It's been my experience that sometimes my basenji just gets it in her head that she doesn't like another dog, and for seemingly no good reason. I have been able to mitigate her behavior, but this is not a cure….
First, an excited basenji is a biting basenji. Make sure he's calm. Make him sit. Exert your dominance. Stand over your dog, look him in the eye. You need to snap him out of his mindset and remind him that you're in charge and he doesn't need to be aggressive.
It will take time and patience, but he can be made more comfortable...
I've also found that walking together as a "pack" helps. The two humans in the middle, the dogs held on a very short leash to either side, and you ignore your dog's aggression, focusing them on the walk itself. After a short while, they should just about forget one another. But this also acclimates them to each other. Good luck!
Our Middle Eastern Dogs!
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Article from The NY Times about DNA studies on dogs featuring -- you guessed it -- our favorite African dogs. Only it turns out they are from the Middle East. More interesting is that there wasn't any human migration, though of course you don't need human migration to have dogs pass between human populations.
In any event an interesting piece:
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@donc
That was a really interesting article - thanks for sharing. Have you seen DOG TALES on PBS? (NOVA Season 47, Episode 2, and its 54 minutes long). It’s worth watching - it talks about the domestication of dogs, DNA studies, genetic relationship to wolves (brings up the basenjis). You should be able to find it online to watch. -
There is no indication that Dr. Larson is familiar with the concept that Basenji's were sent to the Pharaoh's as gifts, thereby initiating their DNA into the Middle Eastern Gene Pool. Or are we to assume that this isn't true?
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@kembe said in Our Middle Eastern Dogs!:
@donc
That was a really interesting article - thanks for sharing. Have you seen DOG TALES on PBS? (NOVA Season 47, Episode 2, and its 54 minutes long). It’s worth watching - it talks about the domestication of dogs, DNA studies, genetic relationship to wolves (brings up the basenjis). You should be able to find it online to watch.I believe I have. IIRC was on a streaming service but unsure if it is still available and/or which service it was on.
@elbrant said in Our Middle Eastern Dogs!:
There is no indication that Dr. Larson is familiar with the concept that Basenji's were sent to the Pharaoh's as gifts, thereby initiating their DNA into the Middle Eastern Gene Pool. Or are we to assume that this isn't true?
You can look at the Science article which is linked in the story. It talks about African dogs coming from the Levant 7.2K years ago. Egypt would have shown up much later -- Ramses II was in the Levant 3.2K years ago. On the other hand this doesn't mean this didn't happen, just that the DNA suggests Basenji ancestors were already in Africa. I think it highly unlikely a few dogs would impact an existing dog population in a meaningful way. Also note that Basenjis do have some European dog DNA from the Colonial period.
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This is all fascinating to me. Thanks to all of you for you input. I am looking for the NOVA program.
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@daureen
Here you go:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/dog-tales/?linkId=81938993If you can view, catch the "not that trainable" B. at 26:16. With that face, he needs not be at all
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@daureen
Also, FYI - there's a chat about Dog Tales earlier this year:
https://basenjiforums.com/topic/15315/dog-tales
