Jenna & Snickers Promote Humane Education and Responsible Dog Ownership
Adding a pet to the family is a lifetime commitment and should be undertaken with careful consideration. Snickers and I take the opportunity to educate the public about responsible pet ownership wherever we go and we learn from everyone we talk to as well. Our discussions and posts regarding the responsible acquisition and thoughtful care of companion animals are below.
Zuki needed more than a fence to keep her safe at home, but a stake and tie out wouldn’t have provided enough space for her to run around. My father came up with the idea for this long cable run which solved the problem. Here are the instructions (with photos) for how we built it.
The Pet Tracker by Tagg – with GPS, an accelerometer, online maps, text and email notifications, and activity tracking – isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty awesome, especially if you have a fence jumper like my Shiba Inu, Zuki.
I believe there are minimum requirements that our companion animals deserve. Recently I’ve come to know a few dogs who aren’t getting a few of them and it makes me sad. They are: to not live an isolated life a clean and comfortable living environment proper socialization with people and other dogs appropriate levels of […]
So many people buy puppies from pet stores and back yard breeders because they don’t know any better, but then – even worse – people who DO know better, to some degree, get frustrated and impatient and end up buying a dog from a less than ideal source because they don’t want to wait. Here’s info on how to find a good breeder and why your puppy will be worth the wait.
I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like to recently. I’ve started and stopped – and restarted – this particular post a few times over the past several weeks. Most of you already know that my passion in life is the welfare of companion animals – dogs in particular. Second only to my family, […]
Bite inhibition in companion dogs is much too important to leave to chance. I am fairly convinced though that many dog owners do exactly that. Of course, they are surprised when the dog eventually bites someone and then it is the dog who pays the price for their negligence. Too many people don’t respect how much damage a dog can do.
Today brings us to the third installment of the One Question Interview series. Today’s answer is from Aurora Piacentino, Director of Operations at Liberty Humane Society. Question: If you had the opportunity to communicate and teach one concept to all dog owners everywhere, what would it be and why? Answer from Aurora Piacentino Probably something […]
In no particular order, here are a few dog-related societal improvements that I feel would have immense benefits for companion animals and the humans who love them. the psychological benefits of animal companions recognized so that the elderly wouldn’t have to give up their pets when entering assisted living or nursing care facilities dogs proven […]
When I started writing on Jenna & Snickers (.com), I defined my own personal idea of responsible dog ownership. I listed ten basic requirements that I feel our dogs deserve from us. I expanded on one of those in the post about Making the Most of Companion Identification Methods. Today, I want to expand on […]
hello everyone, snickers here, in case you are wondering, i am writing this the way i do most things: making mom do it with Shiba mind control. she wants me to share my point of view on things. i told her ok as long as she does the work of typing it. typing on the […]
Although tags are the easiest solution for someone to see and read if they find your pet, collars can break or slip off and are not always enough. Microchips and tattoos are more permanent solutions than ID tags and give your dog a much better chance of being returned to you if they end up in a shelter.
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 […]
We’ve talked about responsible breeding of companion animals on this blog a couple times in the past (see here and here for two good examples). Today I managed to let myself get sucked into a "conversation" on the same topic with none other than a PETA employee. I started off thinking that my "we have […]
A few weeks ago at one of my NYC Shiba Inu Meetups, someone asked me “do you know who owns this dog?” He was pointing to a poor quality male Shiba standing near me. I replied “Sorry, I don’t. Is something wrong?” He said “No, I’m planning to breed my female and he has all […]
Back in March, I wrote an entry titled "When You Realize What You Don’t Know." It took five days to find the words for that post. It was worth it though, because the response was AMAZING. It turned into a great conversation which lasted two or three days. And then, that was it. For the […]
I once worked in a pet store that sold dogs. I didn’t know about puppy mills or how many dogs die in shelters. I only just found out that breed-specific rescue group exist. What do I still not know, I wonder… ?