• Hello everyone!

    I live in Montreal, Canada, and I'm a new basenji owner! Well new dog owner to be precise, since I've never had a dog before. In April I adopted a 2 1/2 year-old basenji, Uma. I'm her third family! But also her forever family now 🙂 I have been enjoying her so much that I'm now looking into adopting a second one (also a teen or adult, to be continued…).

    I love working with her on training; when I got Uma, she only knew "sit", and not reliably. Now she masters about 15 simple tricks, and will often, upon seeing a treat, execute all of them in a row without my bidding, haha. When I first got her, I worked on biddability (which we know basenjis don't seem to have), as in prompting her to offer behaviours and then rewarding the ones I liked. She responds very well to this type of training and I'm looking forward to see what we will be able to develop together in our future. Right now I'm researching marking; does anyone know if this type of training works well with older dogs?

    I've been stalking this forum for a few months now, and I've found it to be such an awesome resource that I decided to join and hopefully contribute useful information.

    Take care! 🙂
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  • @nsbluenose:

    Hello everyone!

    I live in Montreal, Canada, and I'm a new basenji owner! Well new dog owner to be precise, since I've never had a dog before. In April I adopted a 2 1/2 year-old basenji, Uma. I'm her third family! But also her forever family now 🙂 I have been enjoying her so much that I'm now looking into adopting a second one (also a teen or adult, to be continued…).

    I love working with her on training; when I got Uma, she only knew "sit", and not reliably. Now she masters about 15 simple tricks, and will often, upon seeing a treat, execute all of them in a row without my bidding, haha. When I first got her, I worked on biddability (which we know basenjis don't seem to have), as in prompting her to offer behaviours and then rewarding the ones I liked. She responds very well to this type of training and I'm looking forward to see what we will be able to develop together in our future. Right now I'm researching marking; does anyone know if this type of training works well with older dogs?

    I've been stalking this forum for a few months now, and I've found it to be such an awesome resource that I decided to join and hopefully contribute useful information.

    Take care! 🙂

    Bonjour, I am in Montreal and new to this forum. My basenji is 1 1/2 years old and his name is Alf.
    I know two people who own Basenjis, we all live in St Henri / Griffintown. Would you like to join us at the the god park sometime? We usually to the Louis Cyr park…
    I think it would be great for Alf, Whiskey (both 18 months and brothers) and Phoenix (7 months) to meet Uma and maybe share our experiences with these amazing little monsters

  • First Basenji's

    I got Tosac my rescue basenji when she was 4 months , and since then trained her different ways, as far as she's easily bored if I insist doing one thing the same way ! She is now 12 years, very active and runing free in the forest every morning with my other dog, a doberman mix. Depending on her mood, I either have treats in my pocket, or on good days only say "tiens" wich is the french word I always used giving her something good ! I also trained her friend Buck to go and "catch the basenji" wich is bringing her back to me on bad days !!! Only once did I have real problems : when I adopted my second dog and spent time socialising him, Tosca was jealous and destroyed my coats and shoes. But the most interesting I know about a basenji experience is the fact that these dogs are so clever, that when you think you are the leader, in fact you are only following their evolution and finding new behaviours !


  • Welcome to the forum, looks like your post was missed, Uma is a lucky girl to have you. So sad she has had so many homes already at least she has found a home that understands her now. Basenji are so smart I find my boy trying to outwit me all the time then I click and laugh and try to outwit him. Enjoy your pretty girl.

    Jolanda and Kaiser


  • Welcome to the forum. Your Uma sounds a lot like my second Basenji, Lady, who also used to run through her repertoire if she thought it would gain her a reward. Clicker training (or using a marker word) works well with Basenjis to teach new behaviour, and yes, older dogs learn very well. Enjoy your girl!


  • What a sweetie! For us, Lela was our first dog, and soon we had two (sister Binti joined us). Happy ever after…


  • Hi Ines!

    I'm glad to see other people from Montreal are on this forum! About a month ago I was biking through Griffintown and I saw a woman jogging with a red and white basenji by the canal; I bet it was Alf, Whiskey or Phoenix! 🙂

    It would be awesome to meet up! I have much to learn too! I live on the Plateau but I can come to Louis Cyr Park anytime. When is your next meetup scheduled?

    See you soon!


  • Wow, how you trained your second dog to go fetch Tosca is really impressive! Did you find Tosca to be a bit dominant with your second dog when you got him?

    Uma has always been shy around other dogs, but this week-end I stayed with friends who had a Boston terrier and Uma was very dominant and aggressive around him. I was very surprised!


  • Thanks for the welcome! I think there was a glitch with this thread as I only received a notification yesterday that I had gotten replies to the thread. No matter!

    Kaiser looks like such a snuggle bunny!


  • Thanks for the tips! 🙂


  • It's hard to resist getting a second one, isn't it? I have found a male 1 1/2-year-old brindle basenji up for adoption; I'm waiting to hear from the family in the next couple of weeks (they want to adopt him out for lack of time to take care of him, but they're still not 100% sure they want to give him up. We've all met and the dogs get along famously, so now I'm just waiting for them to decide if they want to keep him or not…)


  • Welcome, Uma is super cute I'm glad you 2 found each other, and congrats on becoming a dog owner. I'm mite hold off on the 2nd dog until Uma is about 4 or 5
    Good luck,


  • @Tp3:

    Welcome, Uma is super cute I'm glad you 2 found each other, and congrats on becoming a dog owner. I'm mite hold off on the 2nd dog until Uma is about 4 or 5
    Good luck,

    Why would you hold off till 4 or 5?


  • You should enjoy having a dog for awhile. Remember, Uma is a basenji and I'm not to sure if Uma found you or did you find Uma.
    I've had one basenji for 3 years and it's been so much fun. Enjoy!


  • I know what you mean, Tp3, things change a lot when a second dog comes!

    Anyhow, I've decided not to get a second dog yet. Uma has had some "incidents" in the past few weeks that have made me realize she probably still doesn't feel 100% stable yet with us. As much as I wanted a second dog for her to have a friend, she's shown me that we still need to work on bonding and making her feel secure.

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