Basenji Training

Great Pictures!!!! Sam was working so hard at the event. Kudos!!!!! I even saw him running the field to retrieve something blowing in the wind.

New photos from this weekend should be up soon. Hopefully by the end of the day.

@phoenix3: Aww too cute given u five well make that 4 :) Actually five.. he still has his dewclaws :)

THANK YOU!! I finally feel there is somebody out there that 'gets it'. Our girl does not respond to any of the 'pack leader' stuff - I'm sure she was dumped because she is just such a stinker. Everytime I hit bottom somebody helps me through the disaster with encouragment (that's why I joined this group.) THANK YOU for your good thougths - things do progress - her private trainer is coming this weekend & we're doing the prong collar. Last night she sat in her crate for almost 45 minutes. No matter what, she's here to stay & she is so darn cute!!!!! That tail is really precious - thank you so much for all your e-support!! Joanne & Sophie:) :) :) :)

@tsjoe007: Dutch PROFICIAT MIRTILLO !! Prachtige foto's. Ik hoop dat mijn kleine vriend het even snel onder de knie krijgt als Mirtillo. Rond de Kerst is het zo ver. Wij tellen de dagen af. Groetjes uit Hoogstraten.:) English Congratulations Mirtillo !! Great pictures. I sure hope our little friend will learn as fast as Mirtillo does. We'll expect our first B ever somewhere around Christmas. We're counting the days. Greetings from Hoogstraten (Belgium):) Dutch: Bedankt! :D Als je maar veeeeeeeeeeeeeel snoepjes geeft.. dan komt het vast goed met het aanleren ;) Heerlijk om zo'n pup in het vooruitzicht te hebben! English: Thanks! :D You just have to give lots and lots of treats.. and than the training will be no problem ;) It's great to look forward to getting a pup!

My vet suggested not leaving any water for him as long as I am not gone longer than 3-4 hours. I stopped leaving water & it seemed at first to stop him from peeing but only for a short time. I feed him early enough in the day that he is out of his crate for several hours after eating. He isn't even crated daily because my sister is home from college right now & thus home during the day a lot. It's only when she has to go out that we crate. His crate being too big may be a possibility. It's a good size crate because I wanted him to have room since when I lived in FL he was crated for closer to 6 hours at any given time. Plus in FL he was still sleeping in his crate. I guess I could give a smaller one a try… As far as leaving him uncrated, we are working towards that. We leave him out if it's only like 30 minutes or so to try to see what he'll do. My goal is to eventually always leave him uncrated but right now I just don't trust him enough. We left him uncrated in my room one day & he ripped a huge chunk of the carpet out [down to the concrete!] So…yea. Haha.

HA! We did the up& back method at my petsmart class. Jack is so flexible, he would actually follow the treat back with his head, until his head was almost lying on his back. I think what I finally had to do was push his butt down with one hand, while holding the treat in front of his face with the other. He got really good at it…now, he sits when I snap my fingers, when I say sit, or, my favorite, when I salute him. Good luck!

What a great story and great pics! It's nice to have a place where your dog(s) can run and play freely!

I just stand still when Mirtillo pulls. He has a normal collar and leash. I wait untill he makes a turn and comes to me or makes eye contact. When he comes, he gets a treat. (just his normal kibble) When he makes eye contact I tell him he's a good boy. We are now at the point that when he comes he doesn't immediatly gets his treat, he first has to follow, sit, follow and then it's ok. On the flexi I mostly try to call him to come to me before he is at the end of the line, he gets a treat and he is 'free' again. On the normal leash Mirtillo also gets rewarded when he just looks at me and/or walks next to me. That way I'm way more interesting then the ground… When there is a dog/cat/bird and he pulls, I don't expect him to pay attention to me.. so I'm happy when he sits when I stand still and gives a quick glance at me. I also tried the method of just making a lot of turns, until the dog pays attention.. I didn't like it.. it was frustrating for me and for Mirtillo. I don't like to pull back.. I believe it is way too easy for the dog.. When I stand still, Mirtillo has to figure out how to get me walking again.. It's more of a positive game. When he pulls, I don't think... Ooooooohw.. here we go again........... But I think: ok, this is a great opportunity to get him to pay attention to me.. And I just stand still.. first he will ignore me, he will sniff somewhere else (there is no pulling anymore), then he will try to pull again to make me clear he wants to go there.. then he cries.. And then he thinks: I HATE YOU.. and he looks at me and comes to me with a face like: IS THIS OK??? And then I praise, give something yummie and we're both happy.

