It depends on the dog and your situation. I have never and will never allow my dogs to be outside when no one is home. A concrete fence would probably solve most of my issues (snakes, tree limb breaking fence, neighbor kids harassing or even poisoning). I'm almost 60, have had exactly zero dogs who loved being in their crate (except my first rottie who wanted it for sleeping in, gate open.. she didn't NEED a crate from the time she was about 6 mos old). But if you give them good quality toys and chews, dogs generally chill out. They sleep up to 18 hrs a day so I consider a crate a good safe haven. My basenji is fine left in my bedroom now that she's grown. My 2nd basenji didn't destroy things, she'd pee on my bed.. so she got crated. My first was incredibly dog aggressive, so the rotties and chow ran free, she was crated when I was out, slept with me at night (as did/do the other 2).
Random question - left curl/right curl
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since there are many common differences between left-handed and right-handed people, i'm wondering if there are any differences between the left-side curl and right-side curl of basenji tails? what is the cause of the differences - genetics? environment when young? any commonalities? anyway, just a random thought….
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I've never noticed any differences, and we have had lefties, righties and right down the center tails here. But…I never thought about it, and I will be more observant from now on.
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LOL never thought of it either, 2 of mine have curled on right, one on left. Wonder if it relates to "handedness" (or would that be leggedness?). Now I have to look to see which food Cara and Arwen start out on!
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Maya's goes both ways… wonder what that says about her
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LOL, so does C-Me's, hmmm (and they are related too!)….... which is nice because in the show ring, I think they look better with the tail on the show side. That said, all my other Basenjis's tails went on the non-show side.
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when suki was younger i kept checking to see what side it was on, but it was always different. however, now, it is firmly on the right. even when i curl it over to the left, it pops back over to the right in just a few seconds.
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Jigsaw and Indy both have ambidextrous (sp?) tails. Their curls are relatively tight and for the majority of the time stay to the right side. But they also will easily switch to the left and stay there comfortably for a while, especially while out walking. If they shake themselves, their tails will usually correct themselves, but the "wrong" way doesn't seem to bother the dogs. Do other basenji's tails behave similarly?
When Indy is in the show ring (altered classes only now) I've always debated whether to try and deliberately put his tail to the left. It would probably stay there for long enough. But for some reason I've never been able to bring myself to. It's funny, but it feels like that would be betraying his true self. -
For years all my boys had tails to the left and the girls tails to the right but this has changed now and my current pack contains 2 female and 2 male lefts and 3 female and 1 male right. They will all hold their tails on the opposite sides but not for long.
