oh thank you everyone for the kind words.
and nope! i did not drug the little beastie. he ADORES his "pretties" he gets VERY excited when i take it out to put it on him, lol. When he wears it, he usually has his head held high, puffed up chest and just prances about the house, or wherever we may be.
He has never, not once tried to destroy the beads. which to be honest surprised me as well. I bought it from a seller at a show in California. The Mission circuit? i believe, and MANY of the basenji people who were there as well even jokingly said he must not be an actual basenji for not tearing at the beads. He is not really a typical basenji that way. he is not destructive to very many dangly things at all. He even slept with the beaded collar on, with the beads going every which way..never bothered them. here are a few more pictures of him when we first got the collar at the dog show. we let him wear it around. we got SO many compliments! so no, i did not personally make the collar, i had it custom made for him. expensive!! but well worth it!
Also, to Debra, He has a very good "leave it", very firm. With all the cats we use it often! But he does listen very well, he immediately comes to me and sits at my feet to see if its ok to go play again. I suppose i will ask my sister to bring the kids over more often to help teach Zumi. she is a very happy baby and very rarely cries, but.. i'll see what i can do.
I just was worried, because i'm soon going to be a very harassed mother to a newborn and dealing with a conniption fit of my B-boy every time the baby cries would be a bit daunting. i will definitely work on a firm leave it with the baby. thanks!