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Service Dogs

Basenji Talk
  • I'm proud of my B
    We walked into a kid with bone cancer & He made everyone smile.
    That is the magic of a Basenji.
    Cheers,
    Any advice does your Basenji like to eat paper…

  • toilet paper, news paper, important papers…...what paper doesn't a basenji enjoy!

    I am happy that you have him doing service work! B' make everyone smile.

  • Indeed, I have never met a paper that my B did not like. Some more than others, of course, Tissues and paper towels being the most desirable playthings.
    I think it is great that you have your dog going in as a therapy/service dog. I think that might be something I would be interested in doing once I retire from my current employment and have some more time. It can't be wrong that animals, for many folks, are therapeutic. My fella makes me happy every day when I come home. :)

  • Are Basenji a good breed to be a service dog ( guide dog, scent dog for allergy and Diabetes)?

  • We adopted Bunmi from BRAT in 2006. She is a petite black/white female basenji. We always knew she had a special fondness for children, however her behavior yesterday went way above and beyond what I would expect from any basenji. My husband and I are caring for little Michael, my hubby's adult son who has special needs. Yesterday he was making his usual noises while in his room playing video games. I heard him fall and immediately ran to check on him. Bunmi reached him first and was warning our other 2 basenjis to get away. Bunmi stayed with Michael as I called 911 and paced around us as I held him so he could breath. We spent several hours in the ER as Michael came out of the seizure and returned to normal. Now that we are home, Bunmi will not let him out of her sight unless Hubby is with him. She curls up no more than 2 foot away from him, no matter where he goes.

    Is there anyone who has successfully trained their basenji for seizure detection? I would appreciate any advice I can get. We are working on several ideas (i.e. web cam feeding to the tv in the living room) to help us keep a close eye on Michael. Having Bunmi on the detection/protection team would be such a blessing. She has already proved her willingness and has yet again given us reason to be thankful for BRAT and the wonderful work they do.

  • Great story, basenji are amazing with the people they call family. My hope is to give that feeling to every sick person that could benefit having a basenji around. They not the best dog to pick for a service dog , my basenji seems to enjoy it.
    Let me know how things go.
    Thanks

  • Do basenji like paper, only when awake. Oh wait.. in their sleep they are probably dreaming about it. :)

  • Wonderful!
    Our Lela loves to tear apart any plastic bag…

  • @Tp3:

    Great story, basenji are amazing with the people they call family. My hope is to give that feeling to every sick person that could benefit having a basenji around. They not the best dog to pick for a service dog , my basenji seems to enjoy it.
    Let me know how things go.
    Thanks

    I agree, I have trained service dogs. My son bought what he thought was a shepherd mix to me for a crate training problem. Surprise, guess who is now here learning about how to train a basenji. The neighbors thought I was crazy to use horse whispering techniques and some rather creative approaches on her that worked with feral cats, lol.
    My son continued using conventional training methods. [lmao].
    I don't know if I could get this particular dog passed a Good Citizen test. I do know I am already training her in service work.
    For example. I have three different ways I instruct her to sit: hand signal, verbal, collar jerk. This works for me because if she "pretends" to not understand one command, she gets the next one. She learned that if she ignores all three, its a 15 minute sitting time out, horror of horrors for a BJ.

    I repeat, this dog does NOT meet my standard for a service dog, but training is an art, and I am an artist. (remember artists suffer for their art, lol)

  • Amazing stories in here

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    In your position, where you really have to take her out a lot, I understand. And I hope her comfort continues. My point was it is situational need, not dog need to be that social. :) I have a slim chance of that having worked with my current 2, but with my incredibly dog aggressive first one, I'd have been out in a basket muzzle and warning everyone to keep their dogs away.
  • Does your dog do this?

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    Rita JeanR
    Jaycee digs same way but she does somersaults head down over she gos first time neighbor saw it they could not beleive it. I think neighbor came over every day for a week waiting to see it again and Jaycee would do it. Yes I very much second that digging usually will cause the great B-500. Rita Jean
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    JazzysMomJ
    @tanza: Got ya…. and how nice of her to sit up and puke!!! :eek: I am lucky (knock on wood) all mine ride great... crate pads keep them from sliding around and they just sleep anyway.... Sure makes clean-up easier! I used to keep wipes in the car to clean her, esp. before shows! ew. I just layer plastic bags in the trash can, and tie 'em off as used, then toss when we get to where there's an outside trash can. I'd make video to show, but really, that'd be gross :eek: She's really good in her harness, so it works out quite well. As I said, Keoki continues to be my car challenge in terms of how to best travel with him. But he loves going in the car in general.
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    Yes, but it take a lot of work…
  • My dog is so dumb- My dog is so smart

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    Hollie will hide her treats and her dog food. Her favorite hiding place is under MY pillow in the bed. She has tried to hide her entire food bowl by pushing one of her plush toys with her nose in an attempt to get the toy on top of her food bowl. Why doesn't she just use her mouth to pick it up and place it on the bowl? Silly dog!
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    nobarkusN
    Yes I agree Pat, Fort Funston could get very crowded and dangerous for smaller dogs as packs of bigger dogs playing could cause injury. My 2 Basenjis were very good and stayed pretty close to me and got used to the crowds. The only problem I had there was with this lady who had an older Tri color female Basenji. It would bite my blk/wht, Nika who was 1-1/2 on the butt. A few times of that and I stayed way away from her. The problem is Nika was a very playful girl and never did anything like that. A few times of getting nipped on the butt started her doing it to other dogs and Basenjis. A Basenji would want to play and Nika would chase and give a nip and the the other dog would get mad and a fight would occur. Nobody would ever get hurt thankfully. It was rare that it would happen as I took them there for 9 years, mostly on the weekend without problem. We had a lot of fun and people loved the Basenjis! Ringo, the red/wht was a very entertaining clown when we'd go down to the beach.