Oh, I forgot to crate you up?

[BillyK]

I came home from work yesterday and saw Jenny B. looking out the window as I was driving up. The dogs are usually crated up by whomever leaves first, but we both left together, and so when the dogs ran upstairs to their crates that morning as we were going through the routine of keys and coats, I guess we both assumed the other gave treats and locked the crates. :o

I knew my wife wasn't home yet, so I steeled myself for whatever damage was done. Betty (lab-mix) and Jenny met me at the door, and were both so obviously glad to see me - ears back and lots of butt wiggles, Jenny licked me more than usual, and they both wanted out. We did our usual run around the yard, both pooped and Jenny pooped again 15 minutes later. After the potty break we went inside to assess the damage. I found one kleenex shredded upstairs, and Betty's bedding was pulled out of her crate (something Jenny does even when we are home) but otherwise nothing was out of place! Whew. Of course this does NOT mean I think the dogs are safe to leave home to their own devices. Instead, I am glad I biked Jenny the day before; a tired basenji is a good basenji.
Anyone else have similar experiences? I'm sure there are plenty of horror stories, but what about dogs that don't tear down the place?

[Tayda_Lenny]

thats pretty funny. what a nice suprise, not to come home to a destroyed house. i have never forgotten to crate my B's but when i first got tayda, i put her in a soft sided crate at a friends place while we went out for ice cream. when we got back, we pulled into the driveway and saw tayda sitting in the window waiting for us… now, in order to sit in the window, she had to completely DESTROY the horizontal blinds. but other than that, the rest of the house was fine. she had squeezed her head and body out of the crate through the zipper and just went to the window sill and wait for us... and got those pesky blinds out of the way. HA

one other time, i left tayda home uncrated (purposely) and when i got home, she had gotten into the garbage and fished out a carryout box of ribs that i had recently thrown away. she took the box into her crate and started eating. no mess...

[tanza]

Our house is set up so that we have a "dog" room for the kids when we are not home… and they have a doggy door to go out to the yard... As long as I remembered to never leave potty paper in their reach, it was fine, however... that said, since we called it the dog room, what was in there was theirs... and never got after them if they "were" always good..ggg.. but I have to say on the whole they were not real bad... We did have things like in the laundry room we in the beginning did not have baseboards.... stripping wall paper was fun...

Now that the youngest is 14, they are all loose in the house and have been for about the last 4 years... we are still set up that we can gate that part of the house off, and they don't get the entire house, but more then just the dog room...

We have a trash compactor and so I never have to worry about the trash... it is a god sent for Basenji owners!!!! and of course there is not one waste basket that doesn't live up "very" high.....

[hdterry]

I have NEVER left my B home alone yet…she has SERIOUS separation anxiety problems so we just take her with us...she is fine in the car...we check on her a lot...Jojo is adopted from BRAT and this was a big issue, we are almost always home, at least one of us...

[youngandtired]

I do not crate Sahara anymore, she has not been crated in a long time. I leave her in our den, with all her toys and she is content. I close the door to the rest of the house and she is good, I have a doggie door that she uses to go potty and play outside. I have underground electric fencing so she stays in the yard. I don't think I have come home to any problems except when she was younger, she pulled threads from my new berber carpet. She also nawed through a few cords, but that was it. She is 1 yr. 4mos. and she has not caused any problems not being crated, (knock on wood, haha)!!!!!

[tanza]

Do you really let her out in a yard with only underground fencing?… I would be in a total panic to let mine out with only that to keep them in the yard... I have seen many a Basenji run through underground fencing after something outside the fence or a critter that came in or that the collar would not be working.... I get worried and I have 10' solid board fence.....

[meaghanmplatt]

Our B is about 5 months old and he has moderate separation anxiety. We started using the "peekaboo" training with him about two weeks ago and he has gotten a lot better. We started by being in the same room with him and just ignoring him (not touching him, not looking at him…) then we move into another room where he could still see us, but not be right beside us, next we went into a room where he couldn't see us anymore but could still hear us, and finally we left for short periods of time. He has been good enough to leave by himself, uncrated, for an hour or two. I'm not sure about longer periods of time yet, but we will work on it. They are just SO smart and he is starting to realize that we are coming back for him.

We tried crate training him but it seemed to be a useless goal. In a short period of time in the crate, he beat his head off the crate so hard that the left side of his face was swollen so much he couldn't open his eye We still kept trying and the last straw was when he was left in the crate for about 45 minutes and he broke off the metal bars of the crate. I am more scared that he is going to hurt himself in the crate than out.

Since he has been out of the crate while we are gone, the worst he does is finds tissues and chews on them.

[tanza]

Interesting that your puppy has such separation anxiety…. how old was he when he left his litter?... Many times this is a reason for this problem at such an early age....
As far as the crate... there are some that you just can't crate train... but I would still wonder about his early rearing....

