I have a 5 year female pure bred Basenji named Pipet. Recently we attempted to adopt a male 5 year old into our home from a reputable agency for Basenji"s….They turned me down based solely on my girls ability to go off lead, there assumption mistakenly being that I would automatically do the same with another UNTRAINED Basenji!! NONSENSE!
I mention this just to illustrate how engrained it is in many Basenji enthusiast's and owner's, this notion that it is impossible to train a Basenji to be safe off the lead.....they will ALL apparently bolt uncontrollably if allowed off the leash! Pipet - at age 2, 3 and 4 was still too immature to really pay close attention to my instructions in training her to walk off the leash. Not that she would take off after everything, she would not. But she would wander and lose concentration.
We live right next door to a graveyard that is very old, not overly big and fully fenced in, with one open gate at a busy corner in a residential neighborhood with 25 MPH speed limits. We started frequenting the yard after vandals did damage and also as I was removing 50 year's of grape vines from the fence we shared in order to clean up my yard. Pipet was in charge of this endeavor as she is in charge of every big job we do around the house.
We would walk to the yard entrance, two long blocks, and upon getting about 100 yards in I would tell her to "Sit, and then to Stay", I'd hold her harness slightly and remover her lead. Then told her to "Stay" again. Then, as I believe she knows what I am saying in simple terms, I tell her she must be good and stay by me....she knows this from all of the last 5 year's as it is good to tell a Basenji to "stay by me" frequently, they are too smart not to be able to do this, they are all smart enough to be taught to stay close. After she sits for 20 seconds without getting up (this may take a few tries while gently holding the harness), she is released.....and as she is I tell her to "Stay close to me", which she does to the best of her excited ability, I keep saying it to keep her on message and tell her (as I do on walks when approaching a corner), to "WAIT" and she will stop and stand still, listening and looking, but staying (with reminders every 5 to 10 seconds), then I let her go again, and she gets...and GOT better with every try. I also use a whistle with verbal commands to COME when she gets more than 25 yards away; three short blasts and a stern "COME" and she was trained to the whistle within a week. Over a period of weeks, about 3 graveyard walks a week, I was letting her run away from me and briefly out of my sight (knowing she far from the gate and fenced in, the graveyard is also empty - and I clean up after her). I would watch her as she went and occasionally yell to her so she hears my voice....but once she slips out of sight I'd give her 20 seconds and then hit the whistle and yell COME. Three blasts and COME...and by the second or third she was always flying at warp speed straight at me (and if not I keep repeating while approaching where she is, generally spotting her quickly). After many weeks last fall doing this, as the Winter came I noticed there were almost no animals of any kind out - other than other dogs getting walked.
One night on a regular neighborhood walk, when I knew no one was coming out due to heavy snow, I gave Pipet all her commands, told her "sit and stay" and the let her off the lead, but I made her stay by me...I noticed immediately that she was doing this anyway...just the same keep reminding, just talking. I had also always told Pip to "WAIT!" at every corner when on a leash for the first year all the time, and then less as she developed the skill. As we walked off the leash she stopped at corners when slightly ahead of me...I still tell her to do so, but yes, she does it on her own. UNDERSTAND, my job (and yours) is to always watch the area for other dogs being walked and squirrels and such. I do not walk Pip off the leash at the peak of any day! She only walks off it at dusk, well before dark and never during Spring or Fall because of the heavy squirrel traffic....puppies too. When at corners, if cars approach she sits and waits, if she fails to sit I hold her harness lightly while repeating the command, she rarely needs this now, if ever.
The bottom line is that given concentrated training, MY basenji is very, very good off the leash in a large enclosed area at any time of the day. She is also safe to walk off the leash in proper, low traffic points of certain day's, this is never done without great consideration for the environment she is in. This training is NEVER considered by me to be absolute. You must constantly repeat commands to keep their attention as you know how busy they get! I do not walk her off lead in strange neighborhoods or busy areas, EVER! The adoption lady who assumed I might was utterly foolish, we are talking about Basenji's after all! If you wish, my video of Pipet is on Youtube entitled "Pipet, The Well Trained African Basenji "(Part 1 & 2). It's not a perfect performance, but it was pretty early on and she does very well! (she was also on a diet as hibernating got us a little overweight)
