Jenna & Snickers

Jenna & Snickers Promote Humane Education and Responsible Dog Ownership

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The Best Boy

Snickers, a.k.a. Snick the Dog, a.k.a. Kawakirei BNT Sweet 'N Nutty, was a black and tan Shiba Inu. Born Thanksgiving Day, 2003, in upstate New York, Snick was a sweet puppy from the very beginning.

His breeder, Sandra Krupski, chose him for us because he was "the kissiest" boy in the litter. She later wrote "Snickers was a big puppy when born and he loved to eat and looked like it. Because he was so bottom heavy he was the last to walk. We used to do leg exercises while he laid on his back and stared at me. Then he got his belly scratched and tickled and loved it. It got so he would just flop over every time I walked near him. Best head of the bunch. He was always the most social of the boys... every time I reached down to pick up a puppy, it was always Snickers. He's always been that special dark sweet treat."

Snick's pedigree provided a solid foundation for his wonderful temperament. Ongoing training and socialization built on that foundation. Although he was a Shiba Inu - often known for being snarky with other dogs and antisocial towards humans outside their inner circle - he was always a very social dog.

Snick spent the first five years of his life in Manhattan, living the charmed life of an active city dog. He went to meetups and training classes, played with his pals at the dog run every day, took long walks all over the city, partied hard at doggy daycare, had an awesome dog walker, visited a school to teach kids about doggies, went to restaurants and bars, and even went to work at an investment bank every Friday.

We moved out of Manhattan in the summer of 2008. Snick spent 7 months in rural Indiana, a little over a year in Jersey City, NJ, and then moved to Mississippi for five years. Snick went to work with Jenna most days, spent Friday nights with his human grandparents, worked as a therapy dog, and had several foster brothers and sisters while living in Mississippi, but he missed the city life (mostly the long walks). Shortly before he turned 12, we moved to Philadelphia. He spent his last 6 years happily living the urban doggy life.

Some Milestones in Snick's Life

Jan 31, 2004: Nine week old Snickers moved from upstate NY to Hell's Kitchen, NYC to start the process of changing Jenna's life.
June 2006: Snickers had so much fun with his two neighborhood Shiba friends, that he started a Shiba Inu meetup group in NYC to make NEW Shiba friends!
July 2006: Snick's blog was named in Urban Hound's first "The 10 top reasons why New York City is great (for dogs)," list.
September 2006: Snickers appeared in Urban Hund's fall catalog.
October 2006: Snick passed his Canine Good Citizen test.
March 2007: Snickers appeared in Time Out New York, promoting the first Canine Cocktail Pawty fund raiser for Animal Haven Shelter in NYC
March 2007: Snick and his friends from the meetup group convinced some humans to found NYC Shiba Rescue.
September 2007 Snick and his buddies Benno & Lily represented Shibas at the AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day event in Madison Square Park, NYC. This was Snick's first big public event (with many more to come).
October 2007: Snickers became a foster brother for NYCSR, hosting his first temporary Shiba sister.
April 2008: Jenna & Snickers became registered Delta Society Pet Partners. (This means he is a "therapy dog.")
May 2008: Snickers started visiting classrooms at The Gillen Brewer School in New York City as part of their humane education program. This was Snick's favorite job to date, only ending because he moved to Indianapolis in August 2008.
October 2008: Snickers appeared as the featured Shiba in WoofPatrol.com's Shiba Inu breed profile.
December 2008: We started weekly visits with participants of the Easter Seals Adult Day Services program in Indianapolis. This was harder for Snickers than visiting with kids, but fun also and a great learning experience.
March 2009: Snick moved to Jersey City, NJ. We hoped to start school visits again but weren't able to find a local program. We dreamed up the idea for Animals Who Educate.
October 2009: Snick enjoyed putting his ambassadorial skills to use meeting thousands of people when Jenna & Snickers coordinated the Shiba Inu booth at the first ever AKC Meet the Breeds event held in NYC.
March 2010: Snick and a few of his Twitter pals, founded The Anipal Times, a daily online newspaper for animals and animal lovers.
May 2010: Snick moved again, this time to Tupelo, MS.
August 2010: Snick enjoyed reading the first ever PRINT edition of The Anipal Times.
August 2010: Jenna & Snickers joined Comfort Creatures in Tupelo.
March 2011: Snickers met his future fiancée, Emmie the Superdog, while she was walking across the country with her dad to raise money for military families.
June 2011: Snick threw a birthday pawty for Emmie in NYC which raised money for charity (and was a perfect excuse to go home to visit old friends.)
2012: Snickers decided it was time to retire from his work as a therapy dog.
November 2015: Snick was delighted to move back up north to big city life (AND SNOW).
September 2021: Snick's light left this world and left Jenna in pieces.

 The blog entries below chronicle Snick's life and the effect he has had on my life and the world around us. And, although we stopped blogging on this site in 2014, we kept posting on his facebook page.

Blog Entries About (and by) Snick the Dog

Jenna Gates January 11, 2013

Snickers, Fierce Gorilla Slayer

Snickers has always enjoyed destuffing toys, but the Gorillas are special. He LOVES the crazy monkey noise they make. Unfortunately, he gets pretty excited about them and then they don’t last very long!

The final destuffing.
We can’t save him now.


Of course, the problem with destuffing noise-making toys is that the noise box can be very dangerous if chewed or swallowed.

I keep the toys with noise boxes where the dogs can’t get to them unsupervised. Sometimes, Snick and I have a special playtime with one. Today he played and played and PLAYED until the latest Gorilla toy was dead. (Oh, and don’t worry, the noise box was still inside the Gorilla when he crunched it into pieces. I took it away from him before he managed to pull it through one of his destuffing holes.)

snickers August 9, 2011

pleeze help me make my emmie happy

hai peeples, Snickers here!

Snickers & Emmie walking together in Alabama

most of you probably know i haz a new sisfur. her name is zuki. mom will be posting more about her later. right now tho i want to talk to you ’bout my girlfurriend emmie the superdog. mom was planning to take me to kentucky in a few weeks to see emmie when her dad crosses the hike for heroes finish line. she sez we no can go now though cz we haz to take care of zuki instead

Emmie & Snickers hanging out at the hotel in New York City

see what mom duznt know iz that i was planning to ask emmie to marry me while we were in kentucky!!! so now what can i do??? i no can sit up and beg if i no go see her, so i haz to do sumthing speshul for her long distance. the birthday pawty that i threw for her did raise $1,745 and it made her very happy, so i think the way to her heart iz to help her raise more money for hike for heroes

i looked thru mom’s email and did see that she was talking wif emmie’s pawrents, troy & mareike, last night. troy did say they haz 25 days left to raise $25,000. (that iz a LOT of kibble, my furriends!) they want to do that by getting more miles sponsored. do you think if i can get at least 100 miles sponsored for them that she will agree to marry me?? lets try and find out!!

if you want emmie to agree to marry me:

  1. go to http://www.herosponsor.com/
  2. fill out the form to sponsor a mile (you can donate as little as $5.00 but i hopes you will give at least $10 so i can raise another $1,000 or more for emmie’s cause)
  3. you can fill in your name or stay anonymous
  4. THIS VERY IMPAWTENT: where it sez leave a message you haz to say say yes emmie, marry snickers!
  5. then, if you no mind, tell all your furriends as well so we can impress emmmie a whole lot!

thank you for helping me help emmie help her dad help our heroes!

luv,
snickers

snickers April 11, 2011

Emmie the Super Dog Has a Secret Mission

hi folks, snickers here!

this weekend i did get to meet another PAWESOME black and tan shiba inu. (she iz my new girlfriend. ssshhhhh) her name iz emmie and she iz walking all the way across the country and back with her human, troy yocum. sometimes she rides in the truck but she haz walked 2,300 miles on her own four paws!!!

here iz a pikture of emmie and me when we first met and a couple piktures of us walking together.

Snickers & Emmie walking together in Alabama


while we were hanging out together, emmie told me that she haz a Sekrit Mishun! i promised her that i would help let peeples know about it so we can all help her be successful. so, go here to learn about emmie’s mishun. if you can afford even just a little donashun to help, my mom sez it iz a very good place to spend your donashun dollars!

luv and shiba kisses,
snickers


To learn more about Troy and Emmie’s hike across America, check out Troy’s site, DrumHike.com.

Also see:

  • Hike for Heroes on facebook
  • Troy on Twitter
  • Emmie the Super Dog on Twitter

Jenna Gates February 6, 2011

A Good Day for Dogs

Today has been a good day for dogs and a lazy day for me. Friday, I spent time figuring out what I do, why I do it, and what I really should focus on. Yesterday, I ran errands and did chores – a typical Saturday. Normally, on Sunday, I would work… work on rescue stuff, work on NSCA stuff, take Snick for his shelter visit, answer email, do some web development or updates for clients or one of my clubs/charities, etc. NOT TODAY!

I started the day with good intentions, but after making breakfast for me and T, I went outside with the dogs and my Brugo full of fresh coffee and it was 52 degrees and sunny. Our yard has been alternating between frozen and flooded for the past few weeks, so we were all happy to lounge in the sun for awhile. Here are a few photos and videos of our sunny yard time. As you can see, Sophie tries really hard to get Secret to play with her. She mostly steers clear of Snickers so they don’t fight.



I’ve been working on getting Snickers and Sophie to play in the yard. I usually have to chase Snick around and, once he’s running, Sophie will join in and they’ll run some Shiba 500s together. We’ve done that every morning for the past few days. I never get that on video though, because I’m running around like a lunatic, waving my arms and saying “Get her Snick. Get her!” (I’m sure my neighbors are ready to have me committed.) Even with playing a little outside though, they’ve still been fighting in the house. Whenever they end up in a small space together, Sophie gets excited and starts fly snapping or barking and Snick interprets it as aggressive or rude and attacks her.

Well, today, we had a HUGE breakthrough. I put baby gates up a day or two after Sophie arrived. I lets Snick and Sophie be around each other without fighting and that seems to be helping. Sometimes, when Sophie is relatively calm, I let her out to hang out in the den "with the big dogs." She was pretty good and Snick eventually decided to get off the couch to play with her. I was worried. When he first invited her to play, she play bowed back at him, which was ADORABLE. They played briefly and then she started barking at him. That’s about the time I got the camera running, so this is pretty noisy footage. I was VERY proud of Snickers that he didn’t attack her for barking. It did start to get too heated right at the end though, so I stopped the camera and split them up before it turned into a fight.

