Basenji & air conditioner…


  • My B doesn't understand people don't like to be sticky & hot. I keep my AC at 67 & my B always finds the warmest place to chill. Most of the time it's in the sun or right next to my side.
    Does your Basenji seem a strange when you have your AC on. Just wondering….


  • Oakley loves the AC, he's mad when it's not on ; he lives a pampered life


  • I am not lucky enough to have A/c…nor, for the last two years would I have needed it(!) but Butu looked at the fan I brought out as if it was a Special Basenji-Torturing device...he is lying down by it now, though 😉


  • My current Basenji was raised in air conditioning and enjoyed it for the first three years of his life. Consequently, he is more affected by heat than any of my previous dogs. He actually pants when I walk him in 90 degree Fahrenheit weather! With any of my previous Basenjis, they would have had to be exerting themselves to actually pant in the heat. So of course Perry loves the chance to cool off with a fan or A/C. My others avoided anything cooler than the shade of a tree, and refused to come inside when the weather was blazing hot. They would lie in the sun and soak up every ray. My one girl used to try to crawl under the wood stove to get even warmer in winter!


  • Our 3 have become used to the A/C in the house also. When the weather is mild, 70-75 Degrees F, they will sun on the deck but when it is really hot, like now, they will run out into the yard, get their jobs done and then rush back to crowd by the door wanting in where it is cool.


  • The older Jibini gets, the less he seems to tolerate the A/C even on a hot day. He is always under blankets beside me if he's sleeping.

    This year, we really threw a wrench in his plan- we got a ChilliPad mattress topper, its actually an electronic system that circulates cooled water (also heats) throught the mattress pad to keep you cool at night. I've had a hard time sleeping in summertime my whole life, even with the A/C on full blast and three fans- the ChilliPad is expensive but uses a fraction of the power as an AC unit AND for the first time ever, I sleep soundly in July.

    But boy does Jibini ever DESPISE the ChilliPad. His usual spot at night is in bed under the blankets curled up by my legs. He still burrows under out of habit but if I don't stuff an extra blanket under there so he can lay on it and not directly on the bedsheet, he will actually curl up ON TOP of my thighs, lower back or wherever he can fit without having to touch the chilled evil mattress.

    I continue to promise him I'll make it up to him in the winter time, since3 apparently the pad will also heat up to 110 degrees- I'll turn on my husband's half of the system and heat it up just for Jibini 😉


  • Shaye is barely comfortable with my A/C at 77 - she mostly loves to go out on the porch and lie in the sun - even when it's 95-100 out there. At night we cover her completely with her blanket or she gets down under our covers at the bottom of the bed. My mix, Gemma, looks for the coolest place around to lie down - inside, not on the porch. They are all different.


  • I have asthma, I breathe best at no more than 67 degrees. In the winter, I keep it even colder and open the window at night. Mine don't mind the air, but if it is 70 they are on top of the covers. 67 and Arwen is usually under during the day when sleeping, Cara often on top or half uncovered. They really don't like getting hot… they want back inside FAST if it's mid 80s.


  • my girls love the AC i dont have one, but every time we get to the convenient store they try to get in or in the street they seat at the doors to get the AC. Here we have 35-40C so is HOT. I can even walk at plenty sun because they get hot so quick.
    i left the vent on almost every day so they can get the air while sleeping on my bed.


  • AC? Pretty sure my dogs wouldnt like it. They lay in front of the wood stove in the winter and I can get my house up to 30C. They love every minute of it. Though I think it's a shocker for them when they then have to go outside for potty at -25C.


  • The only concession mine make to temperature is curling up (cool weather) stretching out (warm weather). Sunny, being Canadian bred, is more tolerant of cold than Bene, the Southerner. Sunny doesn't even mind sleeping on top of the covers sometimes! But neither of them like fans. In fact, I point a fan at the dinner table to keep them from begging. Ben wasn't wild about the portable AC we had at our last house, but that was more due to the low frequency noise it made that tickled his ears…


  • Kaiser is a sun chaser, winter has definitely showed how bad, he knows where and when the sun will be around the house and at night we have a heat pump going but he will be under a blanket in the lounge or my sons bedroom and has to be bribed out to go to bed downstairs where it is colder. Will be buying sunscreen for his nose as he has a pink skin area just above his nose where it turns white. Can't get over how catlike he is, I think he has slept most of winter which is great for me especially since it just needs to look like rain(after all the walks in the rain as a puppy to get him used to it) and he will refuse to walk and I don't have a crazy cooped up basenji just a sleeping baby as he likes being warm and snuggled up. With our floor fan he is just curious to the point of sticking his nose in, the cat is sooo funny walks past and feels the blast and quickly diverts away from it. We are into Spring soon but wish we could skip it and go straight to Summer, can't wait to be out and about more with Kaiser such a stress free time and always full of laughs.

    Jolanda and Kaiser


  • In the car, Chip has to be right in front of the vents.
    We keep our home air set at 74 to 76 so not all that cold in the house. Our AC died in May and for 2 weeks we only had fans, it was very rough on the older 2, they would lie right in front of the floor box-fans. We were all very happy to have a new central air unit. Older basenjis have a much harder time tolerating heat than cold, in my experience. Of course our cold isn't prolonged or severe!


  • Ours love the heat but will definitely mix it up between sun and shade or come inside where it is cool (we have a dog door)

    In the winter, they can often be found by a heat vent if the fireplace is not on.

    There is a vent blowing right out below the sink here.

    And there is one here that is under the sideboard, but blows out really nicely across a wide area. Often a couple will be here.

    Then there is this silly dog that loves heat so much she will sit by the charcoal grill even in the summer. I felt ho hot her head was so I had to get the thermometer out.

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