First of all, puppies bite. In the beginning (at the stage you are now) it's due to play and/or tasting the world. He will lose his puppy teeth when he's around 4-6 months old, and at this point he will start biting (and chewing) due to his gums itching and hurting. Most puppies are done with biting when they get their new teeth if they've had consistent training.

Cujo moments are, as you've guessed, usually in connection to the puppy getting overly tired or over-stimulated. Or just over-excited because they're happy, or because they just pooped or peed. Just like human children, they get hyper and make a lot of noise, do things they're not allowed to do, and generally make us crazy. If you see it coming, you can usually distract them and calm them down with nosework, like sniffing mats, or calm treat toys.

Now, some puppies bite more than others. I've had an extreme biter, and if you screamed, said "no!" or pushed her away, it triggered her to bite harder. Much harder. I see you mention timeouts. That's a good idea, but if you move the puppy to a timeout zone, it's slow, you have to give it attention by picking him up, and your puppy might not even make the connection. The simplest way is to actively ignore. You need to teach the puppy that biting = boring, and it's a simpler way of doing timeout.

If you are playing with the puppy on the floor and he bites, immediately stand up, turn away from him, cross your arms over your chest (to discourage jumping) and look up at the ceiling. Never angry, just calm and demonstrative until he stops and relaxes (or goes away). If he's biting on the lap, put him down, stand up and do the same thing. If you're walking across the floor, stop and do the same. Biting = boring.

The difficult bit is to be consistent. Everyone in the household has to do this, and if you react to his biting, he wins. Getting a reaction is play to him. So put on old clothes so that you don't worry about them being ruined, put on shoes or boots so he can't hurt your feet when biting, and wear jeans or pants that protect your legs from pain as well.

This is not needed for every single puppy, but my parents had an extreme biter. Took 10 months to get her to stop biting. The reason was that my mother and sister refused to wear "protective" clothes, so they often reacted or kept walking if they crossed the floor and she "attacked." Sometimes because she hurt them, sometimes because they were worried about ruining their pretty clothes, and sometimes because they were in a hurry. My father and I dressed for the biting as soon as we got home, and always took the time, even if we had to stand still for 10 minutes. She completely stopped biting the two of us when she was around 5 months old.

So to sum it up: he will bite you to some extent until he gets his adult teeth between at 4 and 6 months. You will be able to reduce his biting before then if you train him, but there's a good chance you won't see any results for a couple of weeks, and even then he will still forget himself sometimes. If you keep changing methods because you don't see results after a few days, you won't get anywhere. It's not just about training, though. He's a baby, and he needs to gain the mental capacity to make the connection between his behavior and your response.

I've had 6 puppies in 20+ years of being a dog owner, and I've cried in regret every single time. I've felt upset, exhausted and scared that I'm not able to handle it. That I don't want my life to be like this. I have a 13 week old puppy right now, and I cried last week! But it's temporary. I made a choice, adopted a puppy, and I have to be strong enough to make sure I'm her forever home. It will be okay, it will get a little easier every week, and I just have to hang in there. I can do it, and so can you. Don't think that someone else can do it better than you, because that's not true. You CAN do this, I promise. If you've already managed to teach him 3 simple tricks, then you have the skills. All you need now is patience, and as long as you remember that puppyhood is temporary, it's a lot easier to handle the frustrating parts.

@yodabasenji
Oh, I see! The fact that it got worse all of a sudden has a very simple explanation.

When puppies get taken away from their mom, their littermates, the breeder and their home, it's a big adjustment. Even confident puppies have a lot of new things to deal with. Learn to know their home, the outside area, the new sounds and smells where they now live, the family, possibly other pets, and in many cases some visitors. It's a lot!

Many puppies (not all) will have a noticeable change of behavior after 1-2 weeks in their new home. Some get more intense in their biting/chewing, some become less interested in their owners, some get more unruly and test out new things in the house, like hanging from curtains. That's a GOOD thing, believe it or not. It means he has become comfortable with his new living situation, and is nothing to worry about.

