Jenna & Snickers

Jenna & Snickers Promote Humane Education and Responsible Dog Ownership

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Responsible Pet 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.

Jenna Gates July 22, 2013

How to Build a Cable Run for Your Dog

I’ve had my share of Shiba escapes over the years, which is why I’ve written posts like Making the Most of Companion Identification Methods and Tagg – The Pet Tracker aka The Shiba Owner’s Peace of Mind. My youngest Shiba, Zuki, is a master escape artist though. I’ve never had to work so hard to keep a Shiba safe at home!

Why I Built a Cable Run, Even Though I Have a Fenced Yard

Zuki enjoying the yard safe on her cableWhen we first adopted Zuki, she escaped from the back yard a couple times. (We managed to catch her, but only because she escaped out the back and ended up in a huge flood ditch that she couldn’t get out of own her own.) She was going under the fence, so I had some guys attach chicken wire to the bottom of the fence and trench it into the ground, all the way around the yard – no more holes and no more digging! Everything was fine for a month or two until I came home from work one night and a cute little dog was staring at me from inside my neighbor’s back yard. I walked over to say hello and IT WAS ZUKI!! As soon as I got close to the fence, she leapt over the fence and into my arms. (My dogs live in the house. My daughter was home and had let Zuki outside just a few minutes before I came home and discovered her in the neighbor’s yard.) After that, we only let her out in the yard dragging a 15 foot training lead. We’d stay outside with her and, if she tried to jump over the fence, we’d grab the lead first. That worked great. Until one day when it didn’t. I was outside with all three dogs, Zuki decided to jump the fence, and I didn’t make it in time to stop her. I had to run through the house and out the front to chase after her. By the time I got out there, she was long gone. Luckily, with the help of neighbors, I tracked her down about 20 minutes later. The training lead still served a purpose too… I probably wouldn’t have been able to catch her if she hadn’t still been dragging it.

After that, the rules changed again — Zuki could only be outside if one of us was holding the other end of her lead or it was secured to the house. That limited her outside fun though, and she stopped getting enough exercise. Enter my brilliant father and his excellent solution. For ~$100 we built a 100 foot cable run for her that gives her plenty of running room and keeps her safely inside the fence.

Why not just use a stake tie out? First, I wanted something permanent, that I wouldn’t have to deal with removing every time the lawn guy comes to mow. Second, I wanted her to have a lot of running room, but not be able to reach a fence, so I needed a long thin space, not a circular space. Last, I wanted to minimize the possibility of her wrapping the cable around herself or anything else.

Recently, I was having an email conversation with a reader who has a young Shiba that escapes easily, like Zuki. She felt like restricting her freedom was making her more likely to look for ways to escape. She needed a way to safely give her pup some room to run. I suggested building a cable run like Zuki’s, which is what prompted me to put all the details together in this post.

Parts and Tools Needed

[Read more…]

Jenna Gates January 28, 2013

Tagg – The Pet Tracker aka The Shiba Owner’s Peace of Mind

I posted several years ago about the various identification methods for pets and how important it is to keep ID on your dog. Of course, ideally, he or she will never be lost! Being able to track your dog when they are missing could certainly help make that a reality.

After the last time little Zuki-san jumped the fence and went for an unauthorized walkabout, the Tagg Pet Trackers became more than just a "would be nice to have" item for me. Apparently, that was obvious to my family, because I was surprised and excited to receive three brand new Tagg trackers this recent holiday season. 🙂

The Actual Tagg Device

Zuki wearing her Tagg Pet  Tracker unitShibas aren’t big dogs; Snickers, Secret and Zuki are 24, 17 and 16 pounds respectively. I was concerned that the Tagg unit would be bulky and unwieldy on their collars, especially since they were all used to wearing a very thin mountain rope collar as their 24/7 ID collar. All three seem to not be bothered by the additional weight though. I liked the natural look better than the thick collars and GPS tech, BUT I like the peace of mind with them wearing trackers even better!

I bought small Cozy Collars from Spindrift. They are fleece-lined, the Taggs fit on them well and they don’t seem to be messing up the dogs’ fur so far.

GPS Tracking and Notifications

The obvious benefit of the GPS Tagg trackers is being able to find the occasional wayward Shiba. When first activating the trackers, you set a "home zone." The home zone is limited in that it is restricted to a circular shape and has a minimum radius of 75 yards and a maximum radius of 1000 yards. Hopefully some day it will be more flexible. Whenever one of your dogs leaves the home zone, you receive an alert by text message and/or email. In my experience, the alerts are not 100% reliable, but they do happen more often than not. There’s a trip button on the unit, to tell it not to send the notification when the dog leaves the home zone. I prefer not to use it though, so I have periodic verification that the notifications are working. Contrary to how the text on Tagg’s website makes it sound, you do NOT continue to receive updates for your dog’s location after they’ve left the home zone. (Thank goodness, because that would be incredibly annoying for a dog like Snickers who goes to work with me every day!)

The Tagg units don’t send constant updated location information to the server 24/7 (as that would run the batteries down pretty quickly), but you can log into pettracker.com or use the iPhone or Android app to request an updated location any time. I’ve tested this several times. It’s not exactly accurate, but it’s off by about the same angle and distance every time (which will definitely be good to know if/when I’m tracking one of my dogs someday). The inaccuracy may be caused by the fact that I live in nowheresville, but I’m not sure about that. The location address and a map are sent by email as well as being displayed on the website and apps. If you initiate a tracking session then you will receive updates every 3 minutes for a 30 minute duration. Personally, I don’t think this is often enough for tracking a Shiba, so I would use the Android app and keep clicking Locate for an updated location.

Activity Tracking

Activity Ring Graph and Tagg Points

Ring Graph & Tagg Points

One super-nifty feature that I wasn’t aware of until I actually activated the trackers is activity tracking. In addition to the GPS transmitter, each tracker also contains an accelerometer. The accelerometer records the dog’s movement and the data is synced to Tagg’s server at least once a day. You can log into pettracker.com to see illustrative charts. Tagg also assigns and displays "Tagg Points" (sort of like Nike Fuel Points) based on the quantity and and quality of activity.

