I have to chime & agree that my dogs do not like to go where they play unless they REALLLY can't hold it. Try to make a space in the yard for potty only (if you can fence it in do that) and teach him that he can potty there & play in the rest of the yard.
I too have to walk a few minutes before they can potty. I also noticed that my dogs will potty after a little walking. Maybe you can take him for a quick 5 min walk to "motivate" the bowel movement LOL 
and then take him to the yard where you want him to potty.
Good luck!
My dog has to trek far away before he will go. He also won't go out in the open, so he has to find just the right blade of grass growing next to just the right shrubbery before he will do anything.
If you find a solution to the hike before the potty, let me know!
I don't have a hiking problem with this issue, but after reading these posts, Duke would always pee & poop out in the front yard. (not visually pleasing), but now I might assume that he considers the back yard, his playing area and wanted to keep it clean - nice for when the kids are playing back there too. I had recently cut off his access to the front yard because he would harrass the pedestrians, and now notice he will "go" in the brushy wooded area in the very back of the yard. I love that - no more poop scooping! (I hope)
My Tobias will not poop in our yard either, but strangely enough I think he knows exactly where the property line is, he will walk me to the edge of our property to do his biz. Does anyone have an answer to pulling when on the lead? has anyone tried the Halti? does it work?
Does anyone have an answer to pulling when on the lead? has anyone tried the Halti? does it work?
I sure don't. We've tried a number of things with Giz, but he just keeps pulling. Some days are better than others, it just depends on what kind of mood he's in. It's either the "oooo squirrel" mood or "yummy yum yum, squirrel, squirrel squirrel" mood.:D there is no in between.
Rocky is a very funny dog. After finding the right spot he will spin around several times only to eliminate in a completely different spot
There is a whole thread about pulling on while on lead. I know some people have done well using the gentle leader or easy walk harness by Premier. I have been working with my dogs on loose lead walking pretty consistently for 2 years now and though they will still pull it is much less than in the past. Just this week my obedience instructor commented on how proud she was to see that my basenjis are walking on a loose leash more often than not now.
Jazz has no choice but to potty in our yard, as it is fully fenced. But she never goes close to the house.
When we visit my mother, who has 30 acres, Jazz never poos anywhere near the house. I like that….except at night and in the very early morning when we go out in the dark -- Mom lives in the mountains near the woods, and we've seen our share of cougar scat in the yard!
Sahara will go in our yard, front or back, depending on her mood. She is great most of the time about making it snappy. The only time I have trouble with her going fast is when it has been raining and the yard is soaked. Of course I have to do the poop scooping , but that is ok, better than the house. Also at night she will not go out by herself, so I take her out on a leash in the yard, (did this when she was just a puppy) and she will go in 5 mins, but not on a leash and it takes forever, go figure!!!! I also have a doggie door so she goes out all during the day, and when I am at work.
Yup I think most of our dogs need to find the right spot and are very selective when they go potty.
Make certain that if you have long grass or long shrubbery nearby that if he/she goes and does her business there that you check for ticks if you have ticks in your area every day!!
My girl got a paralysis tick on her when she was 13 years old at the time and she was very close to death. It only took a day with the tick on her before she started dragging her hind legs (they were paralyzed) and getting VERY sick. We were very fortunate the vet was able to save her and she was able to recover her leg functions completely.
We didn't keep our girl outside she was an indoor dog, we live in a suburban area and never thought that could have happened to us but it did.
What? A paralysis tick? We live in TN. and I dont think I have ever heard of such a thing. Do you use Advantx or Frontline on you basenji? If you do and it did'nt work to protect your girl, let us know. Here in the south we have a big problem w/ fleas, ticks, and mosqitoes.With the winters getting warmer and warmer, I think prevention is key, wherever you are. Thanks for the heads up.
Yonae12 is in Australia where everything can kill you. Here in the USA we don't have the same ferocious critters, luckily. Some ticks here can cause Lyme Disease and there are some people who have allergies to certain kinds of ticks but that's all. Of course, your b could have an allergy but unlikely. I spent some time recently in Australia so I had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about their fauna.
Also at night she will not go out by herself, so I take her out on a leash in >>the yard,
LOL Jazz won't go out alone at night either. She just hunkers down at the edge of the porch, peering out into the darkness {we have woods up against our fence.} We have to make our old dog go out with her. Once Gypsy steps one foot out the door, Jazz will take off into the darkness. I guess she just needs to know that someone is there.
Gypsy is 12.5 yrs old though, and beginning to show definite signs of age. In another couple of years, I suppose it'll be me out there in the dark with Jazzy.
Not sure what was being used before, my mum was taking care of the bathing as she was a family dog. Before this incident the only time when our girl ever got a flee on her is when we put her in a boarding kennel for a holiday we went on – never again!
But yah whatever we were using before for the ticks didn't work! 
I can remember the vet saying that front line is good and we used that after she was in for a three night stay. It was horrible, I didn't sleep a wink.
Shelby is right, there is probably more of a potential with the ticks in Australia, esp. on the eastern coast where I am from, but the paralysis tick also exists in the US and in Europe too. So I guess you can't be completely safe anywhere.
I've been living in Florida for six months now (moved bcuz my hubby is from the US), the skeeters grow pretty big here too!! LOL. I didn't feel right taking Ash over here as she very old and is my "family's" dog, even though technically I picked her out of the litter, trained her and fed her for years. I miss her alot!
This is all too funny. It definately must be a basenji thing. Alani will also walk very far away to do her business. She will never pee or poo any where near our building. And she also spins around for about five minutes until she poos and even then she sometimes isn't satisfied with the spot and will have to walk even farther. She won't go where dogs frequent (most people don't clean up after their dogs in my complex, very annoying) so we have to find a, somewhat, unused area.
Oh yes, Jazzy usually must spin a few times before she can actually "go".
I've never had another dog do that.
Giz doesn't spin but he sort of seperates the grass with his paw, like he is sifting through it to be sure there isn't anything there before he squats. He has to have his back to us, too. When my hubby and I first started walking both dogs together, we couldn't figure out why he would NOT go. It took us 15 blocks before we caught on that there was someone on both sides of him so he couldn't turn his back to us.:D Poor Gizzy!
Oh yes, Jazzy usually must spin a few times before she can actually "go".
How funny!! Both my B's do the same thing!
At the wintertime, my dogs will pee near by front door. But won't poop. As you can guess, there is some difficulties about that when it's really cold weather and lot of snow. Temperature might be under -40 c in worst case.
Lexi will pee on grass, but prefers pinestraw. She will not poop unless we take her to "her spots" which are at the opposite ends of the earth. We can take her around and around and spend a lot of time– OR we can just go right to her spot and she'll go as soon as we get there. So at least we get to choose: time or distance. hahahahaha...
