If you need a fire starter dont forget the dortios
Must be something in the water in New Jersey
NJ town proposes flag ban
NEW JERSEY (MYFOXNY.COM) -
The Hudson County town of West New York is considering a widespread sign regulation that could include banning American flags from being flown.
The Board of Commissioners have a draft ordinance for "General Sign Regulations".
Among the prohibited signs under the proposal would be "Flags, banners and pennants."
This has opponents upset.
"What if I want to hang the American Flag? I can't," Frank Ferriero told politickerNJ. "Man, that's un-American."
The proposed ordinance was first read at a meeting on Wednesday. The final vote on the proposal will be held on Feb. 20 at a 7 p.m. meeting at the municipal building.
The ordinance would also ban signs affixed to the exterior of a window or glass, neon signs framing windows, and window and door signs that exceed 15% of the glass area.
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/20621844/nj-town-proposes-flag-ban
Namaste, Fido: Dog yoga is no stretch for local pet owners
Yet this morning, the subtle reverberations of sitar music warm the mostly vacant gym. Several thin mats — pastel blue, purple, red and pink — break the collegiate blue of the padded floor where four women stretch, breathe and find their neutral spines.
Today, there's a yoga class.
"Start deepening the breath," says teacher Karin Stoetzer, poised atop one mat. "Pushing your stomach out." The students, standing on all fours like their instructor, wait for her soft prompts.
"So you're inhaling cow and exhaling cat," Stoetzer continues, referring to yoga poses that take animals as their inspiration. The cat stands for an acutely arched back. The cow is an opposite move that sinks the stomach, elevating the rear.
Morris K9's head pet trainer Robin Lash teaches a doga class with her border collie, Gabriel. This is not any ordinary yoga class, but a "doga" class. New at Morris K9 Campus in Randolph, the workshop teaches basic human yoga moves, as well as yoga for dogs.
Doga is a practice that's grown in popularity and evolved as yoga has become routine for more and more people — a source of stress relief, exercise and quiet. Dog-focused yoga is just the latest example of how pets are increasingly seen as family members with health needs of their own, constant friends that tag along for any number of activities.
Designed to involve both humans and their canine companions, the Morris County class, held for four weeks in December and again this month, is just the latest iteration of doga.
As the class proceeds, the dogs do not frantically circle the gym or sniff each other. Instead, they are content to just "be." And when the human students begin to stretch their dogs — gently extending back legs to exercise their pets' hip flexors — they are just as calm.
Heading up the class with Stoetzer, a Morristown-based yoga instructor, is Bacchus, her exceptionally Zen 2½-year-old German shepherd, who was once trained as a guide dog. His favorite doga move: the cat stretch.
"Every time I would practice, he would be by me," Stoetzer says. "They feel the calming energy. They wanna be with you."
Stoetzer teaches the class alongside Robin Lash, head pet trainer at Morris K9 Campus, a training and day care facility at which other classes include basic handling, impulse control and off-leash behavior.
Lash's doga partner is Gabriel, her 4-year-old border collie.
While doga methods can vary, this class is half dog yoga, half human yoga. "For me, it's not just a class for old dogs or mellow dogs," she says.
Lash approached Stoetzer when the yoga teacher was attending an obedience class with Bacchus. She'd heard about doga, but wanted to design a class that emphasized a benefit for dogs as much as owners.
"The whole goal for this class is we're not using the dogs as props," she tells students. Other perks are encouraging flexibility and massage, so dogs become less prone to arthritis and ACL injuries as they get older.
Perfect partners
During the morning doga session, a 19-month-old Shetland sheepdog seems to be at one with the floor, black and white tufts falling carelessly over a pink yoga mat. The pile of fluff looks up at its owner, Flo Lewis of Rockaway Township.
"He loves that we're in exercise," says Lewis of her dog, named Justice for All. ("We have Liberty at home.")
If, at any time, dogs don't seem engaged, students are told to just "go with it," and make any detour part of the fun. The facility also hosts a "doggy dancing" workshop, encouraging dogs to attempt "cute, clever" tricks and jump into their owners' arms.
Still, doga shouldn't merely be seen as novelty, says Suzi Teitelman, one of doga's early adopters.
"Yoga originally came from animals," Teitelman says in one of her doga videos. "Monks sitting in the forest, watching animals just be."
Former director of yoga at Crunch Fitness in Manhattan, Teitelman got Coali, her black cocker spaniel, in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.
Downward dog ... over dog. Recognizing the appeal of such a partner method, Teitelman began leading classes at Crunch called "Ruff Yoga," in which people were encouraged to bring their dogs. As the concept took off, she hosted large-scale versions of the class in Washington Square Park and Central Park.
"I think it's neat that so many other people want to teach it," Teitelman says. "It's for the dogs, it really is."
Today, her clients include locals in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., her current home, where she hosts doga classes on the sand. Overseas doga students attend sessions with Teitelman through Skype video chat.
"I never thought it would become this worldwide phenomenon," she says.
Striking a pose
The appeal of combining dogs with such meditative exercise — and yoga poses — isn't lost on Chicago-based photographer Dan Borris, who, since 2009, has made a business of photographing dogs and cats in yoga poses. And has probably heard way too many "downward dog" jokes.
With his "Yoga Dogs" book (Brown Trout Publishing) and calendars — "Yoga Dogs," "Yoga Cats" — Borris manipulates real photos of felines and canines. On the cover of the book, a cross-legged chihuahua's front paws are tucked into the space between its legs, looking something like a dog pretzel. Most of his images position pets in similarly unnatural states.
"They're just funny enough that people really respond to them," he says.
In one photo, a golden retriever enacts yoga's "warrior II" pose, which requires standing with a bent leg pushed forward, both arms pointed outward in a straight line.
In another, an eager-eyed boxer brings its head down and its front half to the floor. For dogs, it is the pose of play. To yogis, the "downward dog."
Duke, one of the dogs of the "Yoga Dogs" calendar by Dan Borris, in a "warrior II" pose. "I've never been to an actual doga class," Borris says. His wife, Alejandra Diaz-Berrio, is an animal rescue advocate who uses a method called Tellington TTouch on dogs during photo shoots.
An alternative healing method created by Linda Tellington-Jones, it's based on the idea that specific lifts and touches can alleviate tension in animals. It is used in Morris K9 Campus' doga classes, Lash.says.
Of course, just as every human doesn't have to find yoga all that appealing, dogs don't have to be natural yogis, either.
At the Randolph doga class, a miniature schnauzer named Tyra Barks gets a little too eager about treats being used as rewards. Staying true to her name, Ms. Barks lets a lone bark loose, penetrating the gym's bubble of quiet.
The dog belongs to Liann Marley Marie, a former gymnast from Carlstadt who owns several other mini schnauzers. She wears a "Downward-facing schnauzer" T-shirt that seems tailor-made for the class. Tyra, she says, embraces doga as "special mommy time" away from her other pups. But the class is a treat for her, too.
"It's so much more fun when you do it with your dog."
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/01/dog_yoga_doga_new_jersey_nj.html
No comments:
Post a Comment