It’s interesting to see the ebb and flow of the dogs’ activity during the day. There are clear spikes that correlate with morning wake up, meal times, lunch time (for Snickers, at work with me), when T gets home from school (for Zuki and Secret), when Snick and I get home at night, etc. It’s obvious also, that Zuki is naturally a lot more active and Secret is the least active. Since we don’t live in a neighborhood where we can go for walks, I don’t feel like any of them are getting enough exercise. The Tagg Points will give me an easy way to set goals for them and make sure we meet those goals!

Secret’s Bar Chart
Snick’s Bar Chart
Zuki’s Bar Chart


Tagg Website & App

The website and Android app (and maybe the iPhone app, but I haven’t used it), need some work to be user-friendly. I’m hoping the disjointedness of it all is because Activity Tracking is new and they haven’t integrated it yet.

  • When you log into the website, the initial view is a map showing your dogs’ locations. This is good.
  • Each dog’s individual profile is listed to the side of the map. The size and placement of the profile links make it appear as if clicking through to the profile would be useful, but it really isn’t. All you can do on the profile page is, um, edit the profile. There are no links to the dog’s location or their activity tracking data. The profile page is tabbed, so you can easily switch between dogs.
  • The menu across the top of the page has a "Home" link and a "Map" link which both take you to the map. The next link is "activity tracking" which takes you to all the nifty activity charts. This page is tabbed as well, so you can easily switch between dogs. The remaining links are "Notifications," "My Account" and "Shop."
  • The Android app lists each dog with a photo; last update date, time and location; and the battery meter. Clicking through takes you to a location map. No activity data is available in the app.

In my opinion, the website would be more useful if the "Home" link displayed an overview of each dog similar to the Android app, but with more detail. Clicking through should show you the dog’s profile info, location and activity data, all in one place, with a link to edit the profile if needed. Keeping this as a tabbed page for easily switching between dogs would be fantastic. Adding a snapshot of each dog’s activity tracking to the Android app would be nice as well.

Thumbs Up!

I love my Tagg Pet Trackers even more than I expected to and I hope they’ll only get better over time with software, website, and app updates.

~~ UPDATED November 2013 ~~
A few additional thoughts based on experience after almost a year of use…

  • The “left the home area” alerts are very reliable now. Sometimes it will take 10 minutes before it comes, but it always comes.
  • Customer service is practically non-existent. You can’t do ANYTHING on the website that you would expect to be able to do and sending email to customer support always results in a reply saying they can only help by telephone (during their very limited telephone support hours). It’s incredibly annoying.
  • The battery life and accuracy of the Taggs has been stable.
  • Zuki occasionally knocks her Tagg halfway off. She was able to chew the first one pretty badly, so I had to replace it. Thankfully, the Tagg system DOES send an alert when this happens, so – if I’m home – I’m able to grab her and fix it before she chews on it.
  • The Spindrift collars that I purchased have totally ripped Secret and Zuki’s fur. They each have a trough where their collar goes around their neck. For them it’s OK. For Snick though, it means that he no longer wears his Tagg 24/7. He only wears his Tagg on his Spindrift collar at home if I’m not home with him and he wears his Tagg on his harness when we go out.
  • I never look at the activity tracking data.
  • The Android app has improved considerably. The website hasn’t changed.

Jenna Gates July 8, 2010

It’s 10pm. Do you know where your dog is?

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 exercise and mental stimulation

I chose Shiba Inus partially because they’re an independent, non-clingy breed. No matter how independent they are though, it’s important to me to spend time with them. They’re part of my family and I want them to be happy and feel loved. We adopted Secret so Snickers wouldn’t be lonely when we can’t be with him.

  • Shortly after we moved into our new apartment, we realized that one of our neighbors ties her little Lhasa out in the yard on a chain every afternoon with no water and no shelter and just leaves him there. I guess it’s supposed to be his exercise time, but all he does is yip and cry to go back inside.
  • A couple weeks ago, when it was 100+ degrees outside, I noticed a new dog in the apartment complex. He was sitting alone on a 3 x 6 concrete patio. His people were home; I could see them through the window. Turns out he lives on the porch. He’s there day and night, at all hours, whenever we walk by, without even something soft to sleep on.
  • Two nights ago, T and I were walking Snick and Secret and we found a little Yorkie running loose in the complex. He didn’t have a collar. We walked all over looking for his person. Finally, we got him to show us where he lived (smart pup) and we knocked on the door. The guy who answered had no idea the dog was missing. Apparently the dog belongs to his roommate, who wasn’t home, and he thought it was tied out on the back porch. I walked past that apartment around 2am tonight and the dog was on the porch in a kennel too small for it to even stand up.

As I’m writing this, Snickers is curled up on the couch next to me and Secret is curled up in her bed. Snick sleeps in my bed at night. I feed them organic vegetables and raw meat and fish. I buy human grade nutritional supplements for them. I feel guilty when they’re bored from lack of exercise because of the heat. I apologize to them if I’m late getting home from work. I train them (ok, well, I train Snickers. I attempt to train Secret.) to be good citizens so they can go as many places as possible with me.

I understand that I’m at one extreme end of the spectrum and the people in my neighborhood aren’t even at the other end. The other end of the spectrum is the people who abuse and torture animals. So why do I worry about these lonely dogs? They’re so much better off than dogs in shelters or dog fight rings. Their situations break my heart though. I wish I could bring them all home and take care of them.

Snickers and I are hoping to get involved in humane education with our local shelter and I’m still planning to create Animals Who Educate (you know, with all my spare time). There must be quicker ways to reach average dog owners now though. Blogs, email lists, online groups, and projects like Snick’s newspaper, The Anipal Times, are all great, but they mostly reach people who are already above average companions to their animals. What are some good ways to reach the owners who aren’t as involved… the ones who may just need a nudge or two to start learning how to be responsible owners?

Jenna Gates September 9, 2009

How to Find a Reputable Breeder

I get email once or twice a week asking for advice on finding a Shiba puppy. I’m glad when people ask, because it means they are trying to buy a pup the RIGHT way, but on the other hand, I know there aren’t enough puppies from good breeders to go around and that frustrates me. 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.