Thanks Pat. I don't being my dogs to the EBC specality, because its too hot and I am not set up for dogs ring side. I go every year to support the club and talk to folks about b rescue. So, I am not up on what is ok and what isn't re taking dogs on the grounds.

You want to talk about shedding, lol. Our 2 Shiba's only shedded once a year when we lived in Florida, all year long. If we didn't brush them every day we had a mat of beige fur all over everything. However since moving to Missouri we only have to put up with it for maybe 3 months a year, once in the early fall and once in the early spring. As for personality and disposition SI's are long haired smiling Basenji's. We've had Itty Bitty Basenji for 4 months now and she and Sable our SI are best buddies, shoulder rolling, ankle nipping, and playing chase with their little grey Kitty. They havent taken to cuddling with each other when they sleep, I think because Sable gets too hot when Bitty sleeps curled up close, and Bitty is usually found under the covers against dad's back. In just about every other way they are the same, you have to watch them like a hawk if you open the door, they will both try to rush it. When out in the yard, if it moves they will chase it. If it is raining the B will drag her feet before getting off of the porch, whereas the SI is ears deep in the wet grass and shrubs, hoping to scare up something to chase. Before winter ended Bitty would start shivering even before I started for the front door, but the Shiba's relative closeness to the Siberian Husky is very evident, she plows through any depth of snowbank, joyfully.

@JazzysMom: With Keoki we have to firmly say, "NO" and if he doesn't stop, we hold him under the neck – not tightly, just enough so he can't grab -- and make him sit. Then we look him in the eye and say, "NO! Enough!". That usually does it for him, and he's getting better and better at either not biting and/or listening the first time. He usually does stop the first time w/me, and in fact seldom does bite at me in play, but not as well with Dh and the kids . One of my dd's says it's because he's afraid of me, but that is not the case. He never cringes, he just listens to the Mama! I think he sees the other dogs and the kids listening to me, and the fact that I don't ask or beg him to stop doing things. I TELL him. I am working to get the family to see the difference, and to stop bouncing around while saying, NO. LOL Same for me- that is exactly what I do! When he was younger we tried the yelp, and we tried ignoring him….neither seemed to work very well for us. This seems to work very well, at least in our case.

@DiegosMom: I think Tanza was just agreeing with a post I made about being careful leaving dogs in cars.. no one was attacking you or saying you were not careful or were wrong for doing it.. we were just saying, in general, there are risks involved with leaving a dog in the car unatteneded.. That was my exact interpretation. Adding caution to the wind…never hurt anyone. :) This is not an exclusive conversation - many people from all over the world at any given moment are viewing the forum - if they didn't take the time to read this thread beginning to end - blah - blah - iterating words of wisdom in the middle of any thread could save a life. btw - I find advice about training is situational - every dog and every trainer has different styles. Hopefully when we get stumped with a training issue, this forum and members have different tried and true methods, various options are out there. Thank you Jason for your time in sharing your thoughts and training methods that are working well for you. It's always good to have diversity and commonality. ps - I don't want anyone else to feel left out with my appreciation - so a big thank you to others who've shared their important thoughts and training ideas here and elsewhere on this forum. You are all so very helpful.

@JazzysMom: I am not a "show people" as I've never been in the ring, and only have the one dog that actually finished her championship, but I keep collars on my dogs 24/7. I used the rolled leather collars, and they don't leave any marks on the neck at all – necks are nice and smooth. Well, really they do leave marks… but they are pretty little.... I always don't leave collars on in the house for a number of reasons... (this is after they get used to them of course)... 1. I am always afraid that they will get a mouth caught in them when playing... and 2. they will/could get hung up on something... however that said, mine are not crated, as we have a doggy room for them.. and they have a doggy door to a secure fenced yard.

I somehow missed this post until now but congrats to all the Kinetic crew!

Way to go Rio! Congratulations Lisa and Sam!

http://www.asfa.org/ Go there & click on the events tab. It lists all the upcoming events & shows that there are trials in Leesburg on the 31st & 1st :)