• Hi all Basenji lovers,
    My husband and i just got a 7 months basenji girl, Momo we called her. We live in Indonesia. Momo has no problem getting into her crate, but our biggest problem is the potty issue. She's been here with us for like 5 days now. We begin to understand the timing, it's around 8am, 12am or sometimes at 8pm.

    The problem is we're living practically in the sideroad with all the vehicles passing by all the time, we have no porch, which gave us no option to take her out to do her "business". We've been trying to train her to go to the bathroom to do the potty, but she refuses it so hard. I know that basenji is a type of dog who afraid of water so much, like so i read.

    Would anyone give some advice how to handle the situation? or does anyone found any usefull link about how to train the basenji to go to the bathroom as a potty training? We'd be so much appreciate it.


  • hi and welcome!

    I'm a little confused - when you talk about her 'going to the bathroom' do you mean using the actual toilet?

    Sorry if I am misunderstanding.


  • Count me confused also. If you are trying to get the dog to actually use the TOILET, please stop. If you can only have inside, you can get a BIG cat litter pan, put dirt or potty pads or even sand in it and train to use the litter pan in the house. But expecting a dog to use the toilet is extremely stressful.


  • Hello… and thanks for the advice. I'm queendom's husband.


  • @Kipawa:

    hi and welcome!

    I'm a little confused - when you talk about her 'going to the bathroom' do you mean using the actual toilet?

    Sorry if I am misunderstanding.

    @DebraDownSouth:

    Count me confused also. If you are trying to get the dog to actually use the TOILET, please stop. If you can only have inside, you can get a BIG cat litter pan, put dirt or potty pads or even sand in it and train to use the litter pan in the house. But expecting a dog to use the toilet is extremely stressful.

    Sorry for the confusion. Yes, i mean the real toilet (or at least in the bathroom floor), so it's easier to clean up. But if you say that it's almost impossible to do, well then we must prepare the litter pan.

    How long does it take to potty train the basenji? Is it depends on their age? Is it depends on the way we train them?

    By the way, thanks a lot for the advice.


  • Many places in the world do not use toilets as we think of them, but, instead, use a hole in the floor (see this blog for pictures). Perhaps this is the case with Queendom and that's what they're trying to get their Basenji to use…?

    Regardless of which kind of "toilet" the OP has, I would think it'd be much easier to use a big litter pan as Debra describes.


  • @queendom:

    How long does it take to potty train the basenji?

    Actually, if you got your Basenji at 7 months of age, I'm surprised that he wasn't already potty trained.

    Our Basenji, Blaze, is just over 4 months old and has been reliably potty trained for quite some time now.


  • @LindaH:

    Many places in the world do not use toilets as we think of them, but, instead, use a hole in the floor. Perhaps this is the case with Queendom and that's what they're trying to get their Basenji to use…?

    Regardless of which kind of "toilet" the OP has, I would think it'd be much easier to use a big litter pan as Debra describes.

    That's exactly what our toilet here look like. But given the fact that most people here suggest to use litter pan, we'd be pretty much consider it as main option by now.

    @LindaH:

    Actually, if you got your Basenji at 7 months of age, I'm surprised that he wasn't already potty trained.

    Our Basenji, Blaze, is just over 4 months old and has been reliably potty trained for quite some time now.

    We just got her for about a week now, but i'm not sure the previous caretaker had been potty trained her, because he said that she always been put at her crate or at her least almost all day long. So i guess it's gonna need an extra effort to train her to use the litter pan.

    Thank you, LindaH.


  • I know some people use one half of a large crate and put either kitty litter in it, or shredded newspaper.

    As another option, they do sell those indoor 'potty greens'. Does anyone else know the name of them?


  • I am afraid you are going to have a very hard time convincing your dogs to use litter boxes. Is there no way you can walk them to another place where there is grass or scrub? Three dogs using a litter box is going to be a huge mess to keep clean.


  • I figured that was their toilet type, btw. But an open hole is stressful and unnatural. (When I was a preteen read a story of gal in Saudi Arabia and they got her a stool with hole in it so she felt more "at home").

    Shaye's mom, many dogs use litter pans. It isn't all that hard, especially since this dog has been used to going in her crate.