Shiba puppies seem to be more popular than ever lately. I don’t know about other areas, but in the northeast US, that extra demand is being readily filled by a breeding operation who markets themselves as an "aw shucks" kind of family business but in reality they’re a mill… the majority of their dogs are poor quality, they produce WAY too many litters at a time, they sell to anyone who is buying (they even take paypal deposits!), and they’re well known not to return phone calls if/when a puppy has any health or behavioral issues. I’ve been attempting to fight the good fight against this establishment for years now but it seems they’re just producing more pups than ever before.

Why? Supply and Demand. Legally, dogs are property. Puppies, it seems, are simply another commodity to be produced as cheaply as possible and sold for a profit. What does this mean for the poor souls being created for profit? I can tell you, it ain’t good. *sigh*

So, let’s talk about why people are buying puppies when there are so many dogs dying in shelters. And what can we do it about it??? (Hint: the answer is WE CAN EDUCATE CONSUMERS.)

Puppy vs Rescue Dog

I understand the desire for a puppy. I really do. Snickers came from a breeder. My daughter was 8 when we started discussing a dog – her first – and I wanted her to have the full puppy experience. I also wanted a purebred dog for the added security of knowing what I was getting (to a certain degree) in regard to size and temperament. We spent months deciding on the right breed for us, more months searching for a responsible breeder with puppies planned and not spoken for, and then another few months waiting for him. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!! Does that mean I think that’s the only way – or even the best way – to add a family member? No. Two years later when we were ready to add a female, we adopted a sweet little rescued girl who needed a home. We adore her every bit as much as we do Snickers and we didn’t have to deal with all the puppy nonsense again! Adopting a dog can be every bit as wonderful as buying a puppy. There are some situations where a puppy is even the wrong decision, but an older dog could be the perfect companion. If only people KNEW more about their options and understood the repercussions of purchasing from backyard breeders, mills and pet stores.

A reputable breeder with available puppies can be tough to find, depending on the breed you are interested in. But you want a puppy NOW! What do you do?

How to FIND a Responsible Breeder

  • contact local and national breed clubs
    • If you’re looking for a Shiba Inu and live in the northeast US, start with the Shiba Club of Greater NY or the Blue and Gray Shiba Club (looking for link).
    • If you’re looking for a Shiba in any other part of the country, contact the regional club nearest you for assistance (that is how I found Snick’s breeder) or refer to the breeders list on the National Shiba Club of America‘s website.
    • If you’re looking for another breed of puppy, start by checking the AKC’s website to find the national club for your breed.
  • contact the regional purebred rescue group for the breed in which you are interested
    Contrary to what some people believe, volunteers for purebred rescue groups are seldom anti-breeding. The breed we love so much couldn’t exist and flourish if it weren’t for responsible breeders!
    • If you’re looking for a Shiba, try the rescue group closest to you that is listed on this page.
    • If you’re looking for any other breed, try your national breed club’s site for a list of legitimate rescue groups.
  • attend a dog show or other dog related event and talk to the participants
  • ask your veterinarian for referrals

How to SPOT a Responsible Breeder

A responsible breeder does NOT sell their puppies to just anyone with cash in hand! Many unsuspecting people buy puppies from people who seem to be responsible breeders, but are not. Too often, the result is a puppy in poor health or with temperament problems that may only surface after time.

A responsible breeder is someone who:

  • breeds for their love and devotion to their chosen breed of dogs.
  • does not breed dogs to make money or so children can "experience the miracle of birth."
  • only breeds one or two types of dogs and usually only breeds a litter if they intend on keeping one of the pups. They are breeding to further improve the breed in general and their breeding program in particular, not just to produce puppies for pet buyers.
  • can explain in detail the potential genetic problems inherent in the breed and is willing and able to provide documentation from organizations such as the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) that the puppy’s parents and grandparents have been screened for these genetic problems.
  • can explain the reasoning behind breeding a particular dog to a particular bitch. They should be attempting to reach perfection as defined by the breed’s standard. In the attempt to reach this goal with the resulting puppies, they should be able to explain the good points of each dog and what points they are trying to improve. If, when asked about the breed standard, the breeder looks at you with a blank look on their face or tells you why the breed standard doesn’t matter… RUN!
  • does not breed a high volume of puppies.
  • usually participates in some sort of dog-related events such as dog shows (conformation), obedience, agility, schutzhund, sled dog racing, herding, field trials, lure coursing, earth dog trials, etc. They do something with their dogs.
  • usually belongs to at least one dog club (all-breed club, obedience club, breed club, etc.).
  • will tell you the good points AND the bad points of the breed. They want their puppies in the best home possible and will want to be sure you are fully aware of what to expect before you buy.
  • is willing and able to give you references from previous puppy buyers. Those new to breeding should be able to give you references from other breeders of their breed or dog club members.
  • will never sell puppies through a pet store or broker or any other way that does not allow for thoroughly meeting with and interviewing you to ensure that the puppy is a good match for your family and that you will provide a responsible lifelong home.
  • will ask you many questions and may ask for references or to visit you at your home. The breeder is looking for the ideal situation for the puppy. They want the owner to be happy and not return the puppy because it was ill suited for their environment or life-style.
  • can provide a pedigree of the puppies, not just a copy of the parents registration papers. A pedigree usually has at least three generations of the puppies’ ancestors listed.
  • usually insists that puppies sold as pets be spayed/neutered and placed on an AKC limited registration. (Limited registration makes the dog’s offspring exempt from AKC registration.)
  • believes in service after the sale. If a puppy buyer has any questions regarding grooming, feeding, or training, the breeder will be there long after the puppy is no longer a puppy.
  • not only WILL they take back any dog of their breeding at any age, they REQUIRE that you contact them if you ever can’t keep your dog. Reputable breeders do not want to find out a dog they bred has been given up to an animal shelter or dumped by the roadside. They assume a lifetime responsibility for the canine lives they have put on this earth.

Is it worth the wait to get your next family member from a responsible breeder, instead of purchasing from a puppy mill, pet store, or backyard breeder? Absolutely.

If you would like a printable non-breed-specific version of this, please download Responsible Breeder vs. A Puppy Right Now.

Jenna Gates August 8, 2009

FRUSTRATION

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, my rescue and public education goals are what drive me. Most of my personal goals are wrapped up in my desire to better the lives of as many dogs as possible, in the present and the future.

