Great idea, Monica. Let him in only when he’s good. Keep him in short leash to make sure he doesn’t stray, and make sure he doesn’t go marking his territory. If you can train him to put down the toilet seat, that will be a plus.

Even Jenna’s Snickers could have gone squirrel hunting and never returned if it had been different place or different timing. I think it was really lucky that Snickers just turned around and let her catch him, because if there were enough temptations around (squirrels, rabbits, birds, or anything that moves), he could have been gone. Can you say if your shibas love you, they’ll never try to run? — answer is no. I don’t know about other breeds though.

I saw two escaped neighbhor dogs roaming around last year (Retriever and Lab), and because they were slow and food motivated, I was able to coax them with treats and help them return to their owners. If he was a squirrel hunting shiba inu, I probably wouldn’t have been able to catch him.

Every summer the dogs and I go to Camp Unleashed and for 3 days the dogs live off leash. They are content to stay pretty close to the cabin. And this weekend we are off to the Outer Banks where the dogs will run off leash on the beach for a week.

Now let’s talk about keeping men as companion animals. While I currently do not own this type of companion animal, in my opinion, a man should be kept in the yard for the majority of the day and night. Thoughts?

Anyway, I sold my home, and Jinx and I went to live out there. I fully expected Jinx to continue to be an inside dog–and my husband was actually looking forward to having an indoor dog–but Jinx surprised me by actually deciding himself to live principally outdoors. I guess it sort of is in keeping with my boss’s view that he was, at heart, a wild thing and established his own pack, as it were, with the two females (we had our second rescue doxie by the time Jinx and I moved). He started becoming less and less interested in coming inside after playing outside all day, and these days he gets agitated if we keep him inside too long. He wants to be out hunting, or with the girls, or “patroling” the back yard.

But by no means did I or my husband banish him outside. We were both disappointed, actually, since we were hoping for a lap dog.

Really, my relationship with Jinx didn’t change much after that realization. I just stopped thinking that a dog could somehow ofter me emotional support that was equal to what either myself or another human could.

Which came first, Anon, the man or the realization that your dog meant too much to you?

I am sorry, but I just can’t imagine a woman banishing her dog to the yard without a man being involved. I mean, think about it. Why not let the dog continue to sleep in the house? What does that have to do with anything?