So, like I said, today was a good day for dogs. I spent most of my day going outside and back in with the dogs. Of course now I’m paying the price, scrambling to do a bunch of work I should have done earlier today. The dogs are all happily snoozing though, so it’s all good. I’ll catch up on the other stuff. 🙂

Note at 12:17 AM: Snickers and Sophie just had their worst fight so far (of course). On the upside, it ended with Sophie cowering upside down in a corner, so maybe she’ll start to figure out she needs to respect Snickers. Maybe.

snickers December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas (To Me)!

hai peeples, Snickers here!

one of my Shiba friends on Twitter had the brilliant idea to haz a secret santa wif each other. we called it #secretshiba. one peeple drew names for us and told us who to send a gifty to. i opened my #secretshiba gift this morning. it was so much fun, i wanted to share it with you!!!






After we were done with #secretshiba we got in the car and went to my grandpeeples house. (this iz the first time in my life i haz lived so close to my grandpeeples. iz very exciting to go see them all the time) in the middle of all the gifties being exchanged between the peeple me and Secret each got one too!

mom helped me unwrap my gift

FUN TOY!!! mom played wif me

then secret got a gifty. mom helped her too.

secret ran off with her toy to keep it away from me.
(i played wif it later)

after all that, i haz a sleepies

snickers December 2, 2010

Anipal Photo Hunt #16: My 2nd Job

Join the Anipal Photo Hunthi peeples, snickers here!

this my second time to participate in my furriend cokie the cat’s anipal photo hunt. this week the subject is “my second job” meaning the job AFTER taking care of our peeples. after taking care of mom and girl, my job is helping educate people about responsible ownership of companion animals and also about shiba inus. here are some piktures of me doing my job!

Meet the Breeds in NYC October 2009

Responsible Dog Ownership Day in NYC Sept 2007

Responsible Dog Ownership Day in NYC. September 2007

i haz a third job which is visiting kids in schools and other places as a registered Delta Society Pet Partner (therapy dog) but i dont have any good photos to post of that. i hope you enjoy the blog hop!

snickers November 27, 2010

happy birthday to me, happy birthday…

hi peeples, snickers here!

today is my birthday! i am seven years old! mom does not like that i am now a “middle aged” doggy but i like the number seven. it sounds mature even though ize as silly and playful as ever. seven seven seven… see? it sounds good!

to celebrate my birthday this year mom got this nifty drawing of me from her friend kristin at bohopets.com. it would also seem that mom iz buying me a house because i heard her talking about how she iz going to frame this piccy and hang it on the wall! (well really the house is probably for the whole family but the yard iz for me!) i do like my special drawing and wanted to share it with you.

luv and shiba kisses,
snickers

Jenna Gates September 30, 2010

Loose Dogs Keep Ruining Our Walks!

When we lived in Indiana, we couldn’t walk the dogs outside because loose dogs in the neighborhood would approach us – even chased us a couple times. Luckily, we had a HUGE backyard to play in there. When we got ready to move to Mississippi, I made a point to find an apartment complex that was all fenced in and has strict leash rules (in addition to the town leash laws). We can only walk around on the grounds of our apartment complex and very nearby though, because there aren’t any sidewalks going anywhere else. Can you say BORING??? Poor Snick – who grew up walking 2 miles a night around midtown Manhattan – is bored out of his mind.

There is a college campus directly across the street from my job. There is a beautifully manicured road leading to a lake on campus with a gazebo. I’ve been eagerly awaiting non-brutal temps so Snick and I could go walk there. Today, after work, [Read more…]

snickers September 30, 2010

Anipal Photo Hunt #7: Hey! That’s Not Me!

hi peeples, snickers here

today my mom did check the mail and she laughed! why did she laugh? because there were two things in the mailbox and neither of them were for her. my Girl did get something and i did get something. i got this wonderful gift from my shiba friend in california, yuki. hers mom made this felt keyring and it looks JUST LIKE ME.

my twitter furriend @cokiethecat haz this thing called the anipal photo hunt where anipals with bloggys post pics in a different theme each week. this week the theme is “hey, that’s not me!” when cokie saw the photos of my gift from yuki, he said i should post it in the photo hunt, so that iz what i haz done.

shiba kisses!

Jenna Gates June 20, 2010

My Snuggly Inu

Snickers has turned into such a snuggler this past year or so. Here’s the proof. (That’s my leg that his paw is draped across.)

A lot has happened since my last post, but most importantly, we’ve moved (again). We’re all settled into our new apartment and routine in Mississippi, so hopefully I’ll be blogging more soon.

Jenna Gates April 2, 2010

The One Where I Apologize and Ramble

I haven’t written a real post for awhile. I’ve been focusing more on making time for “walkies and snuggling” with Snick when I’m not at work or working on the various projects (Shiba rescue, crazy Twitter projects, meetups, etc.) that he gets me involved in.

I still want this site to be a place to share great information, so I’ll be back to blogging soon. In the meantime, as a peace offering, here’s a quick list of what’s been keeping me so busy.

First, we have Brandy. Sweet old Brandy. I feel like I should blog about her more before she’s gone, but it’s hard. We only adopted her in November and we’re already worried that she’s going to be gone soon. She’s very old and frail. She trips over nothing when she walks. My daughter and I give her snuggles and short walks when she’s awake, but mostly all she does is sleep. Snickers was completely confused by (and mean to) her when she first arrived because she wanders around and bumps into him like he isn’t there (even when he’s warning her away). He’s learned to ignore her though. I’m incredibly proud of him.

The Shiba meetup group is going strong. We’re up to ten chapters (with over 400 members) in NY, CT and NJ. Snick and I try to make it to a meetup at least once a month.

NYC Shiba Rescue is still trying to recover from lack of volunteers and a bad economy. I do what I can to help my bestest friend Zennia (who is the Pres of NYCSR). If you’re not already on our mailing list and you want to be, let me know. I still have some volunteer positions to fill before we start normal operations again.

Snickers has a "classified top sekrit project" underway that I’ve been helping with the for past five or six weeks. That’s coming to fruition tomorrow. If you’re on Twitter, attend the #ATPawty tomorrow at 4pm EDT to find out what that’s about!

I’m building a website for Paw Pals & Performance Canine Association which should be up shortly. If you live in the NY/NJ area and are interested in lure coursing, stay tuned.

It looks like I’m probably headed to Blog Paws next weekend, which wasn’t expected or planned. The reason for that will be at least a little more clear after the #ATPawty tomorrow.

With all of this other stuff going on, I have had any time to work on Animals Who Educate. That’s where I’m headed though. I want to get my life to a point where ALL of my time that isn’t for work and family is for Snickers and Animals Who Educate.

I think that’s everything. 🙂 At least now you know why I haven’t been blogging lately!

Jenna Gates February 13, 2010

“I Was Just Reading Your Blog”

Snickers playing in Van Vorst ParkToday was a good day. Snickers and I started off the afternoon (which is the beginning of our day after all) with romp in the snow covered dog run. Then Snick managed to take me to his favorite liquor store. Yes, I said my dog has a favorite liquor store. Jersey City Wine & Spirits keeps dog treats at the register. I discovered this shortly after moving here when Snickers unexpectedly dragged me in there. I try not to walk by there when I’m not prepared to go in, but sometimes I’m not paying attention and he leads me there. Today was one of those days. Also today, between our time at the dog run and our visit to the liquor store, Snick made a new friend on the sidewalk.

Wherever Snick and I go, people stop us and ask me what kind of dog he is. This is pretty common for Shiba owners, possibly more so for black and tans because they aren’t as plentiful. When we still lived in Manhattan, sometimes the people who stopped us would be fellow Shiba people. (I do this too… stop people on the street to say hi to their Shiba even when Snick isn’t with me.) Many times they would ask something along the lines of "I heard there is a Shiba club or a meetup in the city. Do you know about it?" I would introduce myself as the organizer of the Shiba meetup and give them all the details. Once, a guy stopped us a couple blocks from my apartment and said "I’m sorry to bother you but I’m looking for the Shiba rescue and thought you might know. They’re supposed to be around here somewhere." Of course, the address he was looking for was the mailbox rental around the corner from my apartment. I told him the rescue doesn’t have an office and proceeded to answered all his questions about volunteering for NYCSR. Those incidents aren’t really remarkable though. NYC is just a very big small town so running into people with shared interests is to be expected!

Lately though, people know Snickers from this website. A few months ago, we were at the dog run and I was talking to a couple with an adopted Shiba. I mentioned that I volunteer with NYCSR and we talked about foster dogs and adopted dogs, etc. At some point they asked me Snick’s name. When I told them, one of them said "You’re Jenna & Snickers! I thought you looked familiar!" That was weird.

We had a moment like that today and it wasn’t even a "Shiba person!" During our walk, someone came up behind us, apologized for the intrusion and asked what kind of dog Snick is. When I answered that he’s a Shiba Inu, she said she thought so, that her parents had a red Shiba and that she had only just discovered black and tans. Snickers tends to be very Shiba-like with most people on the sidewalk… meaning, he ignores them completely. So, I said "Snickers, say hello" (which I taught him during school and therapy visits). He went over to her, greeted her and immediately tried to kiss her face. Upon hearing his name, she said "Snickers! I was just reading your blog!" This was at once very odd and very cool to be talking to a stranger who knew my dog from the Internet. She said he was just as beautiful as his pictures (and he is!) and we chatted for a minute. We went our separate ways, but the idea that I’d just met proof that strangers actually visit and read this blog stuck in my head all day. Neat, huh?

Even better? She made a donation to NYCSR tonight! Awesome.

snickers November 24, 2009

A Thankful Giving Birthday

hi peeples! snickers here.

did you know that i was born on thanksgiving day? well, i was. my birthday is not on thanksgiving every year, but mom says she gives thanks for me every day.

this year, my birthday will be the day after thanksgiving and i will be six years old. and this year, me and mom have a special request. we are trying to help nyc shiba rescue raise some money. they had to stop taking in new doggies because of the economy (and a couple dogs with health problems – one with cancer, one with cushings). i want to help them help doggies, so this year my birthday is all about nycsr!

please click the donate button on the box in this post to go to my fund raising page at firstgiving and wish me happy birthday. even just a dollar or two will add up and if you can give more we would really REALLY like that too!

Jenna Gates November 23, 2009

Snickers First Real Lure Coursing

Oh. My. God. This may be one of the most fun things you can EVER do with your dog. This past Saturday morning, Snick and I trekked to Central Jersey with friends Catherine and Nick and their two dogs Wylie and Tigger.

I believe the course was about 700 yards long. No one was officially timing the dogs, but we used Cathy’s iPhone and clocked Snick’s second run at just under a minute. That’s a polo field they’re running on and, no, there’s no fence. I was terrified to let Snickers take off like that without a leash, but after watching Tigger do it, I swallowed the lump in my throat and let him go. We had a little trouble catching him after his first run because he was trying to figure out where the “bunny” went after the bags stopped moving. Luckily, the lure operator heard us stressing and turned the lure back on long enough to grab his interest so we could snag him. Letting him go the SECOND time was even scarier, but at least we were more prepared to catch him that time. I’m going to take some sort of toy for him to “kill” at the end of the course next time – more satisfaction for him and an easier catch for me.