Lately I feel like everything is moving backwards.

  • Rescue: Even though I do the books and talk to the current pres almost every day, I lost touch with the day-to-day operations of NYCSR after I moved away. Now that I’m back, my new job keeps me so overwhelmed that I haven’t been able to get back into it the way I would like. Meanwhile, the number of dogs needing help seems to be increasing and everyone’s available volunteer time and donation money is decreasing. Long time volunteers are keeping it going by sheer force of will, but I can see the rescue chewing them up and preparing to spit them out. It really scares me.

  • Humane Education: Since moving back, I haven’t found a humane education program nearby for me and Mr. Snick to get involved in. A lot of my personal "positive reinforcement" has come from this in the past and the void is unavoidable. (I may have something lined up for the fall though. Fingers crossed.)

  • Public Education especially re: acquiring a pet: This is the one that REALLY frustrates me. After three years of trying to make a difference, I see more and MORE and MORE people buying Shiba puppies from the wrong sources. The Shiba puppy cam seems to have caused a spike in popularity and the "only in it for the money" breeders are working overtime to fill the demand. 🙁

Sometimes I feel like I’m slamming my head against a brick wall and losing ground every day. I wonder why I bother. It would be SO much more fun to just play with Snick. Of course, I’ll never let myself give up.

Jenna Gates May 19, 2009

The Importance of Teaching Bite Inhibition

Sometimes a topic for a blog post has to jump up and down in front of me waving its metaphorical arms, before I realize I need to write it. This was apparently one of those times. First, someone on Twitter asked Snickers (@snick_the_dog) about puppy nipping and teething, which we did cover in Dealing with Puppy Biting and Chewing. Then someone on Yahoo Answers, asked How to teach a Shiba Inu Bite Inhibition? Lastly, it came up briefly on my favorite breed-specific mailing list, Shiba-L.

What Exactly Is Bite Inhibition?

Pups usually learn bite inhibition – as it pertains to other dogs – from playing with their litter mates and their mother. They learn from their interactions how much force is too much and they learn to make a conscious decision to limit the force of their bite. They have to learn to translate that desire not to injure others to humans as well.

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. Even a small dog! If our companions are not raised to have a STRONG inhibition to bite humans, they can inflict serious pain while reacting instinctively.

Two Examples of Inadequate Bite Inhibition

I evaluated a Shiba for rescue last summer who was being given up AFTER SIX YEARS because she bit her owner in the face. The problem was, it was the owner’s fault. The dog was a great dog with a nice temperament and even came from a good background. The owners, however, had not socialized her with other dogs and treated her like a human, not a dog. Consequently they didn’t know anything about dog body language. The owner startled the dog and then leaned over her in a threatening manner. The dog reacted by biting and then looking horrified that she had bitten her beloved owner. The damage was done though – the owner was never comfortable around the dog again and gave her away.

A less drastic, but still frustrating, example of poor bite inhibition happened to me a few days ago. I was at the local dog run near my new apartment. There was a super overweight lab there who kept jumping up on my daughter and me. When I put my arm out to try to block the dog, he grabbed onto my wrist and hand with his mouth. He only barely scratched my skin, but his intention was clearly to hold onto me with his mouth. So COMPLETELY unacceptable. His owner was unfortunately clueless about how bad his dog’s behavior was. 🙁

An Example of Excellent Bite Inhibition

Even when Snick is snuggling with me, I’m careful not to startle him awake. I was incredibly grateful for his bite inhibition a couple weeks when he was surprised in his sleep. I walked into my bedroom and he was curled up sleeping on my bed. I bent over to give him a kiss. At exactly the same moment, Secret launched herself onto the bed and LANDED ON HIS TAIL. He jolted awake all fangs and fury only centimeters from my face. Yikes! Luckily, his reaction to seeing me so close to his teeth was as immediate as his displeasure at being stepped on and he stopped himself before accidentally biting me. Nasty facial scar avoided.

Tips on Teaching Bite Inhibition

Toshi and Snickers play fightingOne of the best pieces of advice anyone gave me when Snick was a puppy was regarding how to teach him not to bite and play so rough with my daughter. He thought of her as a litter mate – an equal instead of a superior – so we used that to teach him. Whenever he played too rough and bit her too hard, she would YELP like a hurt puppy and then turn her back on him and ignore him for about 10 seconds. It worked like a charm. His puppy brain completely understood and he totally stopped biting her in about a week. What I didn’t know at the time was that this great advice was based on the excellent training method of Dr. Ian Dunbar. Dr. Dunbar’s wonderful article, Puppy Biting, explains the reasoning behind the method.

In addition to self control, dogs need to learn self confidence. Many dogs bite to defend territory or because they are afraid. Raise a confident, well-socialized dog and he is a lot less likely to ever feel the need to bite.

Bond with your dog. If your dog sees humans as his key pack members, he is more likely to understand that biting humans is undesirable.

Don’t put your dog in any situation he can’t handle. Protect your dog from having to defend himself. If your dog is confident that you will take care of him, he won’t feel like he needs to protect himself and is less likely to bite out of fear.

Don’t startle your dog – or let anyone else startle him – especially when he is sleeping. If he’s going blind or deaf, pay special attention to how you interact with him.

Read your dog’s signals. Most dogs communicate multiple warnings before biting and will only bite as a last resort. Are you paying attention to what your dog is "saying" when he or she is stressed or in an unusual situation? Have you learned enough about canine communication to send your dog calming signals so he doesn’t worry as much?

Be your dog’s defender, his teacher, his advocate and his friend.

Jenna Gates May 7, 2009

One Question Interview with Aurora Piacentino

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 you would expect from the Director of an animal shelter – the importance of spay/neuter in pet quality companion animals. I think that by this point, most people have probably heard that they should spay or neuter their dog, but most don’t know why. They might have some vague idea of health benefits or pet overpopulation, but those are concepts that most people don’t apply to themselves,

"My pet is healthy, why should I worry?"

"Too many animals? That’s why they have animal shelters, they find good homes for them!"

