@karann - The key in my opinion is to visit with Basenjis before you get one... Of course I always recommend that regardless. But for allergies, ask the owners to prepare a small towel that the Basenjis will sleep on for a few days... take that home and put it under your pillow.... will give you a good idea if your allergies will kick up
Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?
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@Gigi
They look great, members of the ADPT so that means their training approach is positive, not pop-and-jerk /dominance. If you start working now on the lessons on Mary's site, you will be way ahead and use the class for polishing and socialization. You'll find her methods are probably exactly what they do.Long ago Mary said to us, "what's your REAL word for come?" ROFLMAO, mine is "don't make me come get you!" So I laughed at their "tips" page. Yep, on target. Never ever give a command you cannot enforce, and say it one time only. Doing obedience training not only trains your dog, it trains the people how to train. It also helps to set up the concept that you are in charge, but in a positive way.
That is wild you had a shepherd/rottie mix! So did I. This idiot neighbor of a friend of my sister had an oops litter of their champion Rottie and GSD. I say idiot because it was about the 3rd time they had messed up (not with the same dogs though). Anyway, they had used up all their resources for taking pups and were going to just put them down. So I adopted her.
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@Gigi said in Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?:
Btw, did Bailey look like she has any Basenji in her in the pics of her standing sideways?
She seems less square than a Basenji should be, but I see similarities. I actually had a purebred who was shorter for his back length than he should have been who had a similar outline.
I think what you are doing is best as far as picking her up when she tries the evasion of rolling on her back. Otherwise you train her to use that when she doesn't want to do something. However, if you are tired of being bitten you might want to let her trail a leash for awhile so you just have to grab it instead of putting yourself at risk.I am surprised she is still biting if she isn't getting her own way by doing it! I assume she knows it is unacceptable, but then one should never assume anything with a stubborn training problem. Usually resistance is either fear or "I don't want to", but sometimes it's a communications problem.
I agree with positive and hopefully you can get there, but if you are absolutely sure the dog understands and is simply defiant, sometimes you just have to make it abundantly clear that you won't tolerate the behaviour.
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I was going to suggest the leash also. Leaving a short leash on so you have something to grab and not get bit is the safest method. If it makes you feel better, put a harness on her, then you can simply hoist her to her feet and take her where you want.
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@Gigi said in Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?:
she would chew through every leash we put on her.
Now that is a Basenji trait! Maybe try a short leash or for that matter a short chain that she can't chew. You are going to have your hands full with this girl, but if you challenge her intellectually it may work for you. Since she learns fast, keep her engaged and her brain busy with new things. I taught my boy to retrieve articles by name, which is a useful talent. I can give you step by step instructions if you aren't sure how to go about it.
Talk to her a lot. Keep her interested and listening to you. When she does as requested, make it worth her while. I think she will eventually decide to please herself by pleasing you, but it isn't going to come easily. One of the first dogs I trained (not a Basenji) was incredibly stubborn until the day she changed her mind and decided to do things my way. After that there was nothing she wouldn't do for me, but it was a long time coming.....
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LOL on leash.. they have tiny hidden scissors that they cut leashes with. Cara actually is good but my other 2 I had to use this type that I made with rings and a chain.
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@Gigi said in Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?:
About talking to her, did I post that she tries to talk back?
You had mentioned her vocalizations. Do they sound like Basenji yodels? There are quite a few examples on line. BTW, the mannerisms you have mentioned, including the crossed paws, the prancing, not liking water, cleaning herself like a cat, the quick intelligence, the daintiness, all add up as Basenji traits. I will be very interested in the results of a DNA test.
I love that you talk to her all the time. I always have, with all my animals. Like a child, they learn much and understand more than many people realize. My hero is Charles Eisenmann, who "educated" the Littlest Hobo dogs. I had the great fortune to see him and his dogs in person. They were unbelievable and appeared to understand everything he said to them. People used to speculate about whether they actually did or if he was signalling to them in some way, but the performance was so astounding it really is a moot point how he managed it. I have never, before or since, seen anything that comes close, and I do not believe you could obtain those results by conventional "training". I have his books and experimented with his methods with good results, but I never had the time or the talent to really achieve what I'm sure is possible with dedication.
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@Gigi said in Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?:
She barks, but it's such a deep bark for her size, sounds like a much bigger dog. She also whines if that's the right word to use. She does it in protest to something she doesn't want to do and she does it if there's something she does want to do - making it hard to distinguish what she wants.
When she barks, is it continuous or just one or two? Many Basenjis do bark, but generally it will be one bark, perhaps repeated after a moment, and usually when something unusual is going on.....
One of the things I loved about Eisenmann was his technique of teaching the dog to really listen to you, and spot the significant words in a sentence. Rather than the conventional "one word command", he would bury the important stuff inside a large number of words and let the dog figure out what he might want. Even when most of your sentence is unintelligible, the dog learns to listen and search for the words that are understood. With my Perry, instead of saying "fetch the red bone" I would ramble on about how much I would love to have a red bone, and I was thrilled the first time the light bulb went on for him and he ran off and returned with it, although it had been downstairs in the sunroom and I was upstairs in the bedroom! I would frequently drop the name of something he knew into conversation and more often than not he would pick up on it and bring me the object. I think we both enjoyed the challenge! Talking to your dog inevitably builds their vocabulary and keeps them engaged with you.
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@Gigi said in Newbie, I think I have a Basenji Mix?:
@eeeefarm She only barks if she actually sees or hears something - and it will be more than one bark, but she is by no means yappy - could be the collie in her
Then again, when I tell Bailey to get the" red" or "green" ball, is she seeing the same "red" or "green" that I'm seeing, or is it just by word association, who knows? She always gets it right. I agree talking to our dog keeps them engaged with us.
Here's a bit of news for you.. we don't see the same red and green as other humans. Not just those with various types of color blindness, but in general. Take one of those color vision tests with someone and you'll see when you rank things, or decide if blue or green, or if you can see the numbers in the pics.
Neitz confirmed that dogs actually do see color, but many fewer colors than normal humans do. Instead of seeing the rainbow as violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow, orange and red, dogs would see it as dark blue, light blue, gray, light yellow, darker yellow (sort of brown), and very dark gray.Oct 20, 2008 Psychology Today"
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