently doggy etiquette has regional differences also!

I’ve always been proud of how well socialized Snick is (for a Shiba). He had tons of friends at our dog run in Hell’s Kitchen and a ton more in our Shiba Meetup group. He’s never been friendly with random dogs on the street, but it didn’t matter too much because New Yorker’s have pretty a pretty strict code of sidewalk etiquette for dogs… Most dogs in NYC are kept on a short leash under close control of their humans. Sidewalk greetings are controlled, if they are allowed at all. Most people I know accept this as normal, as is the fact that dogs aren’t that comfortable greeting each other on leash anyway. Leashes restrict their movement and therefore their body language. They can’t follow the proper routines for meeting and getting to know each other and they also cant fight or flee if necessary. Therefore many dogs are defensive when meeting for the first time on leash and they get snarky with each other.

Imagine my surprise when I walked up to the meetup last weekend and people were standing around letting their dogs run all over the place! Some of them had a good 10 feet of leash and none of them were under control of their owners. A couple of them dashed up to Snick as soon as we got there and, of course, Snick tried to put the smack down on them for being so brash. Honestly, I was little taken aback when no one apologized to me for not controlling their dogs. I took a few steps back away from the group though and assessed the situation. "Hmmmm…." I thought. "These dogs are all running around willy nilly. These dogs are pretty much getting along with each other this way. Do all these dogs know each other already? Doubtful. These dogs have learned to meet and greet on leash! This is normal for them!"

So… I found myself in a position of explaining to people that, although Snickers is quite a social boy, he’s not at all used to being around other dogs on leash. Once the group started walking, Snickers did much better (although he did want to walk up front). We walked with the group organizer and his very friendly dog. Snick was clearly happy and comfortable to be walking on sidewalks, between buildings, and around cars again. The rest of the meetup went fine and I learned that doggy etiquette rules can be different in different places, just like human etiquette rules are!

And, yes, we’re going back this weekend. After all, we need to practice our on leash behavior!

Dear World,

There are many factors that contribute to the overpopulation and mistreatment of companion animals in the United States. I believe the key to change is education. This website is my next step in attempting to do my part to educate the public.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. There will be many more blog posts and pages of information added as time goes by. I hope you’ll stick around, contribute your opinions, and become part of the experience!

Sincerely,
Jenna (& Snickers, of course)