Pet owners should understand that keeping a dog intact, breeding dogs as well, comes with some very real health risks that can affect healthy adult dogs. With each heat cycle a female dog goes through her chances of developing mammary tumors and a horrific uterine infection, called Pyometra, increases. Pyometra often is diagnosed in later stages and most often requires expensive surgery, fluid therapy, antibiotics and other supportive care to treat. With pregnant dogs, there is always risk that complications could arise during birth – potentially risking both mother and puppies lives. Male dogs that are not neutered can also experience health issues directly related to remaining intact such as Prostate or Testicular Cancer. All of these conditions have the potential to not only significantly affect your pocketbook but to drastically reduce the quality and length of life of your companion.

Pet owners also need to understand that each and every litter born has an effect on their pet community. It simply does not make sense to bring more dogs needing homes into a community where there are already homeless dogs looking for families to adopt them. We do have animal shelters for those unlucky animals that find themselves without a place to call their own, but the dog owners in the community can help the cause by choosing to spay and neuter and thereby reducing pressuring the system, so to speak. It’s up to the animal shelter to provide information on low cost options, but the dog owner must take that next step and do the responsible thing. They have to cast aside fears that simple surgery will change their dog’s personality or physique (both notions that are completely false) and make the decision that they will be a part of the solution.

About Aurora Piacentino
Aurora Piacentino is Director of Operations at Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City, NJ. Liberty Humane Society is a private, non-profit animal shelter with a mission dedicated to fostering a community of compassion and respect, and providing animals in need with a chance at a lifelong, loving home.

For more information on Liberty Humane Society and to see the many animals in need of adoption, please visit www.libertyhumane.org.

Jenna Gates April 19, 2009

Things I’d Love to See in My Lifetime

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 to be well-behaved and under control (Canine Good Citizens perhaps) given the ability to fly in the cabin with their humans, without fitting under a seat
  • an end to large commercial pet breeding facilities
  • animals uniformly protected from neglect and abuse
  • the sale of dogs, cats and other companions in pet stores made illegal
  • an end to the mass murder of pets in "shelters" across our country
  • humane education taught as a standard course in elementary schools
  • an increase in residential and commercial buildings allowing pets

OK, that’s more than a few. What are some things you would love to see happen that would benefit our companion animals and ourselves?

Jenna Gates February 8, 2009

The Family Dog Should be Family

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 four more:

  • to not live an isolated life
  • proper socialization with people and other dogs
  • appropriate levels of exercise and mental stimulation
  • basic companion training (at least sit, stay and come)

These four things have a common theme… you can’t accomplish any of these without spending time with your dog.

A lot has been written about bonding with your new dog or puppy. As a result, I think we tend to think of bonding as a one time process – something to accomplish and then check off the list. It doesn’t work that way though. If you really think about it, it’s illogical to think that it would!

Bonding with your dog is like maintaining any other friendship or family connection… you won’t really have a relationship unless you put time and effort into it. Your bond with your dog needs to be nurtured over his or her entire lifetime. I don’t mean just hanging out on the couch together either! If all the time you spent with your spouse or kids was spent watching television – never talking, doing chores, enjoying hobbies or vacations together – what kind of relationship would you have? Our dogs are part of the family too and they deserve more than cursory pee walks and a pat on the head at meal time. Interact with your dog on a daily basis.

to not live an isolated life

Dogs are pack animals. (Just because every "expert" out there is spouting it, that doesn’t make it any less true.) They are extremely social beings. This doesn’t necessarily mean that every dog has to have another dog around 24/7 (although, personally, I know Snickers is much happier if he has another dog to keep him company when I am not home). It does mean, though, that dogs need relationships and social interactions. Dogs have evolved to see us as pack members (just as many of us think of them as family members) and they need us.

I strongly believe that most dogs should live indoors with their families, unless they are working dogs and live with other dogs in an outdoor kennel. Either way, they need to LIVE with their social group, not just come in for a few hours of interaction after dinner and then be sent outside to be all alone again. I also feel that leaving a dog alone for 10+ hours a day, five days a week isn’t acceptable. Have I done it? Yes, when Snick and I were living alone and I was working long hours, he often spent 10 hours alone in the apartment waiting for me. Did I like it? Not one bit. I started fostering for NYCSR shortly after T and Secret moved to Florida, so he had a foster dog with him. When we didn’t have a foster at home, I took him to doggie daycare a couple days a week (since that was all I could afford). I did my best to give him opportunities for mental exercise and social interaction.

proper socialization with people and other dogs

Puppies need to be socialized with all sorts of people and in all kinds of situations. They need lots of interaction, exercise and attention. Most of us make exceptions to our daily routines when we have a puppy. We run home at lunch time to give the puppy an extra walk. We make time for a long morning walk so the puppy doesn’t eat the house while we’re out. We spend time playing tug of war before bed. As the puppy grows, many of us go to puppy kindergarten socialization classes, basic obedience class, etc.

When the puppy reaches about two years old, he/she finally starts to calm down. The lunch time walks are a thing of the distant past. We can get away with shorter morning walks (and therefore get more sleep) and we don’t necessarily have to play tug of war every night. This is the point, I think, where the human/dog relationship can easily stagnate… because the dog doesn’t need as much attention and exercise to stay out of trouble, it isn’t foremost in our mind and may become less of a priority than it should be.

appropriate levels of exercise and mental stimulation

I am repeatedly amazed by how many dogs are bored and overweight. The percentage of obese dogs in this country is probably as high as the percentage of obese humans! Dogs need to get out and move around to stay healthy, just like people do. Don’t just let your dog out in the yard. Snap on the leash and go exploring together. Go in the yard and throw a frisbee. Jump in the car and drive to a park for a walk in new territory. Going to new places not only exercises the body, but when your dog uses his senses to explore, he is exercising his mind also! Mental and physical exercise doesn’t have to all be outdoors either. You can play fetch, tug-of-war, chase and all sorts of games at home with your dog.

basic companion training (at least sit, stay and come)

Speaking of indoor games… 🙂 Obedience training is a great way to bond with your dog and keep him mentally stimulated. Every puppy should be taught the basics, for the sake of safety and good citizenship, but the basics are only the beginning. If obedience training seems boring, try a tricks class or an agility class. Snickers and I have fun learning new tricks. The joyful look on his face when he "gets it" is just so cute!

