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Odd hair chewing

Behavioral Issues
  • Just a quick report on a behavior we had never seen before from Ella.

    We had a friend over for dinner that brought her Labradoodle, Oshee. The two dogs got along well. After a few hours the Labradoodle was lying down snoozing when I noticed that Ella that was chewing at something and realized she was chewing on Oshee's fur. Oshee was not bothered but despite our efforts to distract her, Ella was focused on chewing, grooming and eating his loose, bushy coat for the rest of the time they were there. At one point we called Ella off and she looked up at us guiltily with a mouth full of hair as if to say, "I don't know how this hair got in my mouth."

    Anybody ever seen this before?

  • I guess it's the Basenjis like to make sure everybody is clean and groomed like them. Ella is just being a good friend and helping out Oshee.

  • Medjai will do that to a bunch of dogs at the park. He looks almost like he's nibbling on their shoulders.

  • Barley shocked us all when we were visiting my boyfriend and he was getting an in home hair cut. Barley started eating all the hair off the ground!!! I couldn't imagine this being nutritious for him so I made him stop. It was a fight as I tried to hold him and he WANTED to eat the hair!!! Not sure what this craving was about??

  • Ha-ha! Denver will perch himself on the top of the couch above where my husband is sitting & try to chew-clean his eybrows in between licking his face off! :p

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    My red & white grew out of chewing up stuff when he was about 4. He had mastered unzipping the couch cushions and destuffing them! It was his duty to destuff any couch with a zipper! My female will be 8 next month and she (I'm afraid) will never grow out of destuffing/chewing! Small hole in a comforter, no problem, let's make it bigger and destuff it so the room looks like snow! Toilet paper, hanging on the toilet paper dispenser? Never in my house! It only lasts 2 minutes and then it is set on a path of distruction…down the hall....in the living room.....in the bathroom.....on the bed..... Unfortunately, she is teaching the toilet paper destruction to my almost 3 year old rescue. But he doesn't shred, he litteraly eats anything he is destroying. We have had to be extra dilligent to keep chew dangers out of his way. He is tiny for a male (20 lbs) and we don't want him to ingest something and not be able to pass it. I echo everyone else's statements. It's like baby-proofing your house, except it's basenji-proofing! And when you catch the chewing something they aren't supposed to have, scold them and give them one of their own toys. These are intellegent dogs, they get it....after a while!
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