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

Suggested Topics

  • Dog Tales

    Basenji Talk
    18
    2 Votes
    18 Posts
    4k Views
    sanjibasenjiS
    I found the transcript from the documentary. If the age part is true, the rest is not (unless there's difference between our European bred Basenjis and those in Africa): NARRATOR: Sharing the same curly-tailed trait [as the Akita] is the venerable African Basenji. DEBBYE TURNER: Basenji is the granddad of ancient dogs. However, they’re not that trainable. They will not do obedience tricks like other breeds. Come back here. And here’s an example! NARRATOR: There is something else very wolf-like about a Basenji… SOUND OF DOGS HOWLING NARRATOR: …its yodel. These breeds reveal much about how dogs may have appeared and acted after they first transitioned from pack hunters to scavengers and provide clues as to why they may have first appealed to humans. DEBBYE TURNER: You won’t see Basenjis doing tricks, but because of their closeness to their wolf ancestors, they are considered very adept hunters. Here's the video link. Basenjis mentioned 25 min. into it. https://www.pbs.org/video/dog-tales-vskr2y/
  • Who is this dog?

    Basenji Talk
    2
    0 Votes
    2 Posts
    2k Views
    BenkuraB
    I think I know!!! I think it's Dutch - Abotere's Zahir for Hicel. Oh dear, I speak to this dog at every show :o
  • NOT silent dog

    Basenji Talk
    16
    0 Votes
    16 Posts
    4k Views
    VanessaV
    No offense but I would of yanked that womans hair. What the heck was she thinking. :(
  • 0 Votes
    21 Posts
    8k Views
    BarklessdogB
    Owning a basenji requires a good sense of humor and a large dose of patience and a willingness to do some creative thinking to convince the basenjis what you want is really the same thing as what they want. So true, never a dull moment with these dogs
  • My dog is so dumb- My dog is so smart

    Basenji Talk
    14
    0 Votes
    14 Posts
    5k Views
    J
    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!
  • Bad dog!

    Basenji Talk
    5
    0 Votes
    5 Posts
    2k Views
    spitfirekrl1S
    That is a great idea, but it should be an adolescent for sure (seems to be the most trying stage). My mom also really liked our dog (the look, the no bark, typical things most people like) and she quickly changed her ideas. We were telling her about the time we had to babysit another dog and the things she did to let us know that she did not like another dog in our house (she did some very naughty things)! My mom said 'wow she is really a manipulating dog'. I said, yeah they are definately not a breed for everyone.