More to come on basic companion training later 🙂

snickers November 10, 2008

A Dog’s Life in the City

Jenna & Snickers at Rockefeller Center

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 laptop is impossible when you have paws. i told her to type the way i tell her though without editing to make it perfect. besides, jaqi said that mom agreed not to edit her posts, so i dont think she should edit mine either.

today i am thinking about how city dogs live. i lived as a puppy and most of my life in our apartment with one bedroom near Times Square (that’s in new york city, the best place to find fresh meat on the sidewalk). now i live in a big house with corn and soybean fields all around but not many people or fresh meat. (i watch the cows across the street, but they dont look so tasty.)

in new york city there are these people called tourists. theyre like regular people, but they dont seem to know where they are, they act strange and wear bright colors. i have heard tourists say things like it is cruel to have a dog in the city and a dog cant live in a small apartment. i have even heard new people (sort of like tourists but they dont go home), say things like “i miss my dog,” “i gave him away when i moved here,” or “it would have been selfish to bring him.”

first, for those people who move without their dogs… if my mom moved anywhere and left me behind, i would have a broken heart. luckily, she loves me too much to ever do that.

now, for anyone who thinks dogs cant live happy in the city… you are nutty. i loved living in the city. our small apartment was great because i could see mom almost no matter where she went. now, in the house, i have to get up and follow her when she changes rooms. when we went outside, there were lots of people around to pet me and lots of fun things to do. i got to go in stores and eat at sidewalk cafes. we had dog runs that we played in. i had really close dog friends and human friends that i visited and played with a lot and a big group of shiba pals to play with too. we went for really long walks around midnight every night when the streets were quiet. mom took me to lots of places with her. i even went to the office a lot and played with mom’s work friends.

Snick in the Yard in Indiana

Here are some posts about my fun life in the city:

  • how city dogs hunt on city sidewalks
  • my bestest friend, bean, when i lived in the city
  • a typical shiba inu saturday in new york city

i live in the country now. we have something called a yard. it is sort of like a dog run but it is way bigger and no one visits it but us. i like it a lot because i get to chase squirrels and cats and chipmunks. mom and aunt debbie build fires and cook hotdogs sometimes, which is almost as good as scavenging street meat! i dont get to go for long walks though because mom is afraid of the dogs that are outside without humans. she is also afraid of the dark. it gets dark here at night, so we cant take our long bedtime walks like we used to. i dont like that we have to get in the car and drive to go to a real dog park to play. i do have a small group of shiba pals here and we go hiking, which is fun. mom says ize healthier here from clean air and my fur is cleaner too. my skin itches right now though; our nice new vet said that’s from something called ragweed and it will go away soon. something i dont like about the country is that people dont take their dogs many places here so i cant go in the stores and stuff. mom says i probably cant go to work with her when she starts working again either.

anyway, i am saying that i would be happy living anywhere with my mom and the two places i have lived both have good and bad things about them for dogs. i hope i get to live in other places. as long as mom is there and we are doing stuff together, i will be happy. i think most dogs who love their humans probably feel the same way, so dont move without your dog. and dont say it’s mean to have a dog in the city. city dogs live great lives!

thats all for now,
snickers

Jenna Gates November 7, 2008

Making the Most of Companion Identification Methods

Snickers always wears his collar & tags. He's also microchipped.

As one aspect of responsible dog ownership, I believe our canine companions deserve at least one form of identification (tags, microchips, tattoos) in case they are lost.

Although tags are the easiest solution for someone to see and read if they find your dog, collars can break or slip off and are not always enough. According to the American Humane Association, only 17% of lost dogs find their way back to their owners. 17%!!!!! 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.

I recently received an email from a Shiba friend suggesting I write about microchips. She said: "I have been involved with several Shibas and 2 Schnauzers that were lost. I took them to a vet to check for a microchip. They all had one. However, when I contacted the number on the microchip it was outdated. … These dogs were all re-homed because no one thought to change the pertinent information."

I have had similar experiences working with NYC Shiba Rescue. Most of the dogs we receive are not chipped. We have also received many who were chipped, but the chips weren’t registered. One chip led us back to a pet store. They tried to contact the people who bought the dog from them, but the info they had was out of date.

Microchips are more permanent than collars, but what good is a microchip if you never associate any information with it or let that information get out of date? None whatsoever!!!

Moving is a hectic chore – so much to do, so little time. However, my guess is that when you have JUST moved to a new area is the time you are most likely to lose your dog. If your dog gets loose accidentally and runs, he won’t know where he is when he stops running and tries to go home. Nothing will smell or sound familiar and there is almost no chance that someone who recognizes him will spot him.

Please, please, please… when you get a new puppy, change vets, change phone numbers or move, update the personal information associated with your dog’s microchip. Also order new tags for your dogs collar ASAP.

How Microchips Work

A pet’s microchip is simply an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip. RFID chips are used for all sorts of things: [Read more…]

Jenna Gates October 24, 2008

To Fix or Not to Fix, It Shouldn’t Be a Question

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.

Jenna Gates February 7, 2008

I’m a Racist? aka Responsible Breeding Revisited

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 different opinions on some things but similar on others" approach was pretty undeniable, but I ended up remembering that people with extreme opinions and closed minds don’t listen to the other side. She was basically echoing the PETA position posted here, without listening to anything else.

Along the way, she deleted a couple people’s comments without letting them state their opinions. I figured I’d give them a place to publish what they wanted to say and I’d also ask… what do you think?

Jenna Gates October 19, 2006

Casual breeding is IRRESPONSIBLE

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 his parts.”

Apparently the only requirement for a mate to breed his female (which I didn’t see) with was a male with balls. <SIGH> I’m not saying the male Shiba in question wasn’t a great pet; he seemed friendly, healthy and well behaved. But this dog was not breeding material! His color and markings were completely wrong, he was not double-coated, and he had a skinny chest. (AKC Shiba Inu breed standard)

Irresponsible owners – and owners who simply don’t know any better – are contributing to the pet overpopulation problem every time they make a decision to casually breed their dogs. I found myself in a tight spot. I wanted to tell this person why what he was considering was a very, very bad idea, but I was there as the organizer of my meetup group and it didn’t seem like a diplomatic time to start a dog run brawl. I ended up holding my tongue, but in a way I regret that. After all, as we’ve discussed here before, the solution to the dog overpopulation problem really is education.