There’s really not much else to say… just watch the video that Nick posted (THANKS NICK!) of Tigger and Snickers chasing the lure!

Jenna Gates October 24, 2009

2009 Meet the Breeds Wrap Up

meet the shiba inuMultiple people, for various reasons, have asked for a post-event review of Meet the Breeds. I’m including some of the pre-planning information also, as I’ve been asked by a couple folks for advice on planning similar events.

Before – Planning for the Event

Meet the Breeds is an AKC event, with only the national breed club for each recognized breed being invited to participate. The purpose of the event is to help the public understand the differences between breeds directly from breed experts. That meant I needed decor, materials and volunteers all up to the task of educating the public about our wonderful Shibas – their history, their characteristics, where to buy a puppy, how to adopt a rescue and more.

Decor and Supplies

Since all the events I’d planned and manned in the past were for NYCSR, I needed new booth decor and materials for this event. Luckily for me, I know a wonderful designer – my friend Scott Lauben – who also created the banners, brochures and other materials for NYCSR. I had photographs of banners used at events on the west coast and wanted to do something similar but unique. Scott did an amazing job creating the banners and signage you see in the photos below. I borrowed most of the booth supplies from NYCSR, only purchasing what was necessary to go with the new banners. The club also donated black club t-shirts for the volunteers so we all had matching tees to help set us apart.

Printed Materials

Since this wasn’t a rescue event, I left out some of my regular rescue materials and created some new ones. Here’s what we had:

  • Meet the Shiba brochures created by NYCSR (They already existed, plus they served the dual purpose of providing an introduction to the breed while distributing the contact info for the national club and the area rescue.)
  • NSCA’s tri-fold Shiba Sports – Obedience and Rally brochure
  • NSCA’s tri-fold Shiba Sports – Agility brochure
  • How to Find a Responsible Breeder flyers
  • A list of recommended Shiba Inu breeders in the northeast (only given to people who specifically asked about breeders) including information on the national and regional Shiba clubs and Shiba rescue organizations.
  • Postcard size info sheets about the meetup group for anyone who came by and said "I have a Shiba Inu," but didn’t know about the group already.
  • NYCSR’s “Foster Homes Needed” flyer
  • and, last but not least, for people who wanted more in depth breed information, we had copies of Laura Payton’s book, Shiba Inus (Complete Pet Owner’s Manual), available for an $8 donation to the rescue. Thank you Laura for your wonderful donation!

Volunteers and Dogs

None of the planning or materials would be worth anything without great volunteers to make it all happen during the event. I was lucky enough to put together a great group of people from the Shiba Club of Greater NY, NYC Shiba Rescue, and the NYC Shiba Meetup. I want to say thank you to Kathy Mahoney, Barbara Leung, Molly Sumner, Antoinette Crudo, and Kathi Willi-Melton. I want to add a special thank you to Kathi’s husband, Matt Melton. We recruited Matt on Saturday morning to take a sick volunteer’s place. He was a huge help and ended up working all day Sunday too. So, Matt, you get the gold star for being so easy going about being recruited to work all weekend!

Physical Set Up

Javits was open all day Friday for early set up, so my friend Kat Mahoney and I spent the afternoon and evening setting up the booth. We played around with several different layouts. Normally, for rescue events, I put the table along one side with the rugs and ottomans in the remaining area. This is partly because we’re selling items at rescue events and I want them easily accessible. For this event though, I wanted to be sure passersby could see the banner on the front of the table, so the table went along the back. We put it at an angle to cut down on the amount of space lost behind it (plus it looked cool that way). We put the ottomans up front, with the plan being to keep one or two dogs on each ottoman during the whole event.

During – Surviving the Chaos

The actual event was amazing. The aisles were jam packed practically the entire time. Our booth was mobbed. Several people mentioned that we had one of the busiest booths (more on that later).

The crowd at this event was different from the crowd at a Pet Expo, pet fair, or even Responsible Dog Ownership Day. First, attendees couldn’t bring their own dogs, so they were more focused on the event itself. Secondly, it really felt like a large percentage of attendees were there to learn about the various breeds. I’ve never been asked so many intelligent questions about Shibas in such a short period of time! I was really impressed and excited by some of the people I talked to.

We had six dogs each day with three crates under the table for them to get breaks from the crowd, but they were still exhausted about two thirds of the way through the day each day. Events like this are hard – even for the most social dogs – and this one was noisier and busier than most. Snickers never wants to go in the crate during most events, but he actually asked for a couple breaks during this one.





After – The Postmortem

Breaking Down

Breaking down and getting out of Javits on Sunday night was a nightmare, mostly because Javits only had one small elevator for most of us to use (only the folks with the big trucks were loading out through the freight exit), but also because no one but Kat stayed to help me break down and we were both ridiculously exhausted at that point.

What I Learned

I’m hoping this will become an annual event, so I made mental notes all weekend regarding what went really well and what we could do better next time. In the interest of helping other people with similar events, here is what I learned.

  • When scheduling volunteers, I should have scheduled a couple people to help me set up and to help me break down. If it weren’t for Kat, I never would have managed. (I was disappointed when several people wanted to leave early on Sunday and no one offered to stay and help us. I should have scheduled help ahead of time, preferably people who live nearby and could be there without dogs.)
  • I had exactly the right number of people, but could have used more dogs. There were a lot of really fancy (and far out) booths there; we didn’t even compare. However, we had more dogs in our booth than most breeds and we had them up front and accessible most of the time. I think that was the reason our booth was so busy. I’d like to have more dogs next time so they get more breaks and stay fresh. A 10×10 booth with a table and six+ dogs in it doesn’t have much room left for people though, so I have to figure out how to have more dogs without having more people!
  • The layout of the booth needs to be tweaked. Having the ottomans up front was a great attraction, but it also caused a bottleneck where people couldn’t get out of the aisle and into the booth easily.
  • Next time, I’m going to put together the handout materials and have them easily accessible to volunteers up front. We all had handfuls of brochures to hand out, but most of the flyers were on the table and we were scrambling to get specific flyers for people as needed. I’d rather give people too much information than too little, so next time everyone with their hand out gets one of everything (except the breeder list) all bundled together.
  • Having identical t-shirts helped pull everything together and I’m going to look into somehow doing that for rescue events also.
  • I had a GREAT mix of volunteers – rescue folks, breeders, owners. Between us we knew just about everything possible about Shibas. 🙂 I hope I can always have that sort of diverse and knowledgeable group!

I think that’s everything. If I missed anything or you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer!

Jenna Gates October 4, 2009

We’re Going Lure Coursing!!!

In August, Snickers tried lure coursing for the first time and LOVED IT. I immediately (literally, within minutes of his first three runs) started searching and emailing to find a way to get involved in lure coursing.

I got really lucky. My first email was to the American Sighthound Field Association regional director for this area. Within an hour or two, I’d received a reply and we were corresponding back and forth on how to find all-breed lure coursing events. They put me in touch with Mickey Stoble who runs all-breed lure coursing practices and competitions in central NJ.

So, long story not so long, Snickers and I are going out on Saturday, November 14, to check it out. Any of our NY/NJ peeps want to go with us or meet us there? Let me know. It should be GREAT!

details and directions

click for details and directions

Details:

8:00 AM to 4:00 PM on November 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 & 29
Last sign in to participate is at 2:30 PM!
Bucks Mill Recreation Center in Colts Neck, NJ

"It doesn’t matter if your dog is mixed breed or purebred, or if he’s an experience racer or has never raced at all, all are encouraged to attend. Have a day of fun for under $10.00!"

Snick and I can’t wait to get there and try it out. Let me know if we might see you there too!

Jenna Gates September 12, 2009

What Blackberries Are Really For

ok mom did you get that? type into my twitter
"ize havin fun at this event. do send treats"
got that? k thx. oh you can put that on my facebook too thx

how i tell mom what to twitter for me

 

Jenna Gates September 6, 2009

Fido’s Fest, Dr. Harvey Cohen, and LURE COURSING!

Snickers and I spent last weekend at Fido’s Festival in Woodstown, NJ. We were there with NYC Shiba Rescue to talk to people about Shiba Inus, Shiba rescue in particular, purebred rescue in general and responsible dog ownership. I really enjoy working at these events. Not only do I get to talk to people about the breed that I absolutely adore and about purebred rescue groups and how important adoption is, we also get to try new things and meet new people.

We’ve made friends with rescue groups, vendors and other Shibas at events in the past. Last weekend we talked with the founder of a fantastic new sanctuary named Seer Farms. Seer Farms is being established for the purposes of intervening when families are in crisis and need support for their pets and to enable multi-species animal rescue and placement. I was incredibly impressed with what they have accomplished so far and hope to have the opportunity to speak and collaborate with them in the future.

Although we spend the majority of our time in the booth, we do get out and walk around some also. Snickers and I usually discover a new product – treats, toys, etc. (even seafood/crab cakes at one event) – that we really like. One in particular is an event-only bonus for Snickers. For a job well done, he gets to enjoy a Muttkin from Annie’s Pooch Pops!

Dr. Harvey

At this event, Snickers had the honor of meeting Dr. Harvey Cohen (and family) in person. Dr. Harvey is the founder of Dr. Harvey’s Healthy Formulations and makes the pre-mix that I use to cook Snickers and Secret’s food. We attended Dr. Harvey’s lecture where I learned how important it is to rotate the protein in their diet (which I haven’t been doing), to refrigerate my oils, and about various supplements. What Snickers liked though was going to Dr. Harvey’s table and getting TRIPE SAMPLES! Wow was he happy (and wow is it stinky)! I now have tripe treats stored inside two Ziploc freezer bags in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator. I can’t smell them in there (thank goodness) but Snickers still can! Oh, and I finally rotated proteins this week!

Lure for the Cure

The most exciting part of the weekend for us though, was when Snickers got to try out lure coursing for the first time. The National Canine Cancer Foundation travels to various events and puts on "Lure for the Cure." Attendees can try out an abbreviated lure course and the money goes for canine cancer research. (The Lure for the Cure course was a u-shaped enclosed course – much smaller than a real lure course would be.) Lure coursing is a canine sport created for sight hounds. The concept is pretty simple really… a course is laid out with a mechanical lure (in this case a wiggly, squeaky fuzzy squirrel tail toy) on the ground. The lure is then shown to the dog who chases it around the course. I’ve seen Snickers chase squirrels and chipmunks when we lived in Indiana so I already knew he has a high prey drive. I had no idea HOW high though!

