New basenji owner to Milo, 6 months old. He is outdoor/indoor dog and we found him going to town on a bird. Is this normal? And what anout chasing rabbits?
Totally normal! I've heard of a B jumping in the air to catch birds as they pass by and succeeding. B's have a very high prey drive anything that catches their interest they chase. Mine chase squirrels here.
Birds? Oh my yes - my female catches them just as they begin their takeoff from the ground!
Rabbits? Mine have all learned to corner these and then …
Chipmunks? Yes indeed.
Muskrats,
Mice,
etc
Absolutely wizard, birds, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, I've even known a few to take on possums and raccoons. Egads! Tough little buggers, aren't they?
Jaycee digs same way but she does somersaults head down over she gos first time neighbor saw it they could not beleive it. I think neighbor came over every day for a week waiting to see it again and Jaycee would do it. Yes I very much second that digging usually will cause the great B-500.
Rita Jean
My 15 year old Lab wants to devour my sons parakeet. He went after the lovebirds too when we had them. My mom has a ****zu that ate 3 of her love birds. The cats never had a problem with the birds. They'd walk around the house with birds on their backs like it was no big deal. The Macaw I used to have was a different story. He wanted to eat the cats, but didn't mind the dog even though the dog was scared ****tless of him.
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
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!
Yes I agree Pat, Fort Funston could get very crowded and dangerous for smaller dogs as packs of bigger dogs playing could cause injury. My 2 Basenjis were very good and stayed pretty close to me and got used to the crowds. The only problem I had there was with this lady who had an older Tri color female Basenji. It would bite my blk/wht, Nika who was 1-1/2 on the butt. A few times of that and I stayed way away from her. The problem is Nika was a very playful girl and never did anything like that. A few times of getting nipped on the butt started her doing it to other dogs and Basenjis. A Basenji would want to play and Nika would chase and give a nip and the the other dog would get mad and a fight would occur. Nobody would ever get hurt thankfully. It was rare that it would happen as I took them there for 9 years, mostly on the weekend without problem. We had a lot of fun and people loved the Basenjis! Ringo, the red/wht was a very entertaining clown when we'd go down to the beach.
