Shibas Off-leash

Today Winnie's blog has a nice post about shibas being off-leash. Winnie has been so well trained that she is reliable off-leash, despite being a shiba. Still, Winnie's owner won't let her off-leash on city streets in fear of her getting hit by a car.

Our personal experience with our shibas off-leash have been pretty good. They've been off-leash by accident and didn't go anywhere. But we've also had a scary experience with Juju bolting. (Her tendency to do this has dramatically decreased in the past year.) We only  let them off-leash when we are far away from traffic. They are not the type of dogs to stay at our heels. They stay close, but not that close.

Most sites about shibas will tell you that they are NOT reliable off-leash.

Some people never let their shibas off-leash, except in an enclosed area. Personally, I think that's a little sad. It's so nice to see them run free.

What do you think about off-leash?

Off-leash by accident

This afternoon, Yun reported one of his misadventures with the dogs last night. Good thing that I saw both dogs this morning and knew that they were okay before Yun related his tale, otherwise, I wouldn't have been so happy with him.

Yun is responsible for taking the dogs out for their last pee at night. This usually occurs well after I have gone to bed. Last night, Yun tells me that he started to take the dogs out as he usually does. That is, he opened the door to our front landing and proceeded to walk down the outside stairs with the dogs in tow. But as he was heading down the stairs he wondered, "Why are the dogs so far ahead of me?" Suddenly, it dawned on him that he forgot to put their leashes on! Yes, you read that right. He forgot to put their leashes on! What? How in the world did he forget to put their leashes on? I can't comprehend such absent mindedness.

Anyways back to our story. He raced inside, grabbed the leashes, and then grabbed some treats. Once outside again, he realized that both pups didn't go anywhere. They waited patiently for him at the bottom of the stairs. They didn't cross the street. (It's not a busy one, just a residential side street.) They didn't walk down the sidewalk. They didn't wander anywhere! Without further ado, he slipped on their leashes and they all went about their merry way to pee on bushes and stuff.

I was shocked! Shocked that Yun could actually forget the leashes. And shocked that the dogs didn't go anywhere. I'm amazed that they just patiently waited for him at the bottom of the steps.