Should i keep her on the leash for now?

It would be safer to keep her on leash.

There are also raccoons in our area and my Siberian Husky has chased after a few in our backyard. They are pretty large and quite fierce. I don’t let her tangle with them. Siberian Shania is a very sweet and very brave girl but she often does not know her own limits.

I wonder if you could recommend a name or book that will be benificial for training my 2 yr. old Shiba Inu. I don’t know if I’m doing the wrong things or the right things.

It was the same way with me when I got Shiba Sephy. I learned a lot from other Shiba owners by reading through several Shiba message boards. Now there is the Shiba Inu Forum which seems like a nice community.

Getting a personal trainer also helped me a lot because then, I could get my questions answered in real-time.

In terms of specific dog books my favorite one is Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs by Suzanne Clothier. This is not really a training book though, but more of a dog relationship book.

Training books are a lot more dry and not as interesting to read Two that are pretty good are -

• The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell.
• The Culture Clash: A Revolutionary New Way to Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs by Jean Donaldson.

I also like Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor which is more focused on positive reinforcement techniques in general and how they can be used on both dogs and people. It is a fun read.

I see here someplace that I read, only use retractables after the dog is leash trained. What does that mean? Should I mostly be walking him on a short leash?

My preference is to use a 6 foot regular leash. This gives me good control so that I can teach Shiba not to pull while walking, not to go where he is not supposed to, and not to eat this and that from the ground. I let Sephy walk on a loose leash (i.e. he can go wherever he wants in the 6 foot radius as long as he does not pull). In the beginning, I was a bit more strict and got Sephy to walk closer to me but now he is very good about not pulling so I give him more freedom.

We don’t have a fenced in yard, so he needs to stretch his legs.

Yeah I know what you mean. I didn’t have a yard at all when I first got Sephy and it was tough. Shiba really likes off-leash time where they can do the Shiba zoomies. There are several possibilities -

• I took Sephy to the enclosed dog park really early in the morning so that we get the whole enclosed space to ourselves. I have also taken him during regular hours but supervising Shiba in such a busy environment was extremely difficult and he was picking up bad habits.
• I took Sephy to a nearby SPCA where they have a fenced in space to exercise their dogs. They were happy to let us have some time in their space while they were not using it.
• I cleared out a room in the house and made it into a playroom for Sephy. He could zoom around there, we play dog games, etc. It was not ideal because it was not very large, but it was helpful at the time. I also invited friendly dogs in the neighborhood over for one-on-one play sessions in the playroom.

Hope this helps. This article on puppy tips also contains many of the things I learned together with Sephy in the beginning.

Please let me know if you have more questions and hugs to Django.