Saturday was too hot; we wandered by the lure course to check it out, but it was a million and one degrees out and muggy to boot. Sunday was gorgeous though, so on Sunday morning, we went. I paid for 3 runs and we got in line. Snickers didn’t have much interest in being in line though. He wanted to go check out everything else; he had no idea that Something Good was going to happen in a few minutes. Finally, we were next in line. He watched the dog in front of us run the course. He was interested. The guys managing the course were great. We entered the course and I told them this was Snick’s first time. Snick seemed interested but not crazed. They ran the lure in front of his nose – back and forth a few times – wiggle wiggle – oh boy! It took off. I let Snick go and HE took off. Ten and half seconds later, he was at the end of the course and he and I were both HOOKED. I brought him back to the beginning and held him. This time he was totally excited, pulling and quivering. His second run only took 9.35 seconds and his third… only 8.64. I have NEVER seen Snickers that excited and moving that fast! btw, that was nothing compared to the 6.5 and 7 second runs some of the rescued greyhounds were doing later in the afternoon, but, you know, it is their sport after all. Watching my sweet doggy turn into a primal hunter/killer was something else. At the end of his second run, he actually got the lure in his mouth and was KILLING it. I used to wonder if he would really kill a squirrel if he caught one. Well, now I know. He definitely does NOT want to play with them. When his third run was over, I couldn’t drag him away. I had to pick him up and carry him to get him to leave! We actually went back two more times during the day. When we were standing in line the second time, he was SCREAMING with anticipation. He couldn’t WAIT to get out there and run again! He made a total of 11 runs during the day and his fastest time was just over 8 seconds. He was exhausted by the end of his last run and he slept extremely soundly during the two hour drive home at the end of the day.

I started searching that day for a place that holds lure course practices and allows non-sight hounds to participate. I have one lead on a place in Jersey but it hasn’t panned out yet. If it does, I promise to get video at some point and post it. If you have a sight hound or any type of dog who was bred to chase or to hunt and kill, believe me when I say that if you ever get the chance to try this, DO IT.

Jenna Gates July 5, 2009

Visiting Shayna: A Foster Mom’s Reward

Shayna, Shiba InuI’ve been personally involved with the lives of many rescued Shiba Inus since founding NYC Shiba Rescue two years ago and I’ve felt varying amounts of affection for each and every one of them. Every dog is an individual (just like people) and there’s almost always something lovable about each of them (maybe not so much like people). I believe there are only a few dogs in our lifetimes that truly steal our hearts though. Some people call them "heart dogs." For me, one of those few dogs was a foster – never meant to be a permanent addition to my life – but she definitely became a permanent addition to my heart.

A lot of you probably remember when I said goodbye to Shayna. It tore my heart out when I drove away from her on adoption day and I could see the confused look on her face. (It didn’t help that Snick was also confused that we left her behind.) That was 16 months ago and I still think of her often. The photos and email updates I’ve received from her family have helped enormously. A couple weeks ago though, I got to see for myself how happy she is with her new family. Snickers and I went to visit Shayna for the first time!

Shayna doesn’t really get along with other dogs, so we were a little worried about how she would react to having Snickers in her house. We shouldn’t have worried though. They ran up and KISSED the second they saw each other! 🙂 Then Snick threw down the big play bow but Shayna was busy kissing me then and didn’t notice. I was so happy she remembered us both after so long. (She only lived with us for four months, after all.) When she was done saying hello to me, she tried to get Snickers to play, but by then he was busy checking out the house and greeting all her family members! I was kind of bummed that they didn’t do a big romp around the house like they used to do when they lived together, but they were both happy and that’s really what mattered.

After the initial hellos, we took them for a walk together, which they both thoroughly enjoyed. Then the humans had lunch and the doggies had lamb bones that I brought for the occasion. Shayna pretty much destroyed her bone AND Snick’s, but Snick didn’t seem to mind.

Shayna’s family told me all about her life – where she sleeps, the games she likes to play, the toys she loves. They clearly love her very, VERY much and she loves them right back. She looks GREAT. She’s happy and healthy and as joyful as ever.

Snick and I spent about 2 1/2 hours there and then we headed out on the long drive home. This time, when we drove away, Shayna looked content and happy with her family as we left. I hope we’ll get a chance to visit again sometime, but, if not, I’m satisfied knowing I couldn’t have created a better family for her if I had tried. It’s a perfect match.

Shay and Snick on a walkShayna, Snickers, and me

snickers June 1, 2009

a dog’s day or how i spend my day while mom works

hi peeples,

snickers here!

it has been awhile since i dictated a post for the blog (although i am always talking away over on twitter). i asked my tweeps recently what i should blog about and friend-to-all-nyc-shibas, @roxyturtle, asked "what do you do while Mom is gone for the day? Does your Mom do anything to give you activities while you’re a latchkey dog?"

i can say that in my five short years i have spent my days in many many ways! here is the bulleted version (because i dont really dictate in full sentences anyway, much less paragraphs).

  • when i came to live with mom and girl, i was only 9 or 10 weeks old. mom worked 9am to 5pm back then. for the first couple months, she walked home at lunch to play with me and walk me
  • i had lots of energy and wanted to chew EVERYTHING, so mom started taking me to doggy daycare three days a week. this helped me a lot in being a good boy at home!
  • as i got older, mom tapered off the daycare time, but then i got a dog walker who came to spend time with me every day! i haz had the best dog walkers – first bernard and then trent
  • all the time from puppyhood till now mom tries to take me for long walkies in the morning before she leaves me. this is very important because then i am happy and ready for a nap when she goes!!!
  • mom and girl adopted my sister secret and then i had company at home ALL THE TIME. i cannot recommend this more highly. all you doggies convince your peeples to get you a doggy pal. really! go do it right now
  • mom tapered the dog walking down to a couple days a week after secret came. (she says something about daycare and dog walkers being ‘spensive if you do it too much… i dunno about that)
  • my sister secret moved to florida for a year and i was back to being alone all day, so moms started taking me to daycare again when trent wasnt coming over
  • then we started fostering for NYC Shiba Rescue! that was the best cz it meant i had a pal at home again. trent still came two days a week, but no daycare for me when i had a foster girl to watch over
  • then the best thing ever happened… mom quit her job and we moved to indiana. not only was she home all day but sis and girl came there from florida so we were all together again. i spent my days lounging around with mom and sis, playing in the big back yard, and then we got foster pup murphy to play with too! having mom home all the time was really pretty great
  • but then me and mom moved back to east. i am very happy to be home again, but the worst thing happened when we first got here. moms new job is ten hours a day and she left me all alone all day. sis wasnt here. no daycare. no dog walker. (cz we are in a new town.) i was so sad. when mom would come home from work, i would FREAK OUT so she would know how much i missed her and how lonelies i was all day. i was a very good boy though. i did not chew anything or do anything i shouldnt
  • luckily sis and girl got here a few weeks later so then i got to spend all my day with sis and girl while mom worked. yay!
  • Duck buried under mom's pilliowbut, wouldnt you know it, now girl is gone for the summer! mom and girl were really looking out for me and sis though. normally sis goes everywhere with girl, but this year sis stayed here with me and mom. mom is gone to work 10 hours per day but i have sis here and we keep each other company
  • mom knows leaving us here alone all day is not the greatest but i am five years old now and sis is almost nine so we are good dogs and able to hang out without getting in any trouble

so, what you think? i think girl needs to come home from summer fun soon so me and sis have more company and get our afternoon walkies back! i have mostly been good but friday i did something funny to make mom laugh and show her i dont just lie around all day. i buried my toy duck in her bed. i used to do stuff like that a lot when i was younger. funny, right?

so, mostly i play with toys, nap, shed on the couch, chew the bones that mom leaves for me, and play with my sister when i am home alone. that is how i spend my day @roxyturtle!

mom wants me to add from her the following:

  • A tired dog is a good dog, especially when they are young. Don’t leave your dog at home alone without vigorous physical and mental exercise first!
  • Bored dogs get into trouble. That’s your fault, not theirs! Give them toys. Break up the day with a dog walker! Spring for doggy daycare once or twice a week. Get your dog a friend!

Jenna Gates April 25, 2009

Definitely an Urban Pup

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

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

Snick and the City

Snick and the City

Jenna Gates April 18, 2009

Playdate With Penny

Snickers and I fostered little Penny in the summer of 2008. She was a great little Shiba girl who got off to a bad start (her original owner didn’t train her, give her any boundaries or instill any self-confidence in her). Our relationship with Penny was a little rocky for the first week or two when she came to live with us. She was a fast learner and a sweet girl at heart though and we really fell for her by the time she was adopted.

Penny found a wonderful home through NYC Shiba Rescue and has really blossomed in the nine months since we last saw her. Snickers and I were luck enough to have a playdate with her today. It was GREAT to see her again. Here are a few pics.

Penny at the dog parkPenny and Snickers at the dog parkPenny and Snickers playdate at the dog park

If you’re interested, you can read more about Penny’s history on NYCSR’s website.

Jenna Gates March 30, 2009

Dealing with Puppy Biting and Chewing

This morning one of Snick’s "anipals" (that’s what the animals on Twitter call themselves), who also happens to be a Shiba puppy, asked:

@Snick_the_Dog what did your parents do to help you get over your nipping and teething phase?

This was not a question that Snickers or I could answer in 140 characters or less (not to mention that I was at work and Snickers doesn’t actually know how to type without my help). I knew I’d answered this question before, so I searched both blogs, but I couldn’t find it. Then I searched my GMail. Ah ha! Luckily for me, this blog entry pretty much wrote itself. 🙂

My response:
Snickers, Shiba Inu, chewing a stickShiba puppies are SO MOUTHY. More so even than most pups. Snickers drove me insane as a puppy. He played so rough with my daughter – practically chewing on her – that she almost started to hate him for awhile there. It was a bad scene. To make it worse, when we weren’t there for him to chew on, he chewed on the walls, the baby gates, his toy box, the furniture, etc…

Luckily, he didn’t bite ME much. When he did, I gently grabbed his muzzle or the scruff of his neck, gave him a little (very little) shake and told him no (very firmly). That didn’t work for my daughter though, because he didn’t respect her enough to listen to her correction. We had to come up with a way for an "equal" to stop him; he thought of her like a littermate, so our solution was for her to act like one! Whenever he bit her, 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 had totally stopped biting her in about a week.

Unfortunately, the teething was much harder to deal with. The only real solution – especially when we weren’t home – was to protect everything that we could and give him plenty of safe things to chew on. If he chewed up something important to us, that was our fault for leaving it where he could reach it. (The crate is your friend when you can’t be there to supervise.)

