Behavioral Issues

I have never had a B pee on the bed except Arwen, and although only about 4 times in her life, all were on days she was on steroids. If I had it to do over again, as much as I love them in the bed, I'd love one of those side beds, lol. Hope you figure out what is up with her. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/287456388688100459/

Do you live in the country? Is it possible your dog is hearing wolves, coyotes or coyo/dogs? I've noticed the time you mention is when packs in my area become vocal, although it never seems to bother my dogs. It's possible your dog is reacting to something only she hears, and I find wild canid packs are most vocal in late fall/winter/early spring. I often hear them around 3pm on cold, clear nights when leaving for work, it doesn't have to be a full moon.What DOES bother my guys is the presence of bears, fisher cats etc around the property. If you have lynx or cougar in your area, they really seem to stir things up.

The surgery to reopen the growth plate was 2 wks after the first surgery. We had x-rays 4 times in those two weeks to keep an eye on the growth plate condition. Her surgeon said that usually if the growth plate is going to close early, it will happen usually within 2 wks of the trauma

How crazy am I that I'm envious of your puppy eating clothes? Getting starry eyed for puppyhood again. Anyways, this behavior will get better over time. But, it's unlikely to stop 100% as everyone here is pointing out. ….you may want to try decoy items? Just a suggestion. I've done that with tissues/toys and it worked pretty well...never tried it with clothing or shoes so I have no idea if it would make things worse, or not, as far as training them goes. If it were me though....I'd get an old pair of dirty sneakers or something from the salvation army stores and 'leave them out' that way at least he wouldn't get into the 500 dollar shoes/jeans/undies. I used to put out decoy tissues and stuffed animals when Beo was a puppy....I would let him watch me put them somewhere 'out of reach' and of course he would go straight for those items as soon as my back was turned. Or....the best suggestion already mentioned is just to pick up your stuff :) If you live in a multifamily household sometimes that's a hard pill to swallow though. I used the decoy items when I used lived with my family because I got tired of having to replace my sister's expensive items he would chew up. My family never learned to pick up their things.

Our Basenji had incontinence and sometimes there isn't anything you can do but we gave her probiotics and that helped tremendously. We used new chapter as it was water soluble and added it to her food. But in the end she had kidney failure so you should get her blood work checked.

He told me that he mashed it up with his normal food. Nouno was eating everything when he was a puppy. Now he decided not to eat cucumbers ,potatoes and citrus fruits. Regards

When our 12year old girl went blind recently and the puppy is coming next weekend. Fingers crossed.

When I got Maggii and OJ (my first two Basenjis) we had a cat… he never swiped at the Basenjis with his claws, had he I think that the male (OJ) would have been better. While my Maggii was the really the least bit interested in the cat, OJ was a mess... he was for sure that it was there for his plucking pleasure... They did finally figure out that he was part of the household, however if he ran, the chase was on... always... so much so that he lived on one side of the house and them on the other.... He (the cat) didn't really mind as he had his own kitty door to the deck in the master bedroom that was on 2nd floor and could come and go via the property fence. Maggii did play a game with the cat... she would lay in the back of the yard and wait for him to come walking along the fence, she would wait till he was on the gate, run as fast as she could and hurl herself against the gate, which would rock back and forth and see if the cat fell in the yard... Needless to say, we nailed that gate shut (there are more than one)

Full Vet check up is needed before anything… especially a FULL THYROID PANEL... I agree with contacting her breeder and also finding a positive reinforcement trainer as suggested

