We bought a basket for the dog's toys.
But our little guy Razi decided that it was his place to sit on.
And Gaia had the same idea.
So we took this opportunity for a nice picture

@Janneke:

I know that an uneven growth is common with the bigger dogs, is it also with basenjis? Did Myran also have it as a pup?
I hope she'll settle before june. But she is still under nine months then, isn't she? Then the showing isn't too serious, is it?

Mirtillo will also have his 'show debut' in june. We are a bit 'worried' about his hind legs, but we'll see how he will end up

Our Gaia has her show debut in Antwerpen (Brabo show) on 12 april (next weekend).
We don't take showing too serious, just curious.
We love her anyway.

We started with Gaia when we got her (7 weeks).
Our breeder warned us for her to escape, but we thought: well, we try to train her in a safe environment and see how for we can get.
No shooting is certainly missed (dutch expression)
We went to very quiet places with no traffic at all.
When we were sure that there were no (other) dogs, humans etc. we let her off leach.
Then, at certain moments, we played hide en seek.
When Gaia had no attention for us, we quikly stand behind a big tree.
We saw that she became nervous and then we called her and rewarded her.
Later on, we learned her that the dogwhistle (we bought) means that there is something nice to get.
First we trained this at home.
And that something must be special!!
I understand that you are very carefull, and we would be to if our Gaia takes the "kuierlatten'" (dutch expression) but so far she listens, except when she plays with other dogs.
If the other dog leaves, Gaia goes with her / him and we have to walk back to catch her.
In Monster, a little town, just 5 kilometers from Naaldwijk, there is a place 1,5kilometers long, totally fenced ,where the entrance locks behind you.
Something like that is a perfect training place.

I hope you find something for Mirtillo!

@Janneke:

Ok, We extended the walks and put his food in the Kong or in his ball. It works pretty well.. He is only very energetic around 14.00 - 17.00. We can live with that.

I do notice that he can't really find his rest. He doesn't just lay down, but when we put him in his crate or sit with him, he immediatly falls asleep and snores.

We live in Naaldwijk, a little town. As we walk with Gaia in the neighbourhood we don't let her off leach, because of the cars. But we find it important that she can play freely everyday. So we discovered some places a bit further and use the car to get there. Maybe there are some places nearby Utrecht?

When Gaia is energetic although we went out with her, we sit with her, and give her something to chew on. Then, she falls asleep.

Our Basenji Gaia is now 15 weeks old. In the morning we do a 20 / 25 minutes walk with her. In the afternoon we usually go to a place where she can run and play freely with other dogs. When we see that she is getting tired (she stops chasing other dogs, losing interest in the other dogs) we know that it is time to go home. Sometimes she is tired after an hour, somtimes after a longer time. I know that some people use the method: for every week of age, a minute walk. We used this methode in the beginning, but we discovered that our Basenji simply had to much energy left over. We asked our vet for advice.
He said that it is better to watch your dog getting tired.

You're right!
My wife and I have animals since childhood and since we are maried, almost 25 years.
We are really animal-lovers and we can't stand it when folks take animals, just for their own satisfaction.
We once bought a abused Parrot for a lot of money, only to give this bird a better place.
I am delighted to her that someone of this forum understands what we are trying to say.
And the last thing we want, is that people think that you can establish a good relationship with your Basenji through yelling, hitting etc.
That kind of constantly fysicaly and mentaly abusing isn't right for no animal!

@Quercus:

<<we see="" correcting="" as="" the="" last="" posibility="" but="" we="" believe="" that="" sometimes="" it="" is="" necessary.="">>

I don't think you will find anybody here that disagrees with that…at least not that has spoken up about training issues. Corrections definitely have a place...but some folks' form of correction ends up doing more damage than help. Yelling, spanking, etc don't have much meaning to a dog.

I think corrections in the form of voice are particularly effective during puppyhood when puppies are learning all about what is acceptable. I think physical corrections with an adult dog who is showing aggression in any form is a mistake.</we>

I agree that there are all kinds of "tools" you can use to establish a good relation (friendship) with your Basenji. We use, I think, 60% rewarding, 35% ingnoring en 5% correcting. Ofcourse, our human voice is the most important tool for rewarding and correcting. I only wanna make a general statement that punishment (correcting is a better word) is not totally out of the question.
Our Gaia learned that we don't accept growling when we pick her up, and it worked. While we picking her up, we talked with a friendly voice, let her see the things outside through the windows and now she loves it.
That are the most important tools we use.
But when she showed her teeth we did correcting her.
With a low voice we sayed "no" and ignored her.
Mostly that was enough,
But when it wasn't, we grabbed her in the neck.
We see correcting as the last posibility but we believe that sometimes it is necessary.

We take our puppy to a puppy class since she was 9 weeks old!
It is a training working by positive rewarding.
But a puppy training is just a supplement to the way you dealing with your pup. Puppy training is less then 10% of the time you spend with your dog.
I fully agree that especially a Basenji needs positive training. But I am not convinced that only positiveness will work. In the 80's most dogtraining schools trained with negative attention. Through research men dicovered that positive rewarding was better. I agree, but I now I see that any kind of punishment is wrong. And that is something I totally disagree with.
In nature, a leader of the pack has also his limits and does not react with positive rewarding.
I think that the time you spend with your Basenji is the most important. My wife is a housewife and spend everyday with Gaia.
Everyday we walk with her in the woods, beach, take her with us everywhere.
She gets everything she wants, but she will know that we stay in charge.

Our puppy Gaia (11 weeks old) felled from the stairs while she was chasing one of our cats. She had a painly chest, and when we picked her up she growled.
We went to the vet who gave her some painkillers, but first the growling stayed. We picked her up gently several times and talked friendly words and we ignored her growling.When she was really angry, we let her know that we didn't accept that behaviour. At that moments we "bite" her in the neck with our hands and say "no".We try to feed her up by positive rewards, but sometimes she need to know that we are in charge.
We don't accept growling followed by "teeth".
We read a lot of dogbooks including the Basenji book from Kenworthy.
And she also says: "If you are not an alpha person by nature, don't try to pretend that you are; your Basenji will see right through you. You need not to be a drill sergeant or a bully but you do need to be in charge".
Constantly say "no" and punishment is the wrong way for a Basenji pup, but she must know who are the leaders of the pack.

The Siamese is a Lilac-point. She is almost 14 years old!
We once were Siamese breeders and experienced over the years that a Siamese is very easy for adults, kids and other animals.
We also have two British Shorthair's (black). They are 14 and 17 years old.
We can't cuddle these to as much as we cuddle the Siamese, and they also keep a bigger distance with Gaia.