I tried to tell them….

[crystalncody]

Cody and I have finally moved, and have taken this last week to get settled in. We are staying at my parents? house until I start graduate school, and he seems to love it. The house is a lot bigger than our old apartment, and since there is always someone home, he doesn?t have to stay in his crate very often. Their backyard is fenced in, so he has over an acre to run around and play. He seems to be very happy here, and I think our family dog, Moe, has been good for him.

It has been an adjustment for my family though; Moe is older and very well-behaved, and they are getting used to Cody?s Basenji quirks. I tried to explain to them that he is the ultimate escape artist and that they may have to watch him while he is outside. Well, my mother quickly learned that lesson the first day we were there. She was working in the garden and the dogs were outside with her. A few minutes later, she looked up and the gate was open. Moe was standing in the front yard, just outside the gate, looking at the neighbor?s house. She called for Cody, but he was no where to be seen. Mom ran to the front and Cody was at the neighbors? house. They were having a cookout, and he decided that he wanted to go. Luckily, Cody really likes people, because he let one of our neighbors? friends pick him up and hand him over the fence to my mom.

The next day, they put board in front of the gate until we could find something better to lock it with since Cody can open the latch. Well, Cody figured out how to move it, and then he opened the gate again. This time, he ran across the street to a store to see the people there. My dad was the one outside then, and he had to run across the street to get him. Thankfully, this is a very small town than the street isn?t very busy. As soon as he got him back in the house, he decided to tie the gate together with rope, as that has kept him from opening the gate to escape. Dad said next time he will call me at work to come home and chase after Cody myself.

The third day, I went outside to play with the boys before going to work. They weren?t ready to go in when it was time for me to leave, so since my brother and my dad were outside, I decided to go. I had just turned on my truck when Cody found a small gap in the fence and ran to the truck. I guess he wanted to go for a ride. As soon as I got out to get him, he darted across the street. I chased him for 15 minutes before I actually caught him. When I got home from work that afternoon, I fixed the gap and walked around the fence to make sure there weren?t anymore that he may be able to fit through.

Thankfully, there have been no more escape attempts, although my mom swears that Cody tries to open the doors because he jumps up to put his front paws on the door knobs.

Basenji: 3
Humans: 0

[etzbseder]

When I first got Medjai, he got out of the yard twice that summer to say hi to my dad doing yard work in the front yard.

[Basenjimamma]

Wow, I am glad he is safe after all his adventure, but I got to say…it brought some laughters to me. Wow, that is all I got to say, wow.

[sharronhurlbut]

The b's can sure show humans the holes in the fencing that we don't even see.
I am glad it ended well and that the b is finally settling in.

[AndrewnShango]

I'm glad he's safe and even more glad that Shango doesn't try and do those kind of things- looks like I lucked out!

[thunderbird8588]

Glad you and Cody are all settled in. It's very difficult for the un initiated to understand just how difficult Basenjis can be, especialy when they are used to Dogs that are very obedient. Sometimes i think they shouldnt even be called Dogs, lol because they are that different.

[Shaye's Mom]

Yes, wow! We live in fear of our dog escaping - some of our friends think we're just being paranoid when they come in or out of our house and we're yelling "Don't let the dog out!" and make frantic grabs for her collar. I don't believe people with Dogs understand the Basenji is almost a different species entirely! Lots of sneaky cat in there, I've noticed!

[wizard]

"I don't believe people with Dogs understand the Basenji is almost a different species entirely!"
Oh so true - I took Gossy to a friend's house not too long ago and proved that point. My friend assured me Gossy wouldn't be able to escape his yard - the fence was too low, there was stuff in front of the one hole, the garage doors were closed. Right, Gossy got out anyway! Luckily her dog tags jingle and as soon as I stopped hearing them I went looking for her - she just barely got down the end of the driveway and she came to my call.

[crystalncody]

Oh, definitely! My family is finally realizing that even though he understands commands like "come", he'll only do it if he wants to. Also, they now know that when you declare a place off-limits for him, that's the one place he tries the hardest to get to. My mom left the gate to her garden open yesterday while she was watering the plants and Cody snuck in while she wasn't looking. Apparently, he was hiding behind the tomatoes, because when she started watering them, he got sprayed as well, which scared him. He scrambled out of there and took out the tomatoes and a pepper plant too. She said his reaction was too funny to even be mad at him.

