Basenji Training

On Sunday I took Sahara to her first trial Lure Coursing in Virginia. She did quite well, I think it is somethng I am going to let her get involved in. She seemed to like it, and there were other dogs for her to do some socializing. We had a great time.

She sits on command and has for at least a few weeks….but when it comes to heading out for her walk....that's where she lights up! Anyway, I will keep trying and trying. Thanks for the advice Brenda

OK. Age related or not. Daisy is being the MOST observant here. Daisy hears the beep - and WHAM! Back to her hooo-mans! The last 2 days - I have not observed her to come close to the lines. YAY - DAISY - WOO HOO!!! That is exactly the praise she gets. There are flags everywhere now. She sees them and "bam", she backs away! I do believe I have a very smart girl on my hands - different than Duke who is always testing, testing-testing!

HAHA…goooood point. LOL

Good for you Arlene!! BRAVO :D :D :D

In general, they leave them alone. It is when they have to wait in the boxes because of some delay that they usually get bored enough to try to get them off. In that race there was one basenji that had no box training and really fought the boxes which delayed the race long enough for Levi to wrestle his muzzle off. I do have one basenji who fusses with her muzzle during a race but she is getting better about it and actually won 2 races this weekend even with the fussing. We are going to take the suggestion of a Visla owner and start giving her canned cheese when she wears the muzzle and doesn't fuss to reinforce the muzzle is a good thing. The fuzzy lure was a huge reinforcement but she has some negative associations with the muzzle that we have to work on overcoming.

Awww shucks….Thank you :o it means a lot coming from you :) :) I absolutely value your opinion and your experience is invaluable for us newbies!

We are training our new puppy and it reminded me of somehting I did somewhat by accident with our other 2 dogs. When we wer etrying to get them to go, we always give them a treat. At some point of frustration, I tried to get their attention and let them know we had a treat by shaking th etreat jar. Eventually, they associated the shaking sound with going potty, so with the new puppy, I started shaking the jar every time she was actually going. After just 10 days, I can shake the jar and it gets her attention and makes her pee usually, even when she is distracted and walking all around.

Here are Day 2 NOTRA results and the Iron Hound standings. May 27 - NOTRA 1 - Rio, Kinetic Sourcery SC 2 - HiJinx, Kazor's Autumn HiJinx JC, SORC, SGRC 3 - Crash, DC Crash Bandicoot O' Bushbabies SC, FCh, SOR, GRC 4 - Nestle, Kazor Raises The Bar With Zindika 5 - Cole, DC Kinetic's Enchanted Knight SC 6 - Rally, DC Sherwood's Shadow of the Moon SC, FCh, JOR 7 - Levi, FC Dharian's Levi SC 8 - Beauty, FC Svengali's Dark Beauty, FCh 9 - Winifred, FC Jumanji My Winifred FCh 10 - Nicky, DC Sherwood's In The Nick of Time SC, RN, LCM Iron Hound Standings 1 - HiJinx 2 - Nestle 3 - Rio 4 - Crash 4 - Cole 6 - Nicky 7 - Rally 7 - Levi 9 - Winifred 10 - Beauty Lisa Voss Woodland, CA http://www.kineticbasenjis.com

Also, what if she decides to go see what she can chew on while she waits for you to wake up and let her outside to pee. Oh, there are so many reasons I can think of not to let her free at night, and my Jenny is a pretty good basenji when compared to the descriptions of "typical". Lola is obviously comfortable with the crate, and trying to figure out how to manipulate you ("shaped your behavior" in clicker training lingo) into not crating or leaving her. @Quercus: I think she is just going thru an adjustment period. The most important part is to never let her out of her crate, or pay attention to her when she is screaming in her crate. It is a good sign that she is fussing when you leave, it means that she is bonding with you, and doesn't want you to leave. Keep in mind that it probably wasn't her choice to leave her last family…and she may have some separation anxiety because she is wondering where they went. But no matter how heart wrenching that is, you have to be firm on the rules of no attention when fussing, and not baby her. She will get used to your routine soon. Tell your co workers that all that noise is normal :) I feel your pain! Hang in there! IF you break down and let her out while fussing, you will be reinforcing the fussing behavior. Also you will be strengthening the behavior, thus making it more difficult to extinguish or change. AND if you wait longer and longer (and while the fussing escalates) before breaking down and giving in, you WILL increase the intensity of the fussing. Be strong, breathe deep, use earplugs if necessary, and RELAX. It helps to be cool and aloof about the situation.

