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I really appreciate that link. Honestly. Squirrel-wise, it looks like I'm headed for better vistas! YES!

I'm not an international student, but I've been living overseas for several years now and am faced with having to move my boyfriend and my dog back to the States. Luckily, neither the boyfriend nor the dog will have residency issues. However, I am spending a lot of money slowboating all the books, CDs, and various other media I have accumulated over the years. It's about $80USD for each 20kg box. The two of us had about a dozen boxes, the last time we moved. Of course, as a future academic, every one of those pieces is like gold to me... they MUST come. I'm donating bags of clothing to charity, selling off furniture and electronic appliances, and wishing I had lived a more monk-like existence. Boyfriend is donating musical instruments to the alcoholic street musician who lives in our apartment building. I hate moving.

Well, Shibas chew. That's one generalization I've found to be true. He's chewed wallpaper, chair legs, pillows, plastic clothespins, air conditioner cords, and once he got into the trash can and swallowed a few mouthfuls of coffee grounds, resulting in a trip to the veterinary emergency room. That was a mistake that will not be repeated, neither on his end nor ours! Since that incident, he's had relatively high separation anxiety. We have to leave decoy paper boxes around the house, because we KNOW he's going to shred SOMETHING to bits and it might as well be something we don't want. Yes, we leave him tons of toys. Yes, I've thought about crate-training him, but my boyfriend refuses. Anyway, we've currently got an excellent schedule where neither of us are away from home for much more than 4 hours at a time. Whether or not that feeds into his separation anxiety (are we home too much?) or helps (he knows we'll be home soon?), I don't know. Short answer, he doesn't do so well on his own. As for kids and other small animals, he actually does quite well with them. Shibas (and Beagles) are supposed to have strong prey drives, and therefore are no good with cats or gerbils or other small pets, but it really depends on the dog and how much exposure/experience they've had. With kids, part of it is teaching kids to be dog-savvy, as well... What animal WOULDN'T get upset if a little child was trying to touch its eyeballs or pull its curly tail?? Sure, an animal MUST be trained to restrain itself, but kids need to be cautioned, as well. I don't plan on having children, so it's not an issue for me, but we've taken our dog to work specifically to exposed him to kids (I teach English to elementary school-aged children). He's proven to be unusually patient with kids and critters, so I'm looking forward to adding a feline member to the family after we move. =) The best thing I've found about my Shiba, which matches generalizations -- he's a very quiet dog, and will only speak when "necessary". He hardly ever barks, seldom whimpers, and even though he hates it when we leave him alone, he doesn't make a peep when we're gone (as far as the neighbors and I know). I've kept him crated on bus rides several hours long, and he didn't make a single sound. I think this contributes to their reputation as good apartment dogs. Sorry I get carried away when posting about my dog. :oops:

My dog fails at walking outside, actually. He pulls like crazy, mainly because he HATES being outside and facing the terror of Taipei city traffic. When I walk him, I give him a gentle but firm tug when he starts pulling, which gets him to slack up for about 1 second before the line is taut again. And if he's pulling so hard that he's cutting off the circulation in my hand, I either walk backwards or make him sit. We do this all the time and he still hasn't learned... I think, partially, because my boyfriend refuses to do the same thing, calling my methods silly and control freakish (whereas I think he looks ridiculous being pulled along by a 12kg dog, but whatever). So we were never consistent about our training. *sigh* We walk our dog on a harness because he was slipping out of every collar we put him in -- he's a shiba inu, and while his neck is stout, his head is sort of cone-shaped, which means he shakes out of collars easily. I was told a Martingale collar, which is like a flexible cloth choke, is good for dogs with borzoi/greyhound/whippet-shaped heads like his. We couldn't find one, but they're supposedly readily available in the States. Instead, we learned to hold his harness and anticipate his movements in such a way that he cannot slip out unless we're really not being careful. I think a harness works just fine. Anyway, I've basically given up on training my dog to "heel" properly. Shibas are skittish by nature, local traffic really IS terrible, and my dog has been traumatized; we'll just see if things change once we move to Berkeley. Anyway, there are some sites with good tips on leash-training in general... Do a Google search for some general tips to get you started, but I'm an advocate of just taking your dog to professional training sessions, at least for a while. Particularly if you're a newish dog owner, and particularly if your dog is a youngish puppy (like, less than a year old). I mean, you attend dog-training classes with your dog, not send your dog to be trained by a professional trainer (I actually felt the need to clarify that, because some people here in Taiwan will spend literally thousands of dollars sending their puppies away to "training camp" and they wonder why the dog won't listen to their commands when they come back, weeks later -- you need to work WITH your dog, not "have them worked on" like a programmable robot). Anyway, that's another reason why having a puppy might eat up more time than you may be able to put in during your first year of grad school... not only do YOU have class, your PUPPY has class too.

Congratulations! U of Chicago was one of two schools that I had my final choices whittled down to. Then I heard that my dog would have to wear booties to protect his paws from sidewalk salt in the winter. That was the deciding factor to ship the mini-family out to the Bay Area! I'm just kidding, of course... there were other more significant factors. But I feel like I can sort of crawl out of hiding and admit that things like pet-friendliness and availability of dog parks played a part, however minor, in my final decision.

My boyfriend and I have a wonderful li'l Shiba Inu, who is now a little over a year old. We'll be moving across the Pacific, bringing him to grad school with us. I'm sure that in times of stress, he'll continue to bring balance and joy to my academic life. Besides, we knew when we got him that he was a lifetime commitment. That said, he was an absolute HELLION as a puppy, and sometimes, he still is. I don't think I could have dealt simultaneously with his puppy-stage and my first year of grad school. I probably wouldn't have had the patience to deal with him alone. Even now, I feel like I have to make special preparations for the dog's sake (yeah, people are adaptable, so the DOG gets first consideration... heh). I want an apartment with yard access, and close enough to campus so that I can run home for quick breaks if, for example, I had class from 1-3, 4-6, and a movie to attend in the evening. Anyway, my dog is older and more trained now, but he still has the temperament of a puppy. And from what everyone says, that does take a few years to outgrow. Kudos for opting for a rescue. You may want to look at some fosters as well, living with folks that will be able to tell you in more detail what a dog's temperament is like. I would think that an "older" dog, like 2 years old or older, might be better for a first-time dog owner who is ALSO doing grad school at the same time. I guess I say that as someone eagerly waiting for my own dog to mellow out a bit. =)

Well, please DO correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like your earning potential will be significantly higher than mine after you obtain your degree. Not having financial support does add quite a bit of pressure though... especially with four courses a semester?? Yowch! That's some tough love there, but sounds like the program is designed to get you rapidly up to speed and out with a degree. And not every department is on top of that game. Good luck.

I didn't make it to Diversity Day either. Instead, I spent the day watching a documentary, getting a very personalized Berkeley tour via car, and recovering from jet lag. ... which leads me to your question. That may very well be university policy, but it certainly wasn't my department's policy. They were generous enough to cover the cost of my entire international ticket, though at first they said they could only cover $300. I think the fact that I told them they were my first choice, that I was making the trip JUST to visit Berkeley so no other schools could offset the ticket, that I bought my ticket ASAP and was basically waving the receipt under their noses (out of excitement, not grubbery, really!), and that it's just a small department (hence, fewer flyouts to fund) contributed to their generous decision. I didn't stay in a hotel, but I don't think my department offered to cover that part. I crashed with a current grad student, an opportunity which I very much appreciated.

I'm e-mailing from the airport, on my way to Berkeley's visitation weekend. Barring a disastrous visit (which is unlikely), that's where I'll be this fall! Thrilled, of course... It's finally starting to sink in.