off the leash

Comments

• wliu003

  March 2009 edited November -1

  for me, i probably wouldn't try it. heres my story.. she is extremely responsive when we are at home or in the backyard. this gave me confidence to think about trying it but i never got the chance to do it intentionally. One day the garage was open and she slipped out because a friend who was visiting did not know how to handle her. so she ran from my room to the garage area (where me and my roommate were washing our cars.) when i saw her i panicked and i yelled out her name, my volume may have scared her but she did not come to me. instead she avoided me and ran around the front yard. i could not get her to stop or to come to me. finally i calmed down a bit and keeled down and calmly called her over and she came. i panicked cause it was in the middle of the day traffic was probably at its peak. i was pretty terrified that she would run onto the street but thankfully she didnt. I am glad that she eventually came but this situation probably scared me enough to never try it.
• brandon_w

  March 2009 edited November -1

  If I had a big farm with a lot of land, I'd go off leash with my Shiba. However living in the city with lots of streets and cars, he stays on leash.
  
  The way Shibas were used off leash was not direct recall like a lab. When out hunting they spread out away from the owner and would come back in check in sometimes while out looking for the game. If you have a big dog park you can often watch your Shiba do this. Nemo takes off far away and then every few minutes comes close to check me out and goes back on the hunt. This behavior does not have good results in the city.
• KFontaine04

  March 2009 edited November -1

  I would never feel comfortable letting my Shiba's off leash. Miso has escaped a few times, luckily we were in a under populated area with no busy streets because we had to RUN to catch him, and lucky for us there was a kid with ice cream down the street and Miso stopped to ask for some!
  
  Sake could probably go off leash since she is still a pup, but I see more and more of her hunting drive kicking in so I wouldn't atempt it.
• JessicaRabbit

  March 2009 edited November -1

  As someone with dog reactive dogs, I never have my dogs off leash.
  
  I would also mention that unless you have a large piece of property AND your dogs have a 100% perfect recall (meaning that if your dog is chasing a rabbit, and you call its name it turns around and comes back immediately) it is incredibly irresponsible to have a dog off leash in public settings like parks that are not dog parks. Not to mention illegal in most places.
  
  So unless you are doing competitive obedience (I know we have some members who do, and therefore have to perfect a recall) I would never have your shiba off leash outside of well fenced in areas supervised.
• lindsayt

  March 2009 edited November -1

  I do some Obedience with Beebe. Start going to classes early and go to matches. Expose the dogs to different places so you can build up their ability to ignore distractions and focus on you. Let me tell you, that when the dog is in a familiar environment, they can be great and do off-leash work perfectly. The last few classes have been really amazing, no leash at all (inside a large building).
  However, once we go into a foreign arena or into a new park, FORGET IT! The dog has to have really good focus, and unfortunately, even months/years of full time training isn't going to be able to completely go against the breeds instinct to give chase and be alert to the surroundings instead of to you (at least with my Shibas).
  I agree, that for the vast majority of Shiba owners, on leash is a must when away from safely enclosed areas. Even after Beebe's training, I would still never dream of just letting her cruise next to me down a busy street off leash.
  If anybody happened to read the latest Shiba E-news, there is an article of a jogger type who runs off leash with his Shiba in Arizona, but he began training the dog to heel, sit, down, stay as reliably as possible off leash long before actually going anywhere, and he scouts the area before-hand to make sure there are no other dogs or escape routes/places to disappear.
  I think there was mention of a long training lead being used as tool also, which is a great idea for off-leash training and has helped Beebe to learn to stay within a certain range of me when running off lead.
  Also in the mag, which I found quite interesting, was a breeder in Alaska with his Shibas certified as therapy dogs, also with Agility, Versatility and Obededience titles (on Shibas!).
• lingmorton

  March 2009 edited November -1

  prior to getting our 1st shiba, in the the research we did, it always mentioned about not letting a shiba off a leash would prolly be the best idea.
  and i have never let any of my 3 off the leash, all 3 of mine are very responsive in the hse and yard, but when we are in the dog park, and they get excited (even by a leave blowing by), its like they suddenly become deaf to everything else. lol
  
  but as mentioned, i was watching these videos of Shibas off the leash, but the videos were short so im guessing the shibas were prolly off leash for that short period of time.
  i am just not a risk-taker when it comes to this though, (i have let my lab off the leash a couple of times, and i ended up chasing him 3 blocks )
  too dangerous!!!!
• Kissui

  March 2009 edited November -1

  I will let my Akita off leash oly if the area is entirely closed off. I learned my lesson the almost hard way once. As a puppy I would take her to a school basketball court and let her off leash. I would kick a ball around and she would chase it. We had a really good time with it and we would always be in the far off court. Well, she was growing and I underestimated her speed I guess. One day she decided she didn't want to play that game anymore and she bolted. She ran home and was sitting on my front porch. I am lucky she wasen't hit by a car. Never again.
• tsukitsune

  March 2009 edited November -1

  the shiba (red, named Suki?) in those videos is beyond well trained, though. She's CGC, Agility and Therapy Dog certified. Even then, I wouldn't risk it!
• maxwells

  March 2009 edited November -1

  We do something kind of odd with Ichiro. Here’s the set up…
  
  There is an 8 acre lot directly across the street from our condo building downtown, right along the Chicago River. It’s been vacant for over 20 years and has become the local unofficial dog park. It’s 95% fenced, meaning there are two opening we all use to sneak in and *ahem* trespass with our pups.
  
  About 99% of the people there let their dogs off leash, as if it’s a traditional Chicago Dog park; only exceptions being people who prefer to walk laps around the site and not interact with the free range dogs. We bought a 30 foot cotton leash that everyone calls Ichiro’s kite tail and allow him to drag it without one of his people being attached to the other end.
  
  The thought behind this is there’s no way we can catch our little speed demon, but we CAN catch or step on the 30 foot kite tail! Our trainer recommended this as a way to skirt the leash laws in Chicago… “Honestly officer, he’s on leash and just got away from me for a moment!”
  
  That is as close as I'd ever get to 'off leash'.
• jakkihare

  March 2009 edited November -1

  i let mine off sometimes..depending on where i am..a 10 min drive and we are out in the sticks so no roads etc..plus im a dog walker so all the other dogs destract him...and they just run wild and play ive never found him to dissappear on the hunt for game.... yet!! his call back is really good but if he spies a person in the distance hill walking he will often try get close to them to suss them out and bark constantly at them which is embarrassing because he does NOT listen at this point..ahh!!
• Zinja

  March 2009 edited November -1

  My Akita is great off leash and will ignore most dogs, squirrels, and birds... As long as we keep moving. She is great on parks and beaches too. Well, her first encounter with an armadillo on a hiking trail was interesting. I had to hold her from chasing it.
  
  My Shiba Inu will run away, but he walks very nice loose leash when hiking.
  
  It also depends on the handler. Ninja will listen best to my dad and me.