One good aspect about the chewing… it really calmed him down. I found LOTS of good things for him to chew on – bones, tendons, rawhide – and he would chew them like a baby uses a pacifier. Whenever he needed to calm down, he chewed! He still does actually. 🙂

Jenna Gates March 17, 2009

see snickers run. run snickers run!

Last week while I was away for three days, Snickers stayed with my friend Kathy and was a bit mopey and worried. When I took him back this Monday though he was SOOOO excited to be there. Apparently, now that he’s sure I’ll be back in a few days, he’s having a great time. Here’s a video Kathy shot of him playing in her backyard this afternoon.

snickers March 17, 2009

Quick Status Update From Snickers

hello everybody. mom is worried that you will think we abandoned our website. we did sort of but not forever. me and mom moved again. we moved to a place near the home where we always lived before we moved to the country!!! we are really happy about that but mom has been too busy to update our website and tell all you peeple about it.

see, mom went to nyc to visit some big dog show (without me! i know, can you believe it?). when she came back to the country, she said we were moving again. we moved into a new apartment with sidewalks and stairs and everything sort of like our old apartment but in a different neighborhood. a few days ago we went back to our old ‘hood to visit and i had so much fun!!! i am really a city dog at heart. i was kinda bored living in the country.

so, that is the scoop peeples. we will be back to updating things again soon. in the meantime, i talk a lot on twitter, so you can keep up with me there. i have better luck mind-controlling mom (and my auntie kat and sometimes my girl T) to tweet for me than i do getting mom to type out whole blog entries. you can follow me on twitter here.

kisses,
snickers

Jenna Gates January 15, 2009

Playing in the Snow

Back home, playing in the snow meant bundling up; leashing up the dogs; tromping down four flights of stairs; and navigating slick, SALTED sidewalks (unless it was a blizzardy and then we could walk in the street) until we found a good spot to play. If we got to the dog run in time, we could play off leash. If the dog run snow was already “played out” we’d have to find another spot and that usually meant playing with leashes on.

NOT TODAY! 😛

My city dog Snickers, his sister Secret (who actually started off in the country before we adopted her) and our foster boy Murphy got their first real snow here today. We went out a few times to play. A FEW TIMES. Because, really, all I have to do is pull on some clothes and open the door and we’re out there with 1 1/2 acres of fresh snow to play in. Wheeeeee!









Jenna Gates December 30, 2008

Snickers Loves His “Grandparents”

I will get back to regular blogging after the holidays, I swear. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Snickers sleeping on the couch between my parents while they were here for Christmas.

Snickers napping on the couch between his grandparents.

I have a better photo that shows that my mom is passed out asleep too, but she would kill me if I posted it. hee hee

Jenna Gates December 6, 2008

He’s a Busy Doggy: Snick’s New Job

I’ve fallen behind on my regular pace of posting for Jenna & Snickers (.com). It’s partly the holidays (don’t we all love to blame stuff on those?!?). Plus, Snick and I have just been busy!

Wednesday, we went to the Crossroads Easter Seals Adult Day Program to meet the volunteer coordinator and visit with their clients. Before we left NYC, Snick visited with developmentally challenged elementary children. I was so happy with the way Snickers read the children at the school that I looked for just the right new job for him here in Indiana. I think I’ve found it… we’ll be visiting with adults with a wide range of disabilities. This is going to be a challenging and rewarding job for us.

Snickers is incredibly empathetic with kids and will match his actions to what they need. If a child is afraid of him, he’ll move slowly or even lie down and wait for them to approach him. (He actually shows them the whole range of calming signals – turning his head and body, yawning, lying down.) He LOVES kids and will play with them as boisterously as they want and loves to kiss faces, but he’s always gentle. Most dogs know children are different though, so I wondered how his skills would translate to working with special adults.

Wednesday was an intro visit, so the Easter Seals people could meet us and Snick could get a feel for the facility. We were probably only there an hour and only about half of that was spent with the clients. (They aren’t really patients; it is basically adult day care for people with disabilities who can’t stay home while their peeps are at work.)

Snickers didn’t let me down. I could see him thinking and working on figuring things out. The clients’ mental and physical abilities were extremely varied, so I think sorting it out was difficult for him. He did really well though. He took it easy. He said hello to almost everyone I asked him to. (There was one person, who said she wanted to pet him, but he didn’t believe it. He kept turning his head, so he must have sensed she was nervous.) He licked the hands of the people who were comfortable with him. He kissed up to the employees who were making snacks. 🙂

There is one issue I have to work on with him. At least half of the people we talked with were in wheel chairs and were not physically able to lean down to pet him, so I had to pick him up to their level. Those of you who know Shibas, know that they don’t typically enjoy being picked up! He tolerated it, but he clearly liked it less and less each time. He knows a command I call “perch” which basically means to stand with his front feet on whatever I point to. He was totally comfortable with the wheel chairs in general, except that he didn’t want to “perch” on them (probably because he’d seen some of them moving). I need to avoid picking him up much because it will shorten the amount of time we have for visits. Visits like this are hard work for him as it is, so I don’t want to make it harder. I’m going to work with having him perch on all different types of objects and surfaces. I’m also going to take cheese next time we go and reward him each time he perches for petting. 🙂

So, that’s part of what we’ve been up to. I think we’ll have some good visits there. I’ll certainly post more about in the future.

snickers November 27, 2008

Fifth Birthday and Cake!

Hi all,

today was my fifth birthday. mom made a big deal of it. she said something about five being special. also, there’s thing day called Thanksgiving where the people eat together. the day I was born was Thanksgiving and this year it was Thanksgiving again. (I have no idea why it isn’t that way every year, so don’t ask me.) anyway, after all the people ate – and I had some of that, don’t worry – seeky and I got to eat a special kind of cake, just for us! I never had a cake of my own before. the top tasted like peanut butter and it was really yummy. mom was ridiculous and took pictures of us eating. she added them here at the bottom.

when your dog has a special birthday, think about treating them with doggy birthday cake. it was really yummy!

luv,
Snickers

I am being teased with a peanut butter birthday cake.
Birthday TEASE
  Why is she still making me just look at it?
Cake PLEASE?
  This peanut butter icing is delicious!
Mmmm, peanut butter!
 
Mom made me share with Secret.
Sharing w/Seeky
    I cleaned my plate.
Almost done

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 October 14, 2008

A Post Purely for Fun

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

Snickers and Sachi waiting for the rest of the group to arrive

Takara cozying up to Snickers before the hike

Takara cozying up to Snickers before the hike

Snickers had SUCH a good time on the hike!

Snickers had SUCH a good time on the hike!

Snickers and Koda hiking together.

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.

This is the full hiking crew, including "Honorary Shiba (aka Poodle)" Texas. From left to right: Texas, Takara, Snickers, Koda and Sachi.

Jenna Gates September 6, 2008

Doggy Etiquette, Midwest Style

Downtown Dog Walk meetup logoSnickers 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 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!

Jenna Gates August 22, 2008

Indiana Has Black Squirrels

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

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

cute black squirrel in Indiana park

Jenna Gates June 21, 2008

Snick’s School Visits

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

SnickersI 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.

Jenna Gates May 2, 2008

Too Much Morning Excitement

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

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

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

I learned two things:

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

Jenna Gates April 27, 2008

Proud of Snickers

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. 🙂

Jenna Gates December 10, 2007

Because They Are So Cute Together

I have to show you these photos of Snick and Shay. They love each other!

Snickers and Shaynablack and tan Shiba Inu
red sesame Shiba InuShiba Love

Besides, you can’t go wrong with cute doggy pictures when you have nothing to blog about. 😉

Jenna Gates October 29, 2007

No More Crate for Shayna

I was crating Shayna at night and whenever I wasn’t home until she and Snick got to know each other better (and stopped fighting). Friday night, I let her sleep outside the crate for the first time. After I went to bed, Snick joined me as usual and a few minutes later Shayna hopped up on the bed too. I thought Snick might chase her off, but he didn’t. She’s done well… she stays on the opposite side of the bed from Snick and he doesn’t seem to mind. I had to go out a couple times without them today so I left them alone in the apartment with her out of her crate and that went well too. So, tomorrow, I’ll leave her out all day when I go to work. I think they’re fine. I took her bed out of her crate and put it by Snick’s (because she was stealing his bed when she wasn’t crated), so now they’re happily curled up side-by-side in their beds!

Snickers and Shayna asleep side by side

Jenna Gates October 8, 2007

It was an Inu Weekend

Snickers and I pupsat a couple of our buddies – Benno & Lily – this weekend. Snickers and Lily are in LUV. I got a couple quick videos of them playing together tonight.

Having the three of them in the apartment all weekend has been great, although walking them all together is often challenging! There’s a very primitive feel to having 3 Shiba wandering around the place, even in midtown Manhattan!

Jenna Gates September 26, 2007

His Highness the Shiba Inu Ambassador

I have joked for a long time that Snickers is the Shiba Ambassador to NYC because so many people stop me on the street to find out what kind of dog he is. I have talked to people from all over the world about Shiba Inus.

Snick took his ambassadorial duties to the next level a couple weeks ago by deigning to be fawned over by hundreds of people at the AKC’s Responsible Dog Ownership Day in Madison Square Park. He was an incredibly good and patient boy and I couldn’t have been more proud of him. I’m so lucky to be owned by such a great dog.

Lily, Benno & Snickers Snickers and a little girl

To read more about what a successful event this was, please visit NYC Shiba Rescue’s blog.

Jenna Gates July 24, 2007

It Was A Good Pawty!

I’m telling you, Shibas know how to party and it involves a lot of running and a lot of eating. Canine Cocktail Pawty #2 had both and was therefore a big hit. The running is a given when you put a bunch of doggies together in the huge event space at Animal Haven and the doggie eats were DIVINE (according to the masses of dogs surrounding the table anyway) and were provided – as was this photo – by Culinary Crossing.

Snick's Snacks!

Stay tuned. Pawty #3 is already in the works for the fall!

Jenna Gates July 18, 2007

Snick Pic of the Day

One of my meetup members posted some new photos today from our last meetup and this was in them. Ahhhh…. that’s my beautiful boy.

Snick the Dog in Madison Square Park

Jenna Gates May 6, 2007

What’s In A Howl

The only times I have ever heard Snickers howl have been when I’ve left and gone out without him. He’s OK when I leave for work M-F mornings. He’s sort of OK when I leave at other times and T is here. BUT if I leave unexpectedly at any time that I would (should) be with him and T isn’t here to soothe him… he howls. He doesn’t bark, cry, whimper or scream. He howls. It’s pretty spooky because it sounds like a coyote is in the building, not my sweet little pup dog. It’s a long, low, forlorn wolf-like sound. So, why am I telling you this? Because I just ran across this:

We do know, however, that howling keeps packmates together, physically. Because wolves range over vast areas to find food, they are often separated from one another. Of all their calls, howling is the only one that works over great distances. Its low pitch and long duration are well suited for transmission in forest and across tundra, and unique features of each individual’s howl allow wolves to identify each other. Howling is a long distance contact and reunion call; separate a wolf from its pack, and very soon it will begin howling, and howling, and howling…

That makes me want to never, ever leave him again!

