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?