How to play

[tanza]

Work his mind along with his body. Walks are great, but when in the house, not needed to be ruff housing all the time… Work on commands (Sit, down, stand, stay)... you can do things like hide treats and send him to find them... or hide toys. Excercise for the mind is as good if not better for him then all the running around. You can end each "mind" work with a bit of rough housing, chase... and there are the toys you can buy that you hide food in and they have to roll it around to get the food bits out....

[DexterDex]

Well, I taught him "sit" so far… He does it...most of the time lol. I know I need to keep his mind active, but...I don't know....it doesn't feel like we are playing really
I put a hotdog piece with some stuffing paste in his kong, he played with that for about fifteen minutes..he couldn't get it out so he lost interest. haha.
Then I figured that that might have been too difficult for him, so I tried putting his dinner in it (just kibbles) and he only ate the half that fell out easily, the second half apparently took too much effort? Lazy puppy… Haha.

[sharronhurlbut]

My husband is teaching Wheat to fetch. He uses treats and the clicker.
That might work for you as well.

[DexterDex]

Yeah, I could do that too. Thanks for suggesting it.
We just came up with a fun thing for us both to do. I will entice him to play with a certain toy and then instead of tugging it away, I tap my hand on the floor and he stops chewing it to see what I'm doing, and then I snatch it up. We did that for about an hour haha (in between all his zooming around the room). I also tried hiding his kong with a kibble or two in it like Tanza suggested…I was surprised that he actually found it. haha

[tanza]

Again there are toys that he can play with by himself to roll/play with to get the treats… and good solution to keep him amused by himself....

And again... all "mind" games regardless if you think they are working him... are worth it...

[Knipper]

I currently have a broken foot, so Cricket got a remote control car! We've put her toys in it or treats and she chases it everywhere! We run out of battery power every second day… At first she was terrified, but now she Roos at it and entices it to play with her.

[DexterDex]

Hahaha, that's funny and cute! I'll have to try that, thanks

[Kananga]

@tanza:

And again… all "mind" games regardless if you think they are working him... are worth it...

Agreed. I think the attention/interaction a Basenji gets, by itself, provides them with a lot of mental stimulation.

[Kipawa]

+1

Kipawa is exhausted after our Saturday puppy classes! At about the 45 minute mark, he's basically gone - that is a lot of time for a basenji to be concentrating that hard.

[DexterDex]

Yes, we will be attending puppy classes once my fiance gets home so that we can all go. I will also continue to teach him commands and such…I was mostly talking about ways to be silly together...I like the idea of hiding his toys/treats...
Thanks everyone

[GenJMar]

When my guys were pups I would get on the floor on all fours and pretend to be a dog. Waggle my butt, take my hand(paw) and tap the dog on the head, scoot around on the floor etc.. My guys loved it. They must have though I was crazy, but the ran around and over and under me. I would sometime incorporate a toy and we would "share". Do watch out if your guy is a nipper and discourage that. If my boy would nip or get mouthy I used "ouch" command loudly and stop play.