Jenna Gates April 14, 2007

Snick’s Shiba Mind Control

Today was a Shiba Day. Snick and I went out this morning and he had a good romp at the dog run and then he sat on the bench with me while I had my coffee. We went to his favorite pet store so he could shop. After a few short hours at home, we headed to a Shiba Meetup at the dog run in Chelsea.

The meetups are almost always a blast, but they’ve become a lot more fun for me in the past few months as I’ve really gotten to know some of the other group members and their dogs. It was gorgeous out today and the dogs had a great time. Snickers got everyone riled up shortly after we got there and then he settled in to survey the crowd from his favorite hilltop perch. Several people commented on "king of the mountain" and "pack leader"" demeanor at the meetups, which I find amusing because one of the guys at our regular dog run calls him the Mayor. He has that attitude everywhere.

I was talking with several people during the course of the meetup about how the meetup group, and then the rescue group, got started and, of course, I blame it all on Snickers. He tells me to do these things for him, so I do. We decided he has some sort of telepathic abilities that he uses for the good of Shibas everywhere. A friend confirmed the mind control theory when she said she had just seen her dog – who tends to be pretty scrappy, especially with other male dogs – happily relinquish a tennis ball to Snick and then back away. Something is up with that!

Snick and I enjoyed a newly finished piece of the Hudson River Park, before stopping at our regular dog run on the way home. We had dinner with Miss ~T~ and Secret, took a nice long nap together and then, of course, we went for another walk! After all the activity, I guess I was too tired to resist the Shiba Mind Control, because Snickers talked me into starting a team for the NYC Shiba Inus to walk in the 2007 Dogswalk for Cancer. Speaking of which, click right on over to mine and Snick’s Dogswalk page and make a little donation to sponsor us if you can.

Edited April 17 to add this video of the meetup we attended.

Jenna Gates February 12, 2007

Baby, Your Ears Are Too Big

So, yesterday I spent the day out in New Jersey (AUGH, THE HORROR) at the Shiba Specialty. I got to meet some great Shiba people and was able to love on some awesome Shibas. I learned so much sitting ringside with Kathi Melton of Bali Hai Kennels, watching the 42 Shibas that were entered. I must have been asking her the dumbest questions… I’ve never even BEEN to a dog show before, but she was great.

When I got home last night, Snickers was soooo happy to see me. He even forgave me for cheating on him with all those other Shibas. But then, with all my new found Shiba knowledge, I looked him in the eyes and I said to my darling dog "Snickers, my dear… your ears are too big!" Luckily, he doesn’t expect me to be Cindy Crawford and I don’t expect him to have a perfect rusty black coat (he’s a little too blue black) or tiny teddy bear ears! He adores me with all my faults and I adore him with his teeny tiny little faults! 🙂

Today, I spent the day at Westminster. I met a few more people and kissed some more dogs. It was absolutely great. I have to say thanks to Kathi, Valerie, and Alex for putting up with my non-expert-Shiba-ness for the two days. I had a great time hanging out with you guys (and Miss ~T~, Snick, and Secret enjoyed meeting you too)!

Jenna Gates January 24, 2007

Whose Bean Bag Is That?

Miss ~T~ has a bean bag in her room. She got it from my folks for Christmas about five years ago. It’s gotten a lot of use -double as much for the 3 years that we’ve had Snickers. The zipper is broken, enough beans have somehow disappeared for it to be about 2/3 it’s original size, the cover is looking sort of worn… you get the idea.

So, a week or so ago, we briefly discussed the idea of getting rid of it. It takes up a lot of room and she doesn’t really use it anymore because she’s always at her computer or playing her guitar. Snickers used to play in it a lot, but not so much. A day or two after T and I had this conversation, she walked into her room and saw this… click for the cuteness.

I guess that ends that discussion.

Jenna Gates January 4, 2007

Wild Thing! (you make my heart sing… )


WOOF! LET’S PLAY!!!

I know, I know, I only posted twice in December. Well, my knee is almost healed, the holidays are over, and I caught up on about half of my past due work this long weekend. I logged into Bloglines today to find over 400 posts that needed reading though (eek), so I’m not QUITE caught up on everything yet. As soon as I can stop to breathe, I promise that I will post.

My sister took lots of great photos (including the one above of Snick) while we were all together for the holidays. I will post the ones of the pups soon.

Jenna Gates November 27, 2006

Snick the Dog is Three

Snickers Then

And Now

He’s all grown up and he’s my "heart dog."

I never would have guessed that the silly, squiggly, mouthy puppy we brought home back in January 2003 would grow up into such a confident, wonderful adult. He is so self-assured and so loving. He’s reserved with most folks outside the pack, but he turns into such a silly boy when he is greeting one of his favored few (human or canine). There is just so much to love about this guy, I could blog about him for years (and probably will) without covering it all.

Happy Birthday Snickers. I love you.

 

 

Jenna Gates October 27, 2006

Certified Good Dog

Snick the DogSnick’s Canine Good Citizen certificate came today. He’s a certified good dog. (Secret, on the other hand is a CDB – canine dumb blonde – but we love her anyway.) Just for fun, here’s a silly picture of Snickers at the dog run a few weeks ago. He had just yawned, I think.

I was thinking today about a couple of my favorite Snickers moments that ended up as blog posts. They were:

  • Snicks, The Valiant Hunter (or something), and
  • Shibas are Fierce

One of these days when I’m not so busy, I’ll go back to blogging about stuff other than just Snickers. Really. 😉

Jenna Gates October 14, 2006

Citizen Snickers

AKC CGC logoSnickers passed his Canine Good Citizen test today. Yay Snickers!!! We went to the My Dog Loves Central Park Country Fair with our NYC Shiba Inu Meetup group today. He was scheduled to take the CGC test on October 24th but they were doing testing in the park and I thought “what the heck! we’ll take it and fail and know what we need to work on.” So we did, and HE PASSED!!!

The one part I thought he might not pass was the “supervised separation” where I have to leave him alone with the evaluator for THREE MINUTES. Yikes! We have a hand signal for “be right back” though, so I told him to sit (so I’d have his attention, but didn’t tell him to stay) and then I told him I’d be right back and walked off where he couldn’t see me. I think I was fretting more than he was for that 3 minutes. The evaluator said he whimpered when I left but not loudly and he didn’t get anxious or pull on the leash or anything, so he passed.

If you want you can see the ten components of the Canine Good Citizen test on the AKC’s website.

Oh, I have to cancel our appointment for the 24th. Hee hee! 🙂

Jenna Gates October 2, 2006

The Introduction

Snickers knew something was up when we left the apartment. He could smell Secret’s kennel in the hallway. He walked so nice with me to Bryant Park, looking up at me at every intersection to make sure I saw how good he was being. When we got to the park, I spotted ~T~ and pointed her out to Snick who made a FAST BEELINE for her across the park. He was most concerned with giving her kisses, but then he wanted to check out Secret. Secret was still a little dazed and confused and mostly ignored Snickers except to shy away from him a couple times. He decided that was no fun and hopped up next to me on a park bench. As soon as T and Secret walked off though, we were on our way after them. He didn’t let them out of his sight!

After a few minutes of wandering the park together, we decided to walk the few blocks west to the dog run. Luckily, Sundays are relatively quiet in my neighborhood, so the sidewalks weren’t too loud or crowded. Both dogs were wonderful on the walk and I gave T some advice on how to navigate the streets, people, traffic, etc. with a dog.

When we got to the run, it was empty, which was probably a good thing. Both dogs dashed in happily off leash. Secret sort of wandered and sniffed and explored a bit. Snickers mostly sat by me. Secret came over and sniffed at him a few times, but now it was his turn to ignore HER. After about a half hour, we put them back on leash and headed home.

When we got to the apartment, Snickers was VERY EXCITED that Secret was coming in. As soon as we got inside, he tried to get her to play, but she wasn’t interested. For the next few hours, she mostly napped in a corner of T’s room while Snickers napped by my feet. We fed them dinner and Secret ate most of hers and then we all went back to the dog run. Secret seemed much more confident about her surroundings this time around and she and Snick even did a little mutual sniffing while they were at the dog run.

One thing we have to work on… Secret can’t manage all the stairs up and down to our apartment. The stairs are ceramic tile, so they’re a little slippery for dogs that aren’t used to them. I’m sure she’ll adjust. She’s slipping and sliding all over the apartment floor right now too… she can’t seem to figure out how to walk on the hardwood. She’ll be ok until something startles her or Snicks bumps her on his way by and then she’s like a little cartoon doggie suddenly running and getting nowhere.

After we got back home, T and Secret went to bed. Secret’s crate is right by T’s bed and Secret went right into it for the night. I didn’t hear a peep out of their room until I woke them up this morning. Snickers seemed totally OK with her being there. He followed his normal routine… stayed by me till I went to bed and then went and slept in T’s room for awhile and then came and got on the bed with me for the rest of the night. He stayed with me till I woke up this morning, like usual. He didn’t seem overly concerned or curious about Secret being in T’s room.

More later… waiting for T to email the pictures to me!

Jenna Gates September 18, 2006

Snick the Model

snicksheadshot.jpg

A few days ago, I referred to a photographer, but gave no detail. Well, the detail is that Snickers got to be a model for a day (unpaid, just for fun) for Urban Hund’s Fall 2006 Collection.

The photographer, Kent Henderson, emailed me a few days ago to say that a picture of Snickers made it into the catalog! hee hee! I don’t know if Snick will be on Urban Hund’s website too, but if so, I’ll link to it when the fall collection goes online. In the meantime, click the pic to the left to see my six favorites from the shoot.

The best part was that we got to keep one of the collar & leash combos and it is really, REALLY nice stuff!

Note: Edited October 24, 2008, to remove link to photo gallery that no longer exists.
Edited August 11, 2013 to remove the link to Urban Hund.

Jenna Gates September 14, 2006

Best Dog Friends

A few weeks ago, Snickers had his first sleep over. He goes to the dog run, he has playdates, he goes to doggie daycare, but this was new. His friend, Bean, spent a whole weekend with us! (Bean’s companions – Beth & Jeff – had to go out of town. We were dogsitting.)