I was thinking about all this a couple days ago and it reminded me of an email I wanted to publish on the blog. Several months back, someone sent an inquiry to a Shiba list that I check sporadically.

Subject: Looking for male shiba in NYC/NJ to breed my sweetheart shiba

Hi,

My sweetheart is a 1.5 year old female shiba (cream). She is belownormal size (only 15 lbs) and perfect for NYC size living condition.several friends of mine seriously urge to have a baby of my shiba. Idiscuss it with my vet and she thought it is fine as long as I havefriend to adopt the babies.the problem now is to find a male shiba for her.Do you have a cream or light brown male shiba around the area? Pleasecontact me and let discuss further. thanks…

Many of the responses to this inquiry were blind outrage and, unfortunately, not very helpful in educating this person. One response however was so thorough and well-written that I asked permission to post it here. This is what it said:

I’m sure there are others who will sugar coat this, but as a former breeder and as someone who rescued Shibas for over 10 years, I have a few comments/suggestions.

1. Clearly, you do not know the breed standard for the Shiba Inu. If you did, you would know that the cream color is considered a fault and there is NO brown Shiba. I presume you are thinking of RED. It may appear to be a light brown color, and that is improper, too. Ideally, it should be a flame orange red but can go all the way to a deep mahogany red. NO responsible breeder intentionally breeds creams.

2. Size. Weight is not the important indicator of size. A Shiba bitch should be between 13.5 to 15.5 inches at the withers. If it is smaller or taller, it is a DQ in the standard. That means it doesn’t reflect what a Shiba should look like.

3. Do you know WHY your female is so lightweight? Does she have normal thyroid levels? Have you checked?

4. Have you taken her to a canine eye specialist to have her eyes examined for cataracts and glaucoma? Either of those diseases IS hereditary and can have devastating consequences. Like blindness or loss of an eye!

5. Have you had your bitch’s hips x-rayed and the x-rays submitted to OFA to be certain she doesn’t have hip dysplasia. This is also hereditary, and can cause lameness severe enough to require surgery.

6. Have you had her patellae (knees) checked to be certain they do not luxate (slip out)? Luxating patellae can require surgery as well.

7. IF you choose to ignore all the above and breed anyway, do you have the money for an emergency C-section, if needed? If the dam cannot produce enough milk, are you available to tube feed 1-5 puppies every 2 hours for several weeks? Puppy replacement formula is VERY expensive. Do you have a plan for what you will do if your female doesn’t survive the labor or delivery? Can you afford the vet care for 1-5 puppies? Can you afford to feed a high quality feed to the pregnant dam and her puppies? The female would be pregnant for 9 weeks, and you must keep the puppies until they are 8 weeks before you can legally sell them. Can you afford to advertise your pups for sale for weeks? I hope you don’t plan to make a profit, as breeding is very expensive!

8. Do you have firm commitments from 1-5 people who will accept a puppy, regardless of gender or color, since you can guarantee neither? What if everyone wants girls and you get only boys? What if everyone wants a cream, and you don’t have any? Breeding cream to cream may not produce cream. Do you have any idea of the quality of the parents of your female? Are there any champions in the first 3 generations? Is she AKC registered? Does she have limited registration? If not, the breeder who sold her isn’t a reputable breeder!

9. A regular vet telling you your dog is healthy is NOT enough. That simply means that it doesn’t APPEAR to have anything wrong during a brief, cursory exam.

10. Do you KNOW how many nice Shibas and mixed-breed Shibas are out there right now, needing to be rescued or re-homed? There are hundreds!

11. If you love your little girl, then do what is best for her. Spay her and enjoy her company for the years to come. Breeding DOES shorten the life of a female and failure to spay DOES dramatically increase the likelihood of mammary cancer.

You are fee to do as you wish, of course, but I hope you will consider the best interest of the Shiba Inu and your female.

Chris
Clarkston, WA
IF you won’t rescue, DON’T breed!

Jenna Gates October 9, 2006

What We Learned (or didn’t?)

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 past couple months, I’ve had a draft titled "What We Learned" sitting in WordPress while I attempted to devise a brilliant summary of what was gained from that original conversation. I have come to the conclusion that there is no brilliant summary. It was a great conversation and I think a number of us learned a few things, but I can’t say it changed anything. 🙁

I’m still trying to figure out what I can do to make a difference. A real difference. Educating consumers about where their pets come from seems like the most important step to me. It’s all about supply and demand really; if people didn’t buy from pet stores, puppy mills would go out of business and there would be a lot fewer animals in shelters. Then there is spay/neuter education and, finally, the cons of backyard breeding.

Someone I know recently suggested writing a book and I’ve been thinking over whether there would be a market for it. Could it make a difference? The real question, I guess, is could it reach the people that really need to be reached???

Jenna Gates March 27, 2006

When You Realize What You Don’t Know

Ever have those moments when you realize there is so much you don’t know about something? I get so frustrated sometimes when I believe I have an opinion about something and then I realize I don’t have all the facts and then when I try to LEARN all the facts it turns out there are WAY TOO MANY facts and opinions and I just can’t learn it all!!!!! AUGH!

So, this is one of those times.

You saw that coming though, right? 🙂

The story of what I don’t know starts with a confession. I worked in pet stores that sold dogs for about 5 years when I was much younger. I started as a sales person when I was 18 or 19 because the pups were so cute and it was a fun job. I’d had dogs and horses all my life and I missed being around animals. In less than a year I was managing a store. The thing was, I believed what I was told about where the animals came from. I was fed a whole line about the distributor that sent us dogs and cats from the midwest and how they got them from good breeders. I guess I was too young or naive to realize what a crock that was. My main rationalization for working there though was “if I don’t do it, someone else will and they won’t care about the animals as much I do.” Seriously, the animal care in my stores was over the top. We spent as much cuddle time and exercise time with the dogs as we could. We kept them all as clean, healthy, socialized and exercised as you CAN in that environment. Looking back now though, I can see how far from ideal even our best efforts were. Plus, some of thing things we were doing were compounding their bad start of being born in puppy mills; we were over-vaccinating them (of course, I didn’t realize that at the time) and overutilizing antibiotics when they were ill. And even with all the care and attention we tried to give them, that just is NOT where a puppy belongs in the developmental stages of its life.

