I've been doing rescue and breeding (not Basenjis, and not for 20 yrs now)... and I have to say that among responsible trainers, rescues, breeders and professional veterinary behaviorists, you won't find any who will say under 8 weeks is okay for any breed... and for many, 10 to 12 weeks is recommended. It is in fact illegal to take puppies under 8 weeks from some states and it should be in all of them. Call a few dozen rescues and ask them how many animals they deal with that have issues started from being placed too young. It is good you are working on things, just hopefully the physical responses won't continue. No breed needs to be swatted or even mildly hurt for training. Basenjis even less so than many. It hurts your relationship with the puppy, and you are punishing a baby for being a baby... there is no "rebellious thing"... just normal behavior you have to patiently train away from.
Puppy Kindergarden
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Hi Everyone!
We haven't been on the forum in a while since we have been chasing down our puppy non-stop! We had our first puppy kindergarden class yesterday and Kismet is already showing off and showing them that she is a little know-it-all! We played a name game with a clicker for homework where I call Kismet, she comes, I click and give her a treat. We perfected it, my Mom and husband included! Off to puppy class we go and the instructors take Kismet as a demo dog to get things started. She played the game text book style and everyone is amazed! Mom takes the leash and I get the clicker and treats and I call her and Kismet gets "A.D.D." on me and goes off on her own little adventure totally ignoring me!:D GO FIGURE! She has her own sense of humor! She was very hyper and had to be the most obnoxious puppy there but we had fun anyway! We will do our homework and see what next week brings! I love our little B dog! :)Anyone else have an adventure to share? I will try to keep updates coming on ours!
~Maria -
Great!
Otis did really well in is class too, much to the trainers surprise. She told me when I signed up, that I was wasting my money, basenjis don't learn anything…huh, wrong! -
Fairly typical of basenjis to do it on their own terms. Yesterday, I had Sophie in class and she was the demo dog for Zen. Treats in each hand, hold each hand in fist out toward the dog and then wait for the dog to look up at you instead of at the treats, then say "Yes!" and toss a treat to them. So she gives a nice demo where she offers her default behaviors and then looks up at our instructor with the "Hey, I'm showing off here why aren't I getting a treat?" and then gets her treat. Second time, as expected, the look comes much quicker. Then she comes back to me and seems to do everything to not look at me for the majority of that exercise until the last minute where she was like a superstar at it.
My dogs all love being demo dog.
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How do I delete this?
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When we took indy to puppy kindergarden he would yodel loudly any time the instructor talked…it was annoying. He performed every trick perfectly and was quiet as a mouse as long as the instructor was quiet.
Lori on the other hand was a little spaz. She wound her leash around the chair and wove it in and out of the legs untill she was stuck. Thenon the off leash portion zshe would walk around performing tricks till she got a treat from everyone. Sighs I love my pups.
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Way back when, Topper was the 'demo dog' for his puppy and adult classes, he would always do the new things, but get annoyed if the instructor kept asking him to do it again. "Hey Lady, I know what I'm doing, no need to repeat it!"
Nicky became the demo dog for agility as she is fearless and loves heights. She did like to make the teeter-totter slam to the floor, and jump off grinning.Basenjis ARE smart and seem to excel at all sorts of classes as long as it's fun for them. Have fun with Kismet!