Snickers and Bean met when they were puppies and they have been fast friends ever since. Bean used to live in our neighborhood, but he moved to Brooklyn, so now we have to coordinate visits. They get so excited to see each other. They had SUCH a good time that weekend. They were both completely exhausted when it was over. We spent a lot of time outdoors and at the dog runs. We also met up with a photographer (more on that later) who took these nice pics of the boys.

Bean and Snick even signed up for their first Agility class together, which started tonight, but unfortunately Bean had to drop out. 🙁 He had a problem with his back about 6 months ago and he’s started limping again when he gets too tired. Class tonight was FUN, but it would have been so much better with our friends Beth and Bean.

Jenna Gates August 3, 2006

He’s Really Quite Small

I guess I forget – because he has such a big personality and heart – but just now I turned the corner into my room and saw Snick sleeping (and shedding) on the corner of my bed and thought “Gee, he’s really quite small.” So, I went over and gave him hugs and snuggles and kisses just for being so cute and wonderful. Of course, that woke him up and put an end to my leisurely afternoon (because now he wants to eat, play, walk, something.)

Jenna Gates June 8, 2006

Snickers is Afraid of Flying Insects

The evening of the May 24th – Snickers was acting weird at the dog run – breathing fast, staying right next to me. He was stung by a bee at the run last summer and flies made him nervous after that (till it got cold and they went away), but this was a bit extreme.

The morning of the 25th – We were at the dog run and he started looking all around like something was after him and then he started to shiver and shake and whimper and cry. I also noticed him pawing at the sides of his mouth and realized he’s been doing that more and more for the past few weeks. I took a close look and noticed that his bottom lip on both sides of his mouth is red and inflamed. The right side looked like he’d scratched some flesh away.

The evening of the 25th – Around 5pm, T called from home and said he was freaking out, crying and shaking and looking all around. I went home and he was so intent on whatever he was imagining that I couldn’t even get his attention. Eventually he calmed down and I took him for a walk. He acted weird again at the run after our walk and we went home.

The morning of the 26th – He was sleeping more soundly than I’ve ever seen him sleep. He didn’t wake up when I petted him or even when I moved his head with my hand. His ear finally twitched a bit when I said his name (rather desperately, I’m sure, as I thought at that point that he might have curled up and died during the night).

Saturday, the 27th – Snicks went to the vet. She did a full exam and drew blood and the tech went with me to walk him outside and get a pee sample. She prescribed Clavamox (antibiotic) for his lips, along with Chlorhexadine solution to clean his lips with once a day. She also prescribed Tramadol, which is a mild sedative and pain killer. He acts freaky sometimes with sedatives, but she said this is mild and also if there is something bothering him the pain killer part will help also.

Her initial ideas were:
– Focal seizures,
– Internal discomfort of an unknown source,
– Thyroid problems, or, simply
– FEAR.

Tuesday evening the 30th – After a long discussion with the vet Tuesday evening, I am treating Snickers’ issues as fear-based, not physical. All his test results came back normal. There is still the possibility that it could be focal seizures, but the vet and I both think from the timing of the incidents that he is having panic attacks.

I treated his infected, chapped lips (from drooling, then scratching) and they’ve slowly gotten better. We only stay at the dog run briefly now. If he starts to stress out about the flies (or imagined flies), we go for a walk instead. If he freaks out at home, I give him the Tramadol. I’ve only had to do that twice. I’m going to order Rescue Remedy to use instead.

It’s going to be a long summer…

Jenna Gates May 18, 2006

Snicks should be an Amabassador

I talk to so many people since I got Snickers. (Mostly because tourists are more likely to ask someone with a dog for directions, but also kids that want to know if they can “pet the puppy” and even the random Shiba owner or enthusiast that we run into.)

Tonight, as Snick sat in one of his favorite people watching spots, I had a conversation with a nice Japanese lady. She came over to say hello to Snick. She was familiar with Shibas, but when I asked if she’d ever had one, it turned out that she has a Labrador Retriever in Japan. I thought it was sort of nifty that she has a dog from North America in Asia and I have a dog from Asia in North America.

That’s all… I know I’ve been MIA for a couple weeks, but I’ve really had so much going on. I’ll be back. I promise. 🙂

Jenna Gates April 2, 2006

Nothing Short of Forever…

will be long enough for Snickers to be in our lives.

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Jenna Gates February 13, 2006

Snicks, The Valiant Hunter (or something)

Tonight, Snickers got to do something only country dogs usually get to do. He trotted proudly home with a prize held carefully between his teeth.

He didn’t exactly hunt this down and kill it, but he certainly proved himself to be capable of procurring dinner.

We were outside for our bedtime walk. As we were walking north on 8th Ave we started to pass two ladies carrying identical shopping bags. These weren’t just any shopping bags though; they each had a big picture of a DOG on the side. As Snick came along the lady in front, he slowed down and looked at her bag. Then he slowed down some more until the 2nd lady came up beside him and he looked her bag. Sped up to 1st lady. Sniffed bag. Slowed down to 2nd lady. Sniffed. Sped up to 1st lady and nudged. Of course, by this time they had slowed down and were going “oh, how cute! he’s looking at them!” The next thing I knew, Snicks must have sent out some subliminal messages, because one of them was searching around in her doggie bag for something.

I almost protested but it was so cute, I had to let it play out. She handed him a BONE (which I later learned was a Pedigree Dentabone). He put it down on the sidewalk to check it out and the ladies walked on. He then picked it up and practically DRAGGED me several blocks home, carrying it all the way. We passed the ladies on the way; as we went by, I heard “oh, look, he’s carrying it!”

So, to make a long story at least marginally shorter, we got to our building, I took off his leash and he trotted up to the fifth floor, bone in mouth and proceeded to immediately polish off half of it.

I didn’t get a chance to say thank you to the nice doggie bag toting ladies, but I wish I had. They created a memorable moment for me and made Snick VERY happy.

Jenna Gates February 4, 2006

Who Says Shibas Are Evil???

Shibas? Evil? Never!

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Um, well… maybe! Talk about evil eyes!

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(These were taken back in October when Snick’s buddy Toshi was over to play again. No Shibas were actually harmed during this playdate.)

Jenna Gates February 3, 2006

Snick’s Favorite Toy

OK, I know I should be sleeping now, but I’m goofing around with the blog instead. What’s it to you? Sheesh!

This was just a few days ago. This is clearly Snickers’ favorite toy. I just HAD to share this. He was furiously playing with his hedgehog one day and then basically just collapsed into a nap with it.

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And here is Snickers enjoying the brand new conference room at my job last Friday. (I guess this is proof that he’s a good boy. The company just completely renovated and remodeled the entire office space and no one hesitated to let the S Dog continue coming in on Fridays.)

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Jenna Gates January 27, 2006

What A Good Boy

I am so impressed with my good dog. After reading Bones Would Rain from the Sky and then reading some other training booklets by the same author, I have been working on teaching Snickers more self control. He’s at work with me today and it is lunchtime. One of my co-workers (who IS a dog person) won’t tolerate Snick being in his office while he eats lunch. Each time I call Snick away, he will check in and then run back over there. Today, I called Snick to me and put him in a down/stay right next to my desk. He stayed there for 10 minutes without budging. (Then I released him, because I didn’t want to push my luck and ask for more than he’s capable of quite yet.)

What a good boy!!!

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Jenna Gates January 22, 2006

Part of the Family

I know my Shiba readers will understand. He’s not spoiled. He’s just, um, well loved.

First, this is Snick enjoying the king size Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Bed while we were away for the holidays.

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Second, this is the recipe for Snick’s food. I’m not exactly sure what it says about me that the ONLY time I cook is when I prepare Snick’s food.

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Jenna Gates January 17, 2006

funny doggie moment

Snick just walked out of the bathroom with a piece of tissue stuck to one paw. I swear, I am not making this up.

Jenna Gates January 16, 2006

Shiba Scream

aka How To Stop Traffic in NYC

Snick and I just went for a long bedtime walk. We walked and walked and walked. He rounded the corner onto a street he walks on almost every day. There was still some snow there. He started sniffing around and checking it out. All the sudden he started to run back the other way. Then he abruptly stopped, sat, lifted a paw, and started to SCREAM.

Have you ever heard the Shiba Scream? No? Well, if you live in my neighborhood and you thought you just heard a dog get hit by a car, that was Snickers. With cold salt in his paw apparently.

I knelt down and held him. And he screamed. I put my hand around his paw. And he screamed. I started to gently rub it to see if I could get whatever was in there LOOSE. And he screamed. Less. Finally he whimpered and then he stopped.

Meanwhile a group of pedestrians stopped in their tracks across the avenue. People stared out of two cars stopped at the intersection. A lady walked over and asked if he was ok and then said she’d thought I was beating him (from the sound) until she saw I was holding him. A Con Ed crew stopped working and a woman on the fifth floor of the building across the street opened her window and was calling out something about “dog” and “hurt” and “?”.

And, yes, I had to carry him most of the way home.

Jenna Gates December 19, 2005

“Small Dog”

Inu means “dog” in Japanese. I’ve known that for years. Akita Inu, Shiba Inu, etc. What I didn’t know until my mini me and I started researching breeds was that an obsolete meaning of Shiba in Japanese is “small.”

When I mentioned to a friend of mine last summer that Shiba Inu means Small Dog, she found it quite funny that when someone asks me “what kind of dog is that?” my answer is “he’s a small dog.”

Now, whenever I answer the question, a strange “Who’s On First”-type script plays in my head, especially if the person asking is Japanese.

Well Meaning Stranger: What kind of dog is he?
Me: He’s a small dog.
WMS: He’s not so small!
Me: No, he’s not. He’s actually a little larger than the small dog standard. He’s 27 pounds.
WMS: There’s a small dog standard?
Me: Of course. He’s a pure bred small dog.
WMS: Oh! What breed of small dog is he?
Me: He’s a small dog.

Or, something like that anyway. 🙂

Jenna Gates December 7, 2005

Note from the (Semi-) Self Banished

I still haven’t caught up on my work. I seem to have the developer’s version of writer’s block. Which sucks. A lot. <sigh>

Anyway, I just had to catch up on reading a few of my favorite blogs today. I am not going to let myself post (this doesn’t count!), so in the meantime, here is a picture of Snickers politely reminding me moments ago that I can’t go to bed until I cook his next few days worth of food.

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I think he may have meant “can we go for another walk before bed tonight?” but it did, indeed, remind me to cook his food. He’ll just have to wait till tomorrow morning for that next walk. (Don’t worry, he spent 1 1/2 hours at the dog run a few hours ago.)