First of all, puppies bite. In the beginning (at the stage you are now) it's due to play and/or tasting the world. He will lose his puppy teeth when he's around 4-6 months old, and at this point he will start biting (and chewing) due to his gums itching and hurting. Most puppies are done with biting when they get their new teeth if they've had consistent training.

Cujo moments are, as you've guessed, usually in connection to the puppy getting overly tired or over-stimulated. Or just over-excited because they're happy, or because they just pooped or peed. Just like human children, they get hyper and make a lot of noise, do things they're not allowed to do, and generally make us crazy. If you see it coming, you can usually distract them and calm them down with nosework, like sniffing mats, or calm treat toys.

Now, some puppies bite more than others. I've had an extreme biter, and if you screamed, said "no!" or pushed her away, it triggered her to bite harder. Much harder. I see you mention timeouts. That's a good idea, but if you move the puppy to a timeout zone, it's slow, you have to give it attention by picking him up, and your puppy might not even make the connection. The simplest way is to actively ignore. You need to teach the puppy that biting = boring, and it's a simpler way of doing timeout.

If you are playing with the puppy on the floor and he bites, immediately stand up, turn away from him, cross your arms over your chest (to discourage jumping) and look up at the ceiling. Never angry, just calm and demonstrative until he stops and relaxes (or goes away). If he's biting on the lap, put him down, stand up and do the same thing. If you're walking across the floor, stop and do the same. Biting = boring.

The difficult bit is to be consistent. Everyone in the household has to do this, and if you react to his biting, he wins. Getting a reaction is play to him. So put on old clothes so that you don't worry about them being ruined, put on shoes or boots so he can't hurt your feet when biting, and wear jeans or pants that protect your legs from pain as well.

This is not needed for every single puppy, but my parents had an extreme biter. Took 10 months to get her to stop biting. The reason was that my mother and sister refused to wear "protective" clothes, so they often reacted or kept walking if they crossed the floor and she "attacked." Sometimes because she hurt them, sometimes because they were worried about ruining their pretty clothes, and sometimes because they were in a hurry. My father and I dressed for the biting as soon as we got home, and always took the time, even if we had to stand still for 10 minutes. She completely stopped biting the two of us when she was around 5 months old.

So to sum it up: he will bite you to some extent until he gets his adult teeth between at 4 and 6 months. You will be able to reduce his biting before then if you train him, but there's a good chance you won't see any results for a couple of weeks, and even then he will still forget himself sometimes. If you keep changing methods because you don't see results after a few days, you won't get anywhere. It's not just about training, though. He's a baby, and he needs to gain the mental capacity to make the connection between his behavior and your response.

I've had 6 puppies in 20+ years of being a dog owner, and I've cried in regret every single time. I've felt upset, exhausted and scared that I'm not able to handle it. That I don't want my life to be like this. I have a 13 week old puppy right now, and I cried last week! But it's temporary. I made a choice, adopted a puppy, and I have to be strong enough to make sure I'm her forever home. It will be okay, it will get a little easier every week, and I just have to hang in there. I can do it, and so can you. Don't think that someone else can do it better than you, because that's not true. You CAN do this, I promise. If you've already managed to teach him 3 simple tricks, then you have the skills. All you need now is patience, and as long as you remember that puppyhood is temporary, it's a lot easier to handle the frustrating parts.

If it's cherry eye, you can actually gently push it back in place by using your thumb. Not by touching the eye or the red part, but by massaging gently below the eye. This should get it back in place. If it keeps returning quickly, then yes, surgery is the only way to go. But some dogs only get it a few times their whole lives, and some get it a couple of times a year. Then it's better to avoid surgery, especially on an old dog.

I won't talk about Cesar, but I have raised 3 french bulldogs and one boxer from they were puppies, then we got our basenji. Before Yuna came into our lives, we read a lot about the breed. I read that kindness, praise and rewards is the best way to raise them, and I have to agree. I can only talk about the individual we got and not all basenjis in general, but I had to take a few steps back and reconsider methods when training Yuna.

I have always been a fan of positive reinforcement, praise, and basically teaching dogs in much the way we teach our kids. Punishment in our house consists of the fun ending. Like a puppy biting means that I will remove myself, turn my back, and ignore it until it stops. So the puppy learns that biting = no more fun. This sort of training takes time, but the point is that it's learning. Some learn quickly, some take more time. We have to expect this, since individual dog mature at a different rate.

