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?
I found the transcript from the documentary. If the age part is true, the rest is not (unless there's difference between our European bred Basenjis and those in Africa):
NARRATOR: Sharing the same curly-tailed trait [as the Akita] is the venerable African Basenji.
DEBBYE TURNER: Basenji is the granddad of ancient dogs. However, they’re not that trainable. They will not do obedience tricks like other breeds.
Come back here.
And here’s an example!
NARRATOR: There is something else very wolf-like about a Basenji…
SOUND OF DOGS HOWLING
NARRATOR: …its yodel.
These breeds reveal much about how dogs may have appeared and acted after they first transitioned from pack hunters to scavengers and provide clues as to why they may have first appealed to humans.
DEBBYE TURNER: You won’t see Basenjis doing tricks, but because of their closeness to their wolf ancestors, they are considered very adept hunters.
Here's the video link. Basenjis mentioned 25 min. into it.
https://www.pbs.org/video/dog-tales-vskr2y/
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!
@Vegas:
We're all committed to the basenji, because the little tools have a way of capturing our hearts… I think basenji owners are a pretty tight-knit group. The ways basenjis affect our lives are so similar, it's hard to not find something in common with other basenji owners.
I think this may be the "same page" Andrea was speaking of!