Spoiled dog. 😛

Jenna Gates November 28, 2005

by the time I get to work each morning

  • I have been awake for 3 hours.
  • I’ve had breakfast with my daughter.
  • I’ve had my first cup of coffee.
  • I’ve probably dropped off, or picked up, my laundry or my dry cleaning.
  • I’ve spent time with at least two of my good friends.
  • I have walked 1.5 miles.
  • I’m usually hungry for my second breakfast already.

If we were still sans dog, this list would look like this…

  • I’ve been awake for 45 minutes.
  • I’ve glimpsed my daughter in passing as I stumbled into the shower.
  • I have walked .7 miles.
  • I’ve incoherently purchased my breakfast and coffee on the way to the office.

I think I’m better off with the dog. Although I’m sure similar lists (say, about house cleaning or free time) might seem to slant the other way. 🙂

Jenna Gates November 27, 2005

Happy 2nd Birthday to Snickers

Today is Snick Dog’s Birthday! He’s TWO. 🙂

Jenna Gates November 18, 2005

Dogs and Days of the Week

My dog – Snick the Dog – He knows the days of the week. I don’t mean that I think he knows the names of the days, but he knows the pattern of the week and he keeps track. He knows that for 4 days I go to work and leave him home, for 1 day he goes to work with me, and then for 2 days I generally stay home and hang out with him.

On normal Friday mornings, when we leave the dog run, he trots purposefully past the turn to our apartment and heads towards my office. I have always attributed his certainty of our destination to the fact that I take my laptop/backpack to the run with me on Fridays and that’s his cue that he’s going with me. However, when I was on jury duty a few weeks back, I did NOT have my backpack with me when we left the run on Friday and as I turned towards the apartment to take him home, he pulled toward the office! I told him “no, we’re going home. this way,” and he looked up at me like “nnooooo…. I go with you on Fridays!”

I convinced myself afterwards that it was probably my imagination. Or a coincidence. Nope. Nada. I was wrong about that. This morning he did it again.

We had clients coming in to the office today, so I had to leave him home. Walking home from the run today, when we got to the corner and I turned for home, he started PULLING and trying to drag me east towards work! We went upstairs and as I was changing into my work clothes and preparing to leave, he didn’t lie down and wait for his “goodbye treats” like normal. He kept watching me expectantly, like I was going to realize I had my days mixed up, grab his leash and take him back out with me! He knew today was the day he goes to work.

The good news though is that my mini me came home from a four day school trip today and he was there to greet her. I bet he was ssoooo excited to see her!

Jenna Gates November 14, 2005

Shibas are Fierce

Lunch Break Blogging: It is almost 2:00 PM and I have spent my entire day so far working on one friggin computer that suddenly decided to stop booting up. I’ve had a VP in Investment Banking computerless all day and it looks like I’m going to have to reformat c:. <sigh> I’m running some last ditch effort diagnostics right now while I eat a hamburger for lunch.

I am catching up on a little blog-reading while I eat and test and a blog post about Dakota, a Shiba puppy in Pennsylvania, reminded me of Snickers protecting me from the boogieman on Halloween.

We were walking home from the dog run around 10:00’ish. 39th St was pretty empty and these three (probably teenagers) guys in costume were coming towards us, yelling at each other, throwing things, goofing off, doing the things people do when they feel safe behind masks. Snickers was immediately wary of them when he saw them coming. One of them realized it and came up to us on the sidewalk. He was wearing all black and a Scream mask. Snickers stopped and crouched into an attack posture and all his hackles went up. The guy made a growling noise at Snickers who then burst into warning barks – roo roo roo, roo roo, roo roo roo. I couldn’t help but laugh at my fierce little dog protecting me from the Hobgoblin on the street.

Seriously though, Shibas bond VERY strongly with their owners and I can imagine Snickers doing just about anything if he thought I was in danger. He gets into the occasional fight at the dog run (when he thinks another dog has stepped out of line) and he’s a determined little thing, all muscle and teeth. Someone told me once he was like a wolverine. I hope I never have to find out if he’d defend me against a person, but I bet he would.

Jenna Gates October 8, 2005

Double Trouble!!!

It’s raining today, so Snick has his buddy Toshi over to play. Watching them race maniacally around my apartment reminded me that I never posted pictures from the last time Toshi came over. So… with no further ado, my favorite pair of Double Trouble Shibas.

 
 

Jenna Gates October 4, 2005

Working Like a Dog

OK, this is a quick post from work (BAD ME), but I just could NOT help myself.

Snick comes to work with me almost every Friday. Since half the office was out for Rosh Hashana today, he got to come for an extra day this week! I keep a fleece mat in my desk and unroll it for him when he’s here. He’s so cute snuggled up napping under my desk, that I had to take his picture. (Although, I only had my phone to take it with, so isn’t very good.)

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Jenna Gates September 24, 2005

Snick The Puppy :)

I couldn’t help myself. This is one of Snick’s puppy pictures that the breeder sent us when he was just a teeny baby.

And THIS was a week or two after we brought him home.

Jenna Gates September 14, 2005

A Well Trained Shiba is…

… a FAT SHIBA???

All the expert advice you read about Shibas will say that they are very smart, but very stubborn, hard to train, and never completely reliable.

Well, Snick is pretty well trained for a Shiba and he can be as stubborn as me. But he’s also fat. Why? Because Shiba Inus are extremely food driven. Someone asked me months and months ago "Isn’t it cheating if you have treats in your pockets all the time?" I said "If he slips his leash, I call him away from running into the street and he comes, does it matter that he came because I have treats in my pocket?" Seriously. Think about that for a minute.

Snick got fat almost immediately after he was neutered (14 months of age). I thought it was just a combination of the hormone change and his lower activity level from growing up. Well, it was – somewhat. I put him on a diet and cut his treats in half (half size, not half as often). He lost weight and looked great. Just recently though, he started getting fat again and it dawned on me… T and I are in the process of teaching him a new command! (New command, more treats, more weight. DUH!)

This weekend, I met a Shiba and her owner in my neighborhood (unusual, really – I know most the dogs in my ‘hood already) and the first thing her owner asked me was "is he really treat motivated?" I said "YES, can’t you TELL?" LOL

So, to summarize, Snick’s very well trained for a Shiba. And it SHOWS. 🙂

Jenna Gates August 13, 2005

It Was Hot Outside

Since it was so BRUTALLY hot when Snick and I went out this morning, he decided to spend the rest of his day like this…

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Jenna Gates August 3, 2005

a PS to the Snickers Kicker post

Everyone asks why I didn’t kick the guy back. I HAD TO CHECK ON SNICKERS. By the time I knew he was OK (perfectly fine, just a bit befuddled), the jerk was almost a block away.

Besides, all that really mattered to me was taking Snick home and giving him lots of extra snuggly love.

Jenna Gates July 31, 2005

Yet Another Reason to Hate Tourists

Who goes to someone else’s city and kicks their dog??? Apparently, American tourists do.
[Read more…]

Jenna Gates July 30, 2005

My Daughter Named Him

Shibas are such regal little dogs and they usually have nice, exotic sounding names. One of Snick’s Shiba friends is named Toshi and another is named Kaleo. People (well, adults at least) look at me a little sideways when they ask his name and I tell them "Snickers."

But what can I do? T and a committee of her friends picked his name. I suppose I had veto power, but who can veto the name a 10 year old picks for her first puppy?!?

His registered name is actually Kawakirei BNT Sweet ‘N Nutty. Of course, I’m not really sure if that’s better or worse. 🙂

Here’s his brother. He’s handsome too, isn’t he?

Jenna Gates July 24, 2005

A Weekend Gone to the Dogs

I was at Snickers’ girlfriend’s apartment early this afternoon saying (to her owner, not to her) how much work I need to get done this weekend and as I was saying it I realized that my entire weekend so far has been about the dog… doing stuff for and with the dog.

Yesterday, Snick and I left home at 10:30 AM. We ran errands, we went to the dog run, we went to the pet store, we dropped stuff off at home, and then we went to Brooklyn to see his best friend. Yes, his best friend Bean lives in Brooklyn now. Beth, Jeff, and Bean moved out of our neighborhood about a month ago. Bean and Snickers were SO EXCITED to see each other yesterday. I should have taken my camera. I was extremely jealous of how HUGE their apartment is. People in Brooklyn have a lot of space! We went to Fort Greene Park and hung out under a big shade tree. When Snick and I got back to Hell’s Kitchen, we went back to the dog run and then we were finally home around 7:30 PM.

Today, we went to the dog run and then to his girlfriend’s apartment. This afternoon, we’re walking to the dog park at Chelsea Piers with Snick’s friend Toshi (another black and tan Shiba; I’ll take pictures). Then tonight at 8:30 his potential new dog walker is coming by to visit!

This dog has a more active social life than I do. (Maybe I should do something about that.)

Jenna Gates June 1, 2005

Another Post About the Dog

It’s not like I have nothing else to say or talk about. I have a fairly interesting life… at least I think maybe I do. The dog has a way of getting me involved with people I wouldn’t otherwise know or spend time with it. It has turned out to be a GREAT side effect of having him.

A few weeks ago, a group of friends took 7 of our dogs to Echo Lake Park in NJ and spent the afternoon hanging out and letting the dogs play. We took a potluck picnic lunch, which was amazing and generally just had a good time.

These pics were taken by my friend lulu, with her Palm.

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Jenna Gates September 15, 2004

Doggie Play Dates???

OK, my DOG has play dates. My daughter didn’t go on play dates… well, not until she was old enough to arrange them herself! I’m not sure how this happened; Snickers and his doggie pals are obviously colluding to influence our behavior. And they say Shibas aren’t social!

The picture on the left is Snickers and his girlfriend Ill Nana. The one on the right is him and his best buddies, Bean. Bean’s mom Beth took that one.

Jenna Gates August 21, 2004

Impromptu Afternoon Nap

Snickers is the best little dog. This first picture is from a couple months ago. I just remembered it and had to post it. He jumps up on the cushions and watches the cars and people on the avenue below our apartment. When he was smaller, he thought they were something small to be chased and eaten. (I think, from the way he barked.) Now he seems to understand that he’s looking at the same place he goes when we go downstairs and walk outside.

This one was today. That’s my daughter he’s curled up against. She has a loft bed, so he sleeps with me at night. When she crashed on the floor cushions for an afternoon nap, it didn’t take him long to realize this was his chance to snuggle up next to her!

 

 

Jenna Gates August 11, 2004

What A Handsome Puppy!

Snickers puppyThis past Saturday, I went to Bryant Park to take some pictures for a website I was working on (Bryant Park Capital). My daughter and her puppy, Snickers, went with me, and I ended up with this great picture of him. At some point later that day, I decided I wasn’t a half-bad photographer (at least for such a cute subject), and today I decided that I needed somewhere to post pictures. So, there you go… now you know why this blog is & here. 🙂

 

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