• Stop wearing socks, and resort to exclusively sandals 😉


  • Haha! My male will take folded socks and have them unrolled in about two seconds flat. My female used to be all about the socks but has grown out of that….I hope. Tucker never chews holes in them, he just likes the puzzle of taking them apart.


  • I am lucky with my current boy. He doesn't chew clothing…..not even underwear (one of my bitches used to chew the crotch out of dirty underwear when she raided the laundry basket). He will play with a sock roll, but doesn't damage it. He doesn't ever damage his plush toys, either! And you've got to love a Basenji that doesn't eat tissues!

    The aforementioned bitch ate a whole sock once, and fortunately barfed it up a day later when she couldn't pass it through. Only solution I know is the one offered. Don't leave them where she can find them. 🙂


  • suki loves to chew on any kind of fabric - esp. socks and underwear. so… clean = in a drawer and dirty = in a clothes hamper. if i mess up, that's my fault (and she will let know if i lapse within minutes)!


  • Buddy flips the socks around like they're prey or a toy.


  • Our hamper is sequestered where Watson can not get to it…dirty laundry is placed in the hamper and clean laundry is also kept inaccessible to basenji jaws.

    Inappropriate items are immediately removed from said jaws upon discovery and replaced with appropriate ones 😉


  • Is this your first B? and if that is your only problem (with the socks) consider yourself lucky…..I have to make sure the bathroom door is always closed or else the toilet paper is in a stream down the hallway, food must be pushed to the back of the counter when left alone....I found out quickly that my boy (Tucker) has a farther reach than my female (Becca), he is too smart, he will drop his one paw from the counter which gives him a farther reach. Socks and underwear go into the clothes hamper once they come off, sunglasses and cell phones are never to be left on an end table or coffee table....
    I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I remember right now.


  • @krunzer:

    Is this your first B? and if that is your only problem (with the socks) consider yourself lucky…..I have to make sure the bathroom door is always closed or else the toilet paper is in a stream down the hallway, food must be pushed to the back of the counter when left alone....I found out quickly that my boy (Tucker) has a farther reach than my female (Becca), he is too smart, he will drop his one paw from the counter which gives him a farther reach. Socks and underwear go into the clothes hamper once they come off, sunglasses and cell phones are never to be left on an end table or coffee table....
    I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I remember right now.

    +1 - exactly!

  • Houston

    Yeah our first 2 actually… Alot of that sounds the same, well for our damn boy! Our girl only chews clothes and destroys all toys, the boy however will be neck deep in your plastic cup drinking away whatever it is if you wander to far from it, and has made the connection that if you pull things from off the kitchen counter then food usually falls with...as for the bathroom our boy likes q-tips the best that's priority 1 in there for him

  • First Basenji's

    The objective is not to let them at it…..but over time you can teach them that socks are inappropriate. Make a game out of it by putting a pile of shoes and socks in a pile, the other pile is the cool stuff that they are allowed to chew. Praise the good pile when they approach it and "uh uh" to your stuff. Their toys have to be MORE FUN! (you may even have to dab a bit of peanut butter to make it interesting). I have discarded all the toys that are soft-due to his chewing and 'indiscriminate ingestion' and doctor bills thereafter..... The game may or may not work, because a Basenji is a Basenji with their minds made up way before you realize it....I have made adjustments to the garbage bin in the bathrooms.....Uzie loves to get into them. Thankfully, not the kitchen pail. Which goes up on the counter when I leave the house. The trick is to not leave temptations around the house....!!! Amen!


  • Bedroom/bathroom is off limits for my B. He's never had free roam in those areas and I have had zero issues to-date. All bedrooms and bathrooms have doors, so keep them closed.

    Simple as that. 🙂


  • As for the garbage in the kitchen, I have went through numerous garbage cans in order to find the perfect one that they can't get into. The ones that you have to step on to get the lid up work the best….but make sure the lid is flat and doesn't have a lip on it, cause they will get their nose under it and push away until they get their head in the garbage can. The other one we bought had two flaps that when you stepped on it the flaps folded open. The one we have now has a tab on it and you can lock the top.....best thing I have found yet!


  • When Spencer was a puppy, he would steal a sock and run. We would immediately chase him, then try to tug-of-war it away from him. It was a game, and when the silly humans finally figured this out and stopped, the clever puppy stopped, too. We lost some socks in the process, but they soon lost their charm. Of course, picking them up worked, too, but not everybody in the household did that. 🙂


  • Keeping the B's out of dirty clothes, socks, whatever is pretty simple, really - keep the hamper in the bathroom and keep the bathroom door closed. On laundry day, mine love to see me carry the hamper out of the bathroom to the washer and dryer - so I have to get things into the machines really fast, and put what doesn't fit on top of the dryer then shut the door to the wash area. Otherwise, really - what they can get is theirs, or so they figure! Welcome to basenji world.


  • And remember to close the washing machine door if you're not going to start it straight away!!!


  • @krunzer:

    As for the garbage in the kitchen, I have went through numerous garbage cans in order to find the perfect one that they can't get into. The ones that you have to step on to get the lid up work the best….but make sure the lid is flat and doesn't have a lip on it, cause they will get their nose under it and push away until they get their head in the garbage can. The other one we bought had two flaps that when you stepped on it the flaps folded open. The one we have now has a tab on it and you can lock the top.....best thing I have found yet!

    I went with one of those that has a locking lid. Fortunately, my B is not motivated enough to learn how to unlock it (I say it in a way that assumes they can learn how, because we all know how crafty these pups can be).


  • No socks for my B's! They chew the crotch out of dirty underwear! Consider yourself lucky! lol


  • My son says that with basenjis you have to love the dog more than you love your stuff!


  • True that!!!


  • Kebasmom - you have a very wise son.

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