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?
Lol…sorry to laugh but I was walking Indy the other day and for some strange reason there was a pair of socks in the middle of the side walk. Needless to say he saw it before I did. He raced up to it grabbed them and was starting his best show dog prance by the time I saw him.
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
That is a great idea, but it should be an adolescent for sure (seems to be the most trying stage). My mom also really liked our dog (the look, the no bark, typical things most people like) and she quickly changed her ideas. We were telling her about the time we had to babysit another dog and the things she did to let us know that she did not like another dog in our house (she did some very naughty things)! My mom said 'wow she is really a manipulating dog'. I said, yeah they are definately not a breed for everyone.