With Yuna, I realized that any "rough" behavior from my side brought out the fight in her. Like if she stood with her front legs on the table, she was okay if I pushed her down gently or blocked her access with my body, but if i pushed with even a hint of force, she would start biting (as a puppy, that is). Not hard, but she was protesting my behavior. My experience with dogs made me realize that I had to take a step back and train this particular dog with even more kindness and patience than I normally did.

To be honest, I have no problems seeing why the basenji as a breed is known to have aggression issues. A very proud, strong-willed dog with a lot of courage won't be pushed around without fighting back. Violence breeds violence, and sadly there is a lot of dog training that consists of showing the dog that we are their physical superiors by using force, instead of teaching them and guiding them based on well know learning principles.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been rather busy these last few days.

I don't have the shedding problem with the bulldogs, but I have heard the pugs can be pretty extreme! Yuna is actually more cuddly than all of the frenchies I've had, as long as it's with her family or a houseguest. With strangers we meet on walks, she will greet them politely and then she's usually done with them.

Our thinking before we got Yuna was that we wanted a breed that had a lot of the qualities we valued in our french bulldogs (and boxer before that). We wanted a short haired breed of fairly small size without being tiny, we wanted to avoid the worst barking breeds, but we also wanted a breed that didn't have so many health issues and could deal better with heat during the summer.

Personality-wise, we wanted a independent breed with a lot of personality and quirks. I know that's not for everyone, but we didn't the stereotypical "dog," if you know what I mean. And boy, did we get a strange one! I used to think my bulldogs had a lot of personality, but they fade in comparison to Yuna. She brings so much laugher into our lives. She can be our Red Devil, but also our little Egyptian Queen or our Cuddlebug.

Here's a picture of random Yuna weirdness.

My family did that. We've had french bulldogs for 10 years, and when my parents' lost theirs, they got a basenji. French bulldogs and pugs are very similar in more than just looks, as I'm sure you know! There are a lot of differences between those breeds and the basenji, but also a lot of similarities. At least that's my experience, but that's only with one basenji that's a little over 1 year old.

The cold is not really a problem for Yuna. Rain, on the other hand...that she hates. But cold and snow is pretty much like with all short haired breeds. Put a coat on her, maybe boots/socks, and don't stay still for long. Kinda like with people.

If I were to name the two biggest differences, it's that my french bulldogs have always been over social with strangers, annoyingly so at times. Yuna is just polite but reserved. The other thing is the range off leash + the hunting instinct. French bulldogs and pugs usually don't have much of that, but it's something you have to expect to find in a basenji.

Oh, I said two, but I have a third difference that is...tricky sometimes. Yuna is not much taller than a french bulldog, and she weighs less, but her reach is insane in comparison. Not to mention that she's more agile. Meaning that if you have a thieving puppy or young dog (I'm looking at you, Yuna!) it will have easy access to everything. So Yuna and her "big sister" are about the same size, but Yuna has twice the reach... The bonus is that if you're the sloppy type that leaves things out on the table or kitchen counter, you will soon learn not to do that.

Thank you!

I have a french bulldog who is almost 3 years now, and my parents have a basenji girl named Yuna that's a little over 1 year old. We live in the same area, so we spend a lot of time together with both dogs, and we help each other out for vacations and sickness, things like that. I consider Yuna to be my little girl, just as much as she is theirs.

Now I'm not very interesting, but Yuna sure is! Where to start? I'm sure many of you have seen the 16 basenji puppies video that's been going around the internet. Yuna is one of them, from a litter of 4. I have to start by saying how lucky we were to get a pup from such a good breeder! I've never owned a basenji before, but it was clear from the start that she's had a great start in life. I have never seen a more confident puppy before, and even though there are no children in my family, it's obvious that she has had a great experience with kids.

I joined this forum because it's clear that basenjis are very different from most other dogs, and I see that Yuna has some traits that are the complete opposite of what I'd expect from any dog.