![]() Walking Felix with a leash now began to feel constrained and uptight to me, a crude show of force. But he has always reappeared 30 seconds or so later, sometimes a house or two down, and at my call, bolts towards me and then sits & compliantly accepts the penitential leashing that follows. If a rabbit started near him, nothing could stop him, and on those occasions, when he suddenly streaked off through someone’s back yard, I felt a twinge of anxiety–my wife has made clear that if any mishap befalls Felix on these outlaw walks, she will not forgive me. To my amazement, I discovered that even if another dog passed on the opposite sidewalk, Felix would turn to watch that dog, showing every sign of interest-but would stay unswerving on our path. He never ran away, but trotted along just as he had on the quiet dirt road, keeping close tabs on me, and staying within a certain distance. ![]() Felix had something in him, apparently, that made a leash optional. I’d leash him if another dog walker approached, or a pedestrian who seemed likely to disapprove, but increasingly, and despite my wife’s disapproval, leashlessness became the norm. On that vacation, we continued to go leashless, and gained so much confidence that on our return back home to Indiana, I started trying it there too, in our quiet suburban neighborhood.Īt first, I’d try it only on the most quiet and empty side streets, but soon more boldly, almost everywhere. He’s a medium-small dog, perhaps a border collie/ rat terrier mix, we’re not sure, short haired, white with black smudges, with a tail that curls up like a question mark as he sniffs the path before him. And if we called him, he would either return to us, or stop and wait. To our surprise, he tended to walk as if tethered to a long invisible leash-walking ahead or behind, pausing to sniff and investigate as he wished, but always checking where we were, and not allowing himself to drift too far from us. ![]() We first started experimenting with allowing our dog, Felix, off the leash on a quiet dirt road in Maine last summer where other pedestrians were rare and we could hear any car coming from a distance.
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