Basenjis do ok with doggie door when left alone?

[twvette]

I am considering a Basenji but curious how they do when left alone and free to roam the house and use a doggie door to go outside? We have a 6ft cinder block fence so assume this will be good enough to keep from escaping. Hoping having the yard to roam will keep him entertained and use the grass to potty. I know as a puppy will likely have to keep in pen to keep from destroying the house but after a year or so are are they good on their own during the day with a doggie door?

[Alex]

We have two older basenjis now and a cat. We put away anything that can be destroyed and they roam the house while we are at work. When they were younger we used to crate them, but that was too stressful for them.

Would not recommend the doggie door, basenjis are escape artists and we always superwise them while they are playing in the backyard.

Alex

[eeeefarm]

It depends on the dog. I had two female Basenjis who spent much of the day outside in the dog run in summer. No dog door, but never a problem with them. My male Basenjis have not enjoyed being left out. I've always been able to leave my Basenjis loose in the house except for early training, but depending on the dog I have at times restricted access to certain rooms. Minimal destruction issues once they were mature.

[twvette]

What a coincidence! I did get a Basenji (a 6 month old) and she turned out to be very "skittish". There is progress but very slow and around another K9 she was MUCH better. So, got another one last week and went with an 11 week old this time to have better influence on her. Yesterday the little puppy trained the now 8 month old to use the doggie door LOL just as first reply to this thread came.

Anyways, the first one was not happy in crate or pen so decided to take a chance and leave her outside while at work. She was not showing any signs of wanting to escape our back yard or much climbing or high jumping at all so figured it was minimal risk and took the chancer. It has been three weeks now. She is so much happier and just loves sun bathing and being free. Has been very helpful to get her to warm up a little more to us too. Having her know how to use the doggie door should help and she has shown zero signs of wanting to destroy anything inside the house. She does like to chew on bushes and sprinkler heads though. The little one is complete opposite in that follows us everywhere and is very active/gets into stuff so will be in the crate/pen for a while until determine how likely she is to want to escape when gets bigger. We have cinder block fence and no real way to dig out so its a good setup for a doggie door and leaving them out. My only real concern is if they jump on something else to then be able to jump the fence but have done what I can to eliminate this potential.

As eeeefarm says, I think it really is going to just come down to the individual dog and perhaps nothing to do with Basenji's in general.

[harold]

ha! doggy door would probably be ok, but the rest of your house would be eaten up!

[twvette]

Thanks for the reply. Good reminder for an update ...

The doggy door has still been a very good thing for us and the pups. They have chewed a couple wood trim corners a bit (just need to paint them later) and got one corner of the sofa/recliner (they are getting old and need to be replaced anyways) but I am ok with that as other breeds I have had have done far worse in puppy stage. Occassionally they will find a magazine, sock, or similar sitting around they destroy but any puppies would. Most of this is instigated by the little one who is still just about 7 months and the older one is now over a year. Oh, the little one did chew through three doggie doors which cost me a good amount in replacements as she likes to sit half in a half out sometimes LOL to try and block her sister and knaws on the corner of the flap, but fixed this by using silicone to attach thin aluminum plates I cut to both sides and works great. We don't have to clear the counters, etc. (even some food on them) as they don't have much real desire to pull things off neverless jump up on stuff except couch/recliner. We do keep the floor littered with dog toys, elk bones, etc. which I think might be a key as well as leave them with dry food to eat if so inclined when they want so they have easier options.

Note, the above is also going though the Arizona summer, they are inside almost the entire time as too hot outside even in mornings but go out for some occasional sun and to do their business. Two more months and they will be outside much more so even less chance of destruction I think. We did need to add some rock to our landscaping in back as the bubbling noise the drip heads make really gets them excited and they would find them and pull them up. They also got to some wiring on the trailers I have on my side yard (put grease on them and they will leave them alone) but still they have been better than I was expecting. With having the room to run and roam they have zero desire to try and escape the backyard.

[DebraDownSouth]

It depends on the dog and your situation. I have never and will never allow my dogs to be outside when no one is home. A concrete fence would probably solve most of my issues (snakes, tree limb breaking fence, neighbor kids harassing or even poisoning). I'm almost 60, have had exactly zero dogs who loved being in their crate (except my first rottie who wanted it for sleeping in, gate open.. she didn't NEED a crate from the time she was about 6 mos old). But if you give them good quality toys and chews, dogs generally chill out. They sleep up to 18 hrs a day so I consider a crate a good safe haven. My basenji is fine left in my bedroom now that she's grown. My 2nd basenji didn't destroy things, she'd pee on my bed.. so she got crated. My first was incredibly dog aggressive, so the rotties and chow ran free, she was crated when I was out, slept with me at night (as did/do the other 2).