Very exciting!
Pups are on the way!!!
HI All,
Phoenix started to have pups late last night and everything went off without a hitch. *She took a rest between each little one and was done around 11PM EST. *Kelli took care of this on her own as I was in Sacramento working with our DoD contract dog at Mather air base. *Phoenix was a trooper and is taking care of her pups like she has done it a hundred times before. *
The first pup born was a little black and white who was quite noisy, cussing up a storm every time he did not get what he wanted. *This one apparently did not fall far from the Kaden tree! Phoenix had five pups altogether with the first three being black and whites and the last two dark brindle. *
I will try to keep updates on this litter flowing as we have really high hopes for this litter. I kind of fell of the face of the basenji world for a time due to a battle with cancer and then having to get my life and business back on track. I let our basenji native traits preservation project BNTPP yahoo froum kind of flounder because I just could not do it…I apologize to all of you who joined only to see it slow down to a crawl. I am working our B's again and this litter will add even more intersting things to the mix. I will post here with updates and keep a good photographic and written journal of the litter progress on BNTPP. Final testing for working pups will be done around 7 weeks of age depending on maturity. B's seem to mature as fast if not faster than other breeds we work with so my guess is 7 weeks will be good.
So, if you are interested in working and hunting basenji dialogue and pics, come on over to BNTPP for lots of details. This forum was designed to be open to anyone interested in basenji native traits. It is also a great place to post your pictures and stories about what field work you do with your basenjis. It is not just hunting, anything where the basenji gets to use its natural abilities to do something.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BNTPP/
Thanks,
Jeff
Glad to hear the whelping went well. Interesting to hear your comment about testing at 7wks. I find that Basenji puppies are still very inmature at that age. I don't even place pups until 10wks. And temperament testing is done around 8wks. (at least for mine)
Thank you…I have nowhere near the B litter experience that you have but of the litters I have seen, basenjis appear to me to mature far faster than than the large breeds we commonly test for work. We test all of our working stock at 7-9 weeks old for suitability traits for work. The tests take about 15 minutes per pup and there are about 15 points that we are looking for depending upon the job they may do. Maturity is a relative thing and is subjective to the individual testing; however, there is a time with puppies that their instinctual responses are free from learned behavior to a certain extent and once we get over seven weeks, we start to trend more towards learned vs. instinctual. Almost all of our Shepherds test well at seven weeks and we have never made a mistake on selection, knock on wood. The bloodhounds seem to be best around 8-9 weeks, no mistakes there yet either. With the basenjis, I actually feel that they are far more aware and adaptive at earlier ages than just about any breed we have ever tested. I remarked on this before in the BNTPP pages, hypothesizing that this may actaully be due to a genetic requirement to mature a little faster relative to the living situation the basenjis originally come from. It will be interesting to see how this litter works out...I will be watching this one more than any other in the past primarily due to all of the experience I have gained since Phoenix was born. I will Youtube the testing so folks can watch. From a precedent standpoint, I beleive Coppinger wrote on the subject of brain development at various ages and I may be wrong here, but I think he mentioned something about seven weeks being a good age to test.
Jeff
This is all super neat! I'm totally in love with the BNTPP, even though I don't own a basenji. I will be very interested in seeing those youtube videos and in hearing updates!
Thanks, Heidi and I have a Flicker link to all of our pups pics as we post them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgiak9/sets/72157628043348519/
Take a look when you can and let me know your thoughts.
Thanks,
Jeff
Pictures of the babies please!!!!
Click on the link in my last post. I will update that site regularly. Thanks!
Yeah apparently I can't read….
So you had 6. Sexes and colors please.
basenji fever
So you had 6. Sexes and colors please.
Hi Sharron, We had five….three B/W boys and two dark brindle girls...
Congratulations - I hope Mum and babies are well. They certainly look a healthy litter.
Is there anything to the fact that the males are black and white and the females are brindle? Is that just a coincidence or is there something in basenji genetics that makes it that way?
<- basneji noob
Just the way it goes…. color has nothing to do with genetics... but the interesting thing with multi colored litters is watching the way that that same colors will group... my first litter was 3 reds, 3 tris... the reds 2 males, 1 bitch would group and the Tris, 2 males, 1 bitch would group.. almost from day one
I think Pat meant that color has nothing to do with gender though it has everything to do with genetics. The colors in basenjis are not sex-linked traits like you find in cats.
So excited about this!! I have thought about the Basenji being the PERFECT working dog for a long time! Good luck to you and the pups! 
Is there anything to the fact that the males are black and white and the females are brindle? Is that just a coincidence or is there something in basenji genetics that makes it that way?
<- basneji noob
Both males and females are black and white and both males and females are brindle in general, so yes it was a coincidence.
Alrighty! The B pups are two weeks old and growing like weeds! The male with the solid face is the biggest and most active and actively seeks any new odor when sleeping if it is introduced to the area. He may be a very good scent dog. He is also a squealer when mom leaves. Here is a short video with more pics to come:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c64yEQu3hCo