In my defense, I tried mightily to discourage impulse purchases and also made sure everyone that worked for me knew as much about the different breeds as possible so we could avoid matching the wrong dog with a customer. Unfortunately when a retail establishment offers something for sale, they can’t then REFUSE to sell it! I did refuse to sell to a couple of people over the years because they were intoxicated, but, other than that, all we could do was try to convince people they were making the wrong decision if we felt like they shouldn’t be buying that particular dog.

I placed puppies and kittens that couldn’t be sold (sometimes with myself or other employees, but most often with regular customers and other pet owners that we knew). At first, we would RETURN animals to the distributor if they turned out to have a congenital defect, but somewhere along the way we got smart and started demanding credit for non-saleable animals and placing them in good homes instead of sending them back.

You’d think with all that going on, I would have realized the deal, but I didn’t. You don’t know what you don’t know.

I once bought a cat from my employer because the breeder/distributor wouldn’t give us credit for it without a DEATH CERTIFICATE. He had a terrible URI and was going to take a long time to get better. The company vet said the meds to cure him would ruin his kidneys, so he was going to euthanize him instead of treating him. I bought the cat at cost, kept him in the store, and treated him myself (with store meds, with their approval). He was a red tabby Persian. I named him Aslan and he grew into a gorgeous, happy cat. Aslan lived to be about seven years old and THEN died of kidney failure.

So, anyway, fast forward to a couple years ago. My daughter was finally old enough for the dog she’d wanted all her life and we were finally living in a dog-friendly apartment. I knew not to go to a pet store and that there are lots of less-than-responsible breeders in the world. ~T~ and I discussed getting a shelter dog, but I was afraid for her first dog to possibly have unknown health and/or behavioral issues. I couldn’t bring myself to take the chance. At the time, I didn’t know about rescue organizations that use foster homes and evaluate dogs so they can be placed appropriately. It never even crossed my mind to wonder about such a thing. You don’t know what you don’t know.

So, we went with what we DID know. We spent four months reading and researching breeds to figure out what type of dog would fit best into our lifestyle and environment. Then we spent another SIX MONTHS looking for a responsible breeder with a male Shiba puppy available. I talked to a number of breeders that I wasn’t happy with. ~T~ was like “can we please just get a dog already?” but we talked about market forces, supply and demand, and how our money should go to someone who tries to do the best job they can, especially when it comes to animals. We kept looking and we eventually found Snickers.

Fast forward a couple more years. I’m blogging about Snick and reading other blogs and I run across a journal by someone that runs a local rescue organization. She blogs about the successes and the frustrations of rescue work, the animals, the people… I was inspired to learn more about the plight of unwanted animals in NYC and elsewhere. I started telling anyone who would listen how many dogs and cats are euthanized in NYC every day. I talked to people about getting rescues instead of purchasing puppies. A lot of my thinking about companion animals changed.

My sister is involved in a volunteer transport organization (Drive for Life) that helps transport dogs from kill shelters to no-kill shelters, foster homes, and forever homes all across the country, so that became another piece of new knowledge.

I learned that there are breed specific rescue organizations, usually run by breeders and other breed fanciers. There are several regional Shiba rescue organizations. My next dog will definitely be a rescue – almost certainly another Shiba, but a rescue. I’m learning so much – good and bad. But still, you just don’t know what you don’t know.

Forward to present day (well, last week actually, but you know what I mean). I’m reading the rescue person’s blog and she starts condemning breeders. Her logic is that every animal purposefully brought into the world, displaces an animal in a shelter waiting for a home, or eventually ends up in a shelter itself. This is reasonable logic. ~T~ and I have talked a few times lately about the dilemma of regulating breeding/breeders – how do you stop the large, commercial breeders without stopping the responsible breeders? How do you stop people from mating their cute family dog with the dog across town? And, while we’re at it, how do we educate people to spay and neuter their pets? So, anyway, with this conversation going on in my mind, I proceeded to comment on the blog regarding breeding.

(Add into the mix of thoughts in my head the fact that I recently joined a mailing list for Shiba Inu owners and it has a number of breeders, fanciers, handlers, and trainers on it that I have learned a lot from and have a lot of respect for.)

What I thought was going to be an informed, adult conversation about how to fix a problem turned into something very different. The rescue blogger was not just against puppy mills and backyard breeders, but ALL breeders and another commenter and I were basically lambasted for discussing responsible breeding. I was planning to include a sampling of the posts and comments here but going back to the original blog to read through it stalled me and I decided not to do it. She would argue with us and question us and when we would answer, she would ignore what we were trying to say. Suffice to say, two of us end up leaving because the conversation was so one sided. I noticed when I went back today that a new commenter came along a couple days ago with good things to say about responsible breeders participating in rescue and supporting veterinary research, etc., but her comments have apparently been ignored so far also.

So, the title of this post was “When You Realize What You Don’t Know.” What I don’t know is… the answers. I didn’t know there was a problem. A dilemma. Now I do, but I don’t know the answers and I don’t know how to find them. I know that I care deeply about animals in general. I have a lot of compassion for the unwanted animals that die every day. Stories of mistreated animals are jarring when I look at my sweet, spoiled little Snickers. I don’t want animals to be hurt or die. I also don’t want breeds to die out or people to not have a choice about the animals they add to their family. I know education is KEY. I know companion animals should be spayed and neutered. How do you legislate something like that though? Can you? And how do you hamper commercial breeders without over-regulating responsible breeders*? And what about the suburban housewife that wants her kids to see “the miracle of life?” Or the people who breed Pits to fight and then dump the ones they can’t make mean? How do you write fair laws that single them out and stop them?

So, now I know what I don’t know. And it frustrates me.

*We attemped to define responsible breeders a few times on this other blog and were ignored. Our definition was basically “breeders that breed selectively and seldom, that breed for the best traits of their breed, that do genetic testing, have low coefficients of inbreeding, participate in rescue, have spay/neuter contracts, and take back any dog that can’t be kept.”

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