Can Basenjis find water underground?

[Bulu]

I met a guy today while I was walking my two basenjis, Benga and Lulu, back from the dogrun. We were chatting about the breed, and he was telling me, while Lulu was pawing at the sidewalk, that when they do this, they are smaelling water underground, and that this is something that they can do…to seek out underground water, being a desert dog... Does anyone know if this is true? Are they "Divining Basenjis"?

Very curious....:D

[Shaye's Mom]

They have great smell sense, so maybe so - whether "divining" or not, they are surely "divine" - I use that term loosely.

[Bulu]

They certainly are DIVINE! There a couple other things that go along with this…He mentioned how they like to lick the water off his feet when he gets out of the shower, and Lulu does this to me all the time...Another is whenever I walk them, they go crazy lunging towards the fire hydrants, not to pee, but to smell...I always assumed they are doing it to smell other dogs' markings, but maybe the water as well. They don't go crazy like that with other places dogs mark, at least not as fervously...It would be interesting to take them out to the dester and let them look for water, and start digging wherever they start hovering... anyone want to try?