I started with a cat toy with a pl bag tied on the end to see if they would be interested before i went any further. The I used an old fishing rod with rope tied from there. Kind of worked the same as a lunge whip. (I'm too cheap to buy one if I don't absolutely need one)

Jill, no the other two don't ring the bells. They just come and look at me and hurry to the door. Usually if Jazz has to go potty, she'll stare at me and then spin in a circle. However, when Keoki rings the bell the other two do run to the door. I didn't put anything on the bells, just held a treat right above them. When he tried to reach the treat, he hit the bells, was told "good boy!" and got the treat. Then we moved to hit the bell, get praise, door opens, get cookie. Then onto hit the bell, door opens, treat gets tossed outside. NOW we're working on, "Stop ringing the flippin' bells so much!!" LOL Quercus, I don't want to remove the bells as I reallly don't want to slow this already painfully slow process of house-training. But we are no longer treating for ringing. But we are trying to make it as fun as possible to get outside. So, he rings the bells and one of us goes to the door with a "good boy", and runs outside in the yard with him. Pat, a hot wire may well work. We had one around the perimeter of the fence about 12 yrs ago because Gypsy would dig out. We disconnected it after we found a few dead birds by it. BUT, birds don't usually sit on the gate that he tries to climb as it just opens into the boat-port area {dh used to have a boat}; That gate stays closed all the time anyway now. Dh is in San Diego until June 1. I'll see what he thinks when he gets back. My kids are old enough – and it may encourage them to follow the rule of DON'T CLIMB THAT GATE!!!! LOL. I could just turn it off if younger kids come to play.

My curry comb has short little nibs very close together. It collects a lot of those little hairs and then I just rinse it under running water using a finger nail scrub brush to clean it out. Takes a less then a minute.

I've hiked off leash at numerous areas here in the SF Bay area. They love it! Any there was only 1 area that was a problem with ticks. To me after 30 years hiking with them it's the best way to establish a great relationship with them. There's no two ways about it, Basenjis love hiking adventures.

I am not sure how old you basenji is, but i found basic training very helpful at the park. Caesar could understand what i expected from him when out. crazy running is normal humping or biting is very poor conduct at any dog park no matter what size…it is an action often immitated and is to show dominance there is nothing wrong with a basenji that prounces around stiff when other dogs are sniffing them....that is there way of saying, " you may sniff, but not dominate me! I am basenji". the hair standing on the neck and back or posturing is another way the basenji asserts him or herself at the park.... typically hair standing means nervous or scared= i watch that more closely than posturing or puffing up.... i am weary of the large dog areas when there are more than one pits in the mix. they naturally translate the basenji running as game and will try to tag team as well as play more orally than i like. if your basenji is humping a lot and is fixed, the small dogs may not be providing enough exercise or stimuli.... I try to have my basenjis in dog pens with vislas, bird dogs and running physical dogs. chasing retrievers is a great way to burn that basenji energy when casear was young and had difficult times at the dog park that seemed only addressed by a time out, we would leave and tight leash walk together. as soon as he would pull i would stop walking until he sat. then we would walk again. i also used hide and seek at the dog park as another technique for the park. Both my boys know to keep me in sight at all times. this keeps them from going off and getting into too much trouble. i would hide behind a tree until they realized i was gone and they found me. also, leaving the park with the dog in the pen is another way to let them understand that they should keep you in their sites. i did that a few times when i had a friend there with me and they stayed in the dog area. there is nothing more annoying IMO than an owner with treats in the dog park. or an owner with a dog on a leash in a dog park. or a person holding their dog in the air in a dog park. or a small unsupervised screaming and running child. the best rule is to communicate well with your animal. realize that time at the fenced dog park is free time for them to learn how to socialize. i have learned that basenjis do guard. if i am standing in the dog park, they run, sniff and play. if i sit in the dog park they will post near me and not go to far away. have fun, try new techniques, and watch other dog owners and how they participate with their dogs. you may pick up some good tips and see bad behaviors that you may want to avoid. as socialization continues at the park, your basenji will adapt and learn how to communicate with the least amount of conflict, so they can sniff as many butts as possible....

we purchased 2 4ft baby gates which are metal. They swing open and lock. Even the cat can't get over them. They cost around $60.00 each.

Yay! Congrats Cole! :D

Adorable!!! Great compromise!

Whoo hooo! Progress….slow, but sure :)