I cannot recommend a dog for you (other than a toy breed) unless you have a fenced yard.

It isn't safe to just let a dog outside "to do his business" in an unfenced area. Dogs have the mentality of a 2- to 4-year-old child and they can outrun an Olympic sprinter. If anything catches their attention, they will take off and you'll never catch them. Putting one's faith in "boundary training" has cost countless dogs their lives.

Without a fenced yard, you would need to take your dog outside on a leash all the time, even for bathroom breaks. This really isn't fair to any dog larger than a Maltese or Chihuahua. Dogs need a fenced area in which to stretch their legs and run around a little, on the grass, every day. Dogs don't like being tethered to a leash all the time.

Your fence must be a physical fence. In my opinion, invisible fencing is neither safe nor secure.

• If the motivation is strong enough, dogs will run right across the electrical wire and take the shock.
• With nothing to block their view, dogs bark more and charge toward anything they can see, including your neighbors minding their own business in their own yard.
• Your dog is more vulnerable to theft, and completely open to attack by other dogs.
• A defective collar can repeatedly shock your dog, or burn his throat.