He should adjust in time to losing his companion. However long that takes is questionable though and he will continue to be angry and feel neglected and reflect that anger with destruction just out of loneliness. It may improve with time and may not. You have to ask yourself is this fair for your dog? I would spend nearly all my time with him when I was home taking walks, etc. and if you can't do more than 2 hrs. it may be best to find a better home for him where he has a better environment. If his new home is a better place where there is a yard to run, and owners that can spend more time with him he will gradually accept the new home and owners. I know that is hard but may be the best. When your living situation improves you may think about owning another dog. Other than that, working 2 jobs leaves the dog alone too much to be fair so you need to get someone…the same person all the time... over to your apartment to spend time with him if you don't want to give him up. He can bond to that person and that will help the loneliness somewhat. If you decided to give him up, the new owners could come over frequently for walks and visits before you gave the dog to them so that the dog would consider them friends before adoption, that would help the dog transition. I would not give that dog to an inexperienced owner though. That could end in disaster. It will do the same things with the new owner although it should get over the transition quicker because it will be in a better environment. Also, was your husband the dog's leader? You now have to be a positive leader for him because it sounds like he lacks leadership.

To those of you that are having problems with mouthing, holding the muzzle is not a good solution. Substitute a toy for your "body parts" or totally ignore the pup and the minute that the pup settles down, praise.

Great work. Jolanda and Kaiser

Ha, I know, forum posts are like a novel sometimes - except sometimes you don't always find out what happens at the end. There are lots of posts here where I'm like "well, what happened?!" The long and short of it: we have a "success story". He's always been kind of a strange dog, never doing things by the books. For his anxiety…...nothing I did really helped him. I originally put him on Prozac as a last resort, but overtime he just improved on his own; I know it's not due to the medication, because he's been off of it for awhile. He still hates confinement but he's learned that once he's in...he's not getting out. SO he basically goes through cycles where he'll whine for about a minute or two every so often (30 minutes to 2 hours) or so then goes back to sleep, until I get home. It gets better and better each time. One of our biggest issues I think was him being able to escape, and that fear was feeding off itself. In the beginning he would pull out all the stunts to try and escape, some of them working of course. Once I made it so he could not escape, the major destruction and psychological issues died down. I ended up putting wood pieces around the crate (as suggested above) and that helped immensely to fortify the area. He still does cry, and rip things up while I'm away...sure. But, as long as he isn't endangering himself, getting too worked up, or making a huge racket? It works. After we got that solved. I moved onto trying to get him to be ok in a crate - which has been successful. He goes into it fine, lays down and doesn't cry a whole lot, or try to escape. I think his 'anxiety' is not unusual, or inappropriate. Just a natural fear that dogs have of being alone, confined, and in a new space. I also didn't go over 30 minutes when I was teaching him as a puppy....big mistake. Things that have helped: Music, not having the light on, making the pen one giant bed (instead of allowing an area where he could stand), leaving random tissues around in the pen, not letting him out of the pen directly after coming home, giving a single cookie before leaving and returning if quiet, having the area be inescapable obviously, and brushing his teeth if he comes out of the pen right away. Things that didn't really help: thunder shirt (was working until he ripped it up), medication, mirror outside of the pen, leaving delicious food or toys inside the pen, DAP diffuser, etc.

Uzie's first week with us was very stressful, and I quickly realized that his bonding to my older female made the transition very smooth. He came with separation anxiety and had I not had my two here already, I would have gotten another 'pal' for him for company. Worth looking into. Kudos to you for the daycare while you are at work!!!!!!

Forgot to mention that a potassium deficit might be involved. You can check by feeding banana or cucumber, both high on potassium. Cucumber is better, because less sugar and calories. Binti loves it.

With a basenji it doesn't necessarily need to be separation anxiety. They do this stuff out of boredom too. Taking him for a long walk or doing something else to tire him out could help a lot…....a tired basenji is a good basenji. On saying that, our little one didn't get better about all this chewing, tearing, etc. until we got her a companion when she was 9 months old. Worked like a charm to have another dog in the house.

When Lela was a pup, at the end of the day she could work herself into a real frenzy, running around the house, not able to stop. A real B500 and then some. Nothing worked to stop or quiet her. Then, one time, I intuitively picked her up, and squeezed her tight in my arms against my body: she instantly went limp, offer a few movements with her paws and jaws and then would collaps into a fine, long coma. I have done it many times, and it worked like a charm. So, pressure seems to help - that's what a thunder shirt would do, I guess.