    The potty greens are sold a lot of places, like Petco but I suspect overseas shipping would be very expensive.

    Okay back to training. Here is basic training, but instead of "outside" take to litter pan. It will help if you can put just a tiny bit of its own poo to help scent the pan until she gets used to going there. Also, simply putting in large crate with litter pan with papers, sand, grass whatever until she gets used to it, and then move to bathroom?

    http://www.dailypuppy.com/articles/why-is-housebreaking-difficult/fbd90c8b-a94d-b8e8-27d7-afac4d64d298

    http://www.kturby.com/litter/litter.htm


  • While I agree it is not that big of a deal with a litter box for Basenjis, I do agree with Shaye's Mom that if you are talking about more then one or even two, it could get to be a problem.


  • Basenjis can obviously be trained to 'go' indoors but it's really against their nature. I do know that there's a product that can be sprayed on an area to encourage them to go there but never having had a cause to use it I don't know what. Perhaps others reading this post can help?

    You say the main road is outside your house but how do you manage when you take them for as walk? Will they not go to toilet outside when you walk them? I know it means that you'd have to go out several times a day so that may not be possible for you. I know there are people on the forum who live in what we call here 'bedsits' - they may be able to tell you how they manage.


  • @DebraDownSouth:

    Okay back to training. Here is basic training, but instead of "outside" take to litter pan. It will help if you can put just a tiny bit of its own poo to help scent the pan until she gets used to going there. Also, simply putting in large crate with litter pan with papers, sand, grass whatever until she gets used to it, and then move to bathroom?

    This is going to be the first day i'm using this technique to train her. Hope it works out. fingers crossed Will post the result later.


  • @tanza:

    While I agree it is not that big of a deal with a litter box for Basenjis, I do agree with Shaye's Mom that if you are talking about more then one or even two, it could get to be a problem.

    No, we only keep one Basenji at our home. We got three Basenjis, but the two of them (Chiko (2.5 years old male) and Hachi (2.5 years old female)) are being taken care by my husband's uncle at his place.

    So yeah, i'm starting to train her to do the potty at litter pan today. Hope it works out..


  • @Patty:

    You say the main road is outside your house but how do you manage when you take them for as walk? Will they not go to toilet outside when you walk them? I know it means that you'd have to go out several times a day so that may not be possible for you. I know there are people on the forum who live in what we call here 'bedsits' - they may be able to tell you how they manage.

    Usually when we take her out for a walk, first we carry her on our Vespa and find a large area for her to be able to take a long walk or just running and jumping around. It's too dangerous to walk her on the sideroad in our neighbourhood. And when we walk her out at around her potty time, yes she did pooping, but unfortunately mostly the large area or even a park here doesn't contain a grass or soil, it's mostly just an asphalt so nothing could use to cover the poo. So now we're take her out only after she "did" it.


  • It sound silly, but I notice my basenji needs to smell scents to get the job done. His main meal is in the PM & morning between 6:30 - 8:30 AM. About 10 mins into our walk he goes. Your basenji might need to pace around and he might hover for a while before going. My basenji has improve since I've been keeping him on a schedule.


  • <>
    I can now appreciate your problem with taking her out. Please let us know if you are being successful with the method you've started to use.


  • Hi Queendom, when you say it's too dangerous to walk the Dogs on the side road, is it still too dangerous if they are on leads ?
    I don't know what it's like where you live, in England most roads can safely be walked by if dogs are on leads.
    When you say you need grass or soil to cover the poo, do you not have poo bags to pick it up in and dispose of.
    Here in England we have to pick up after our Dogs with a poo bag and if we are lucky there is a poo bin nearby.


  • so we have a small area outside at the second floor of our house, well you can't really called it a yard/porch exactly, it's just a place where we usually dry the laundry and we decided to make that area to be Momo's bathroom.

    since the stairs is quite difficult for her to walked up and down by herself yet, so for now we just put her upstairs along with her toys and bed and everything (beside our bed).

    and after quite a while, this morning i found a dog poo outside, never been this happy to found one, haha.

    well i guess i can now proudly announce that Momo is officially potty trained. yay! thanks everyone. it's been such an enormous help from all of you.

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