Dogs are not allowed in our apartment building, but if they were, I know the breed of dog I would get. The Shiba Inu is the smallest of the Japanese dog breeds. Like the Australian Basenji it is a small dog which does not bark. It also cleans itself like a cat and can even be taught to use an indoor litter box. The Shiba Inu is more independent than a typical dog.
Is this clean, quiet, non-needy dog the perfect breed for home exchangers? In a word, no.
A dog is a really high-maintenance pet. They have intense physical and emotional needs. Dogs were bred by humans to guard property, stock and the people with whom they live. Strangers barging into a dog's home will not be greeted with the same friendliness the dog shows its family.
I'm speaking as someone who happily leaves two cats for swappers to mind, but the total amount of care required by our cats is extremely low. Swappers set out dry food for them once each day. They have a self-cleaning litter box. Our house cleaner empties the plastic box into which the waste is deposited once per week. The cats' automatic water fountain has a one-gallon reservoir that only needs filling twice a month.
Try any of that with a dog.
On the other hand, we did have an attack cat. We knew Thea wasn't the friendliest cat, but we didn't expect the frantic call at the airport from the home exchanger. Thea had attacked, scratching the swapper as he innocently walked into the bathroom and drawing blood!
We apologized profusely but secretly we suspected that this extremely tall man had accidentally stepped on Thea. Yes, we were blaming the victim. Like most people with a problematic family member we were hesitant to see the truth. Until the next time we had an over-six-feet-tall swapper in our home. As we approached the Canadian border crossing the phone rang again. The accent was different but the sad story was all too familiar.
The moral of this story is that even low maintenance pets which are not normally known to be aggressive can react badly when strangers enter your home. To you and me our swap partners are just friends we haven't met yet. To your pets, home exchangers are just strangers.
While we entertain any hopes of continuing to swap our home we won't be getting a Shiba Inu, Basenji or other dog, no matter how apartment-friendly or low-maintenance they might be.
Epilogue: Thea, the attack cat, now lives on a farm in Vermont with a Certified Cat Wacko who is not a home exchanger. That's for the best.
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