First Time Owner!

[Nerthin]

Hello,
I am pretty new to the forums and I have been researching and checking out this wonderful breed of dogs for about a year now. I first encountered a basenji through my grandfather. He had them after WWII (still trying to find out how he acquired them). I would really love to get into Lure Coursing and Agilities and my g/f wants to show.
I have been researching breeders and been talking with one here in NM for almost a year. I have finally decided it is time! I am going to get a little tri-girl. I went and visited with her and her parents and the breeder last night. I got there at 5:30pm and didnt leave till 9pm so we had the opportunity to talk about everything! I have started basenji proofing…everything in my house/yard and surrounding areas . I currently live in the metro area of ABQ NM, however there is not much traffic in our neighborhood. I have a 6-7foot wooden privacy fence with a HUGE backyard. I do have 2 rescue/adopted dogs a husky/wolf-hybrid , she loves other dogs but is well...skiddish around people, and my g/f's pitbull, he is a total push over for other dogs and the biggest lap dog you'll ever see.
Anyway I have read up on the introductions to other household pets. So I am going to follow those instructions, but if there is anything else you can think of as far as introductions I would be happy to hear about it. I was also thinking about leaving my current dogs food and water dishes where they are and feeding the new girl in a seperate room (since she is on puppy food and they are on adult food). I feed the two older ones a cup in the morning and a cup in the afternoon. I have read that the puppies need at least 3 times a day this will not be a problem since there is always someone at the house. She is currently eating Purina Pro 1 for puppies. During competition the breeder was telling me she uses the same dry food as well as "Red Barn" meat roll. Any thoughts?
I have already signed up for puppy beginners class at Petsmart, my girl friend works there so she gets a free training class. Then I was told after about a year is when you can really get serious about lure coursing and agilities.
I have not decided on a name yet and I am having a little trouble with that. My husky/wolf's name is Zaria, which is Russian for Dawn, at least thats what I read, and the pitbull is named Ozzy. I was thinking about something egyptian or african and I have no clue what to name her.
I also just had a question about the crates. Now, I have never crate trained any dog, I have a four-runner and the dogs usually stay in back and just hang out. I have read that Basenji's learn to love their crates and think of them as a safe place. The breeder also told me that it will make life A LOT easier when I decide to travel. What size crate should I get, she is 16 weeks old still pretty small compared to her parents. Should I get a crate that she will ALWAYS have or get a smaller crate now and go up in size later? I was told that they get REALLY attached to their crates and can get fusy if they are not given their crate! She is going to be an inside dog as well. I have never had dogs that always stay out and I dont really plan on having one any time soon.
Well I go to pick her up in about 7 days, which is to long to wait. However it does give me time to panic and try to find every little thing I can to make her life and my life easier. Thank you for reading and I look forward to reading, posting, and listening to all the advice all over these forums!
-Dan

[luzmery928]

Congratulations on your new baby. You sound wonderfully excited as you should be. What about Cleo..you know after Cleopatra. About the crate, I'm new to this also but how about a crate with a divider so you can adjust it as she gets bigger. I do know this for sure and that's you came to the right place. This forum is excellent.

[dash]

Welcome to the forum. You will have to send pictures. I have 1 basenji and a beagle. This is my first B so I will let the more experienced Basenji people answer those questions.

[jys1011]

Welcome & congrats on your new Tri!!

[nomrbddgs]

Congratulations!!

You'll pretty soon be Basenji trained! Don't leave food, plastic, wood, drinks, clothes,etc around. And ,you'll have a great introduction to Basenji decorating.

I buy a crate for the size they will be. Although I have different crate sizes, I usually use just one. Your puppy will be very small, so be carefull with the larger dogs that they don't step inadverantly on her. I have a goofy boxer and she looooooovvvves the puppy, unfortunately she forgets how big she is. For the first while I kept the puppy separated by baby gates, then introduced the dogs one at a time and let them play for awhile.
I also feed mine in their crates. Less hassle, they know the crate is feeding time and which crate is theirs, and they don't bother the others while eating. Puppies are varocious eaters-everythings gone then everybody's else is up for grabs.
You'll probably want to put something they like in the crate that is theirs only for the crate. That way they associate the crate with good things. Try not to use the crate for punishment. For good things, I have one toy they get in the crate and then it gets put away when they are out of the crate. They also know they only have the kong with peanut butter inside in the crate only.

Food is really an individual thing, and I don't want to go against what your breeder recommends. I feed dry kibble with a little bit of warm water in 2x per day.

Any other questions just ask-one of us will answer!!

[cleopatra]

Congratulations on the new baby!

We just brought home our new baby on Sunday. She is an 11 week old tri color and a real cutie. Our first name for her was Cleo but my daughter decided it wasn't 'right' for her so she did a google search for female egyptian names and there are lots to choose from. I liked Kiya myself but it didn't win. The same site had African names and we selected Zuri which means 'beautiful' in Swahili. There are loads of great choices….good luck.

Brenda

[lvoss]

@Nerthin:

I have already signed up for puppy beginners class at Petsmart, my girl friend works there so she gets a free training class. Then I was told after about a year is when you can really get serious about lure coursing and agilities.

Lure trials can be great places to socialize a young pup and it is good to introduce them to the sights and sounds of trial. You do not want to overdo but getting them out so they see what is going on can be a good thing. As for agility, you may want to see if you have any pre-agility or puppy agility classes around you. These classes are great at building confidence, they don't have jumps but start laying groundwork for working in agility.