[Kalima62]

ahw Cody….you made me laugh in this last funny thing you did!! I think he's so cute and i can imagine him scramblig to get away from the water spray and digging out the tomatoes and peppers....so funny!!! Just like a cartoon!!!!:p

[crystalncody]

Well, it happened again! Cody escaped. This time my aunt was visiting my mom, and she let him out by accident. I was taking a nap because I have to work overnight tonight and I heard her call for him. I jumped out of bed, still groggy, and ran outside in my pajamas. At first, he just ran around the front yard, which was ok, but the closer I got to him, the further he ran, until finally he was out of the yard and running from house to house marking territory. Moe tried to help me get him back into the yard (maybe his shepherding instincts?). Cody loves it when Moe circles around him to start a game of chase, so Moe tried that at first while I was still trying to catch up to them. I finally caught up to him with Moe's help after he had marked territory in 5 or 6 different yards. It still took about 30 minutes of chasing him around to catch him. I had taken Cody's harness off because it was starting to irritate him under his front legs, so it was very hard to actually catch him. He slipped through my hands 4 times before I could actually grasp him and pick him up. He was standing on one of our neighbors' porches. The man came out and I apologized and explained what happened. He told me that he recently took in a stray female dog, which may explain why is was so hard to get Moe (who never leaves the yard) to follow me home as I carried Cody.

Thankfully, Cody didn't run in the street this time, although one man did stop when he got close to the road, which I am very grateful for.

I think I'm going to try to remedy his running down the street by taking him for a walk around the neighborhood. I normally take him for walks in the park or at the beach since some people here let their dogs roam and one of them barks aggressively when people walk past his yard.

Basenji: 4
Humans: still 0

[sharronhurlbut]

Can you put up a babygate at the front door *or whatever door he got out?
Humans can step over it, and it might be a reminder to whoever opens the door that the dog will run.

[Basenjimamma]

Wow, you are lucky, and so is Cody.
Babygate idea is a good one, we do that sometimes when there are a lot of kids visiting. We also have these fairly bold, somewhat eyecatching homemade signs on the inside of all doors leading out…stating...LOOK OUT FOR FAST BASENJIS..PLEASE CLOSE DOOR RAPIDLY. I even have on of those on the outside of my backdoor where only a few people see it...cause it is kind of ugly. But it works, everybody (not kids, hence that babygate) sees the sign and knows instantly what it means.
I even have told a few of our visitors since we got our foster Bana, "if you don't feel secure enough in your opening and closing that door, let me know and I will hold the dogs", I hope that isn't rude, I am merely trying to keep them 4-legged kids safe, and the visitors from feeling bad if they manage to rush through..
Everybody in our surrounding area knows Otis got hit by a car a month ago, so they are all real vigilant in keeping the dogs safe.

Man they're fast aren't they?

[crystalncody]

I hadn't thought of that. This is the first time he escaped through the house. Before, when he escaped, it was because he had opened the gate to the fence or found a hole large enough to squeeze through. Normally, he doesn't run to the door when we have visitors. He's standoffish with strangers that enter until he can sniff them out and usually hangs out in the kitchen until they sit down, and he's too eager to get ear scratches from the people he knows to think about escaping.

I guess that since we fixed the gate to the fence and that he hasn't tried to run out of the house at all since we moved here, I was lulled into a false sense of security. Now I'm paranoid that he will get out again. I have something that can act as a babygate until I can go buy one (I live in the middle of nowhere, so the drive is over an hour to get to the nearest store that carries that kind of stuff). I'd rather take precautionary measures than have something bad happen to him.

[crystalncody]

Yes, Basenjimama, so fast! I was so thankful to have Moe help me. He treats Cody like a mischievious little brother that he constantly has to look after. The first thing I thought of was making a sign to put on the door, but I definitely have to get a baby gate just in case he does try to run again.

[Basenjimamma]

I am just so glad you got him..and nobody got hurt. The sign might not be fool proof, but it will make you more vigilant about the dogs in the house..AS soon as our garage door opens, if we have been out and about, I will tell my kids.."Ok, now remember the B's are inside the utility room, don't open the door unless you're quick or the garage door is down", and they are like.."Ok Ok. Already, we know.." They have gotten so good at it..yippee, one hurdle down, 50 more to go..

[youngandtired]

I was telling my sister that Basenjis can not be off leash, free to run. She said, I can't believe that, you just don't want to let Sahara off that's all. I replied, you just don't understand Basenjis, and she gave me that look, I just droppped it and decided that she just doesn't get it, that's for sure. My Basenji, and I will not let her off leash to run.

[crystalncody]

I totally understand that. At the moment, I only let him off leash in our backyard (it's fenced in) if I'm out there with him. Anyone else that lets him out takes him on the leash. He get grumpy because of it, but I'm not chancing it.

[JazzysMom]

We were out of town last week and our daughter called to tell us that the dogs had gotten out somehow. They were in the back yard… or so my daughter thought.... when a neighbor called to tell her that the dogs had just come bounding out of the woods at her place. Rebecca ran for the leashes and some cookies, hurried to the door, flung it open....and there was Keoki on the porch waiting to be let in. Jazzy wasn't far behind.
We were very lucky.
Turns out, one of the kids had left the back gate open.

[Basenjimamma]

I am so glad they both returned..scary. I was told a long time ago to make sure you walk you dog past your house in the front so they know/recognize where they live, if they only see a backyard, yet get out on the front, they don't know which house is theirs..makes sense.