Escaping: We have been fortunate and have never had a fence climber or serious digger, but that front door was a personal challenge for almost every one over the years. Back when we had 5, and 3 young ones, we decided we were through chasing dogs down the street.
Our front door opens to a small concrete stoop, about 3 X 5 feet. Using lattice and a strong gate with a self-closing latch, may husband fenced in the stoop. Like the safety areas at dog parks. The door may be open, but they can't get far, as the gate is closed before the door is opened. Afer a while, they didn't even rush the door. My current 3 wil stand there with the gate open and not bolt, amazing, but they are 8,10 & 12 and have always had the gate in place so bolting from the front door is not something they have ever done. It is not the most lovely front door on our street, but….we have not had a dog escape that way in many, many years.
Now the meter reader leaving the side gate open is aonther matter! A sign saying something like"please keep gate closed, nice dogs will escape" can be helpful, I understand.
But the number one thing you cna do, IMHO, is train your basenji to come to a whistle! I culdn't whistle so kept a sports whistle on a string beside the front door. I trained them all to come to that whistle for very special, extremely yummy treats, it took about 15 minutes with occasional reinforcement. Most of mine would turn on a dime when they heard that whistle, and the one that didn't come back at least stopped his sprint to think about it.
Those are the ony pointers I have to prevent escaping. I am very lucky to live on a very quiet street, and when mine do get out, helping my husband take the trash out usually, they run up the street a bit and come home and race back in the house.
Anne in Tampa