[meaghanmplatt]

We got Kona from a pet store when he was about 2 1/2 months. We don't know about how he was treated in his first few months so I don't have the answers there.

However, once we brought him home, I was still in college and I lived with my parents and Kona stayed home all day with my mom. She doesn't work so he always had someone here with him. Maybe we should have left him alone more often as a pup…but I feel that he is really doing good with his anxiety. I think he just needs more training and with age, he will get better.

[tanza]

OK, well that explains alot of it… if he came from a pet store that means that he came from a puppy mill... first he was taken from his Mom and litter mates most likely at 5 or 6 wks... way to young to be separated.... this is an important time of early socialization and build personalities/confindence... also it means that he had lived in a cage (note I say cage, not crate... as a cage was the only thing that he knew...)... so this is another reason that he has a total aversion to a crate.... So poor baby had lots of stikes against him right from birth... It is very hard to erase those early memories, IMO... and then most likely he totally bonded with your Mom as "his" pack.. when he was there....
Sounds to me like you are doing the right things... however, suggestions would be a puppy class, Obedience Class, Agility Class, things to build his confidence in himself....

[meaghanmplatt]

Thank you for the suggestions…we are looking into socialization classes and obedience classes...I'll let you know how it goes!!!

[tanza]

Great!!! Please do!!!

[dash]

We will leave our dogs out of the crate only when I am sure they are exhausted and have gone to the bathroom recently AND we will be gone for less than an hour! But we thoroughly Basenji proof the house including locking up the cats. Not that I don't trust my precious Dash but I know him :). I added a toddler bed to their crate so really it is nice enough they shouldn't mind it. It gives me piece of mind and I don't have to fear coming home.

[lowendfrequency]

@tanza:

OK, well that explains alot of it… if he came from a pet store that means that he came from a puppy mill... first he was taken from his Mom and litter mates most likely at 5 or 6 wks... way to young to be separated.... this is an important time of early socialization and build personalities/confindence... also it means that he had lived in a cage (note I say cage, not crate... as a cage was the only thing that he knew...)... so this is another reason that he has a total aversion to a crate.... So poor baby had lots of stikes against him right from birth... It is very hard to erase those early memories, IMO... and then most likely he totally bonded with your Mom as "his" pack.. when he was there....
Sounds to me like you are doing the right things... however, suggestions would be a puppy class, Obedience Class, Agility Class, things to build his confidence in himself....

Don't be so quick to make assumptions. I work at a pet store and we only buy puppies from local breeders, never from puppy mills. We never take puppies under 10 weeks and we also never cage them. We have a large indoor penned area where the puppies socialize from the second they come to the store to the moment they are bought. It's ok to be hesitant to buy a puppy from a major chain store, but if you are buying from a smaller privately owned shop you should inquire before jumping to conclusions.

As for the crating, I've experienced the exact opposite. When I crate my B he will destroy anything inside his crate and thrash at the door for hours on end. However, when I leave him alone in the house he is perfectly content and doesn't destroy anything. Go figure

[lvoss]

I am sorry but any breeder who would let their puppies be sold through a commercial outlet can not be a responsible breeder. A huge part of being a responsible breeder is being a support for the new owners and being there to take back the puppy if at anytime in its life it needs a new home. Does your pet store take on this responsibility? If the home doesn't work out 3 years down the line, does that puppy end up in rescue? in a shelter? dumped on the street?

Right now, pet ownership is under attack because shelters are full of irresponsibly bred dogs and cats who were owned by owners that were either not a good match, irresponsible, or just didn't get the support they needed. So if I and other responsible breeders and owners are passionate about this topic it is because our right to own a responsibly bred purebred is in jeopardy and it is the breeders who do not take responsibility that have put us in that position.

[meaghanmplatt]

lowendfrequency,

My B is the same way…so far...he is terrible in his crate and thrashed inside also and ended up with his eye swollen shut. When I leave him home, not in the crate, the very worst he does is find tissues and spread them throughout the apartment I will take that any day over a gutted couch.

He definitely has his Basenji tendencies but he's got a little laid-back twist...I think I rubbed off on him

[tanza]

The pups you buy from local breeders, are the sire and dam health tested before breeding?… is there pedigree information on the sire, dame, grand sire/dam, siblings?.... Are the eyes checked as pups before placement for possible problems? and as Ivoss said, who is responsible for the life time of that pup? Who will take that pup back if the owners have to/want to give it up?... Is there a purchase contract? Spay/neuter clause? These are all things that responsible breeders do ...
In our breed we have health concerns, late onset of Fanconi and PRA, there is no DNA test at the present time... only way to keep track as best we can is by pedigree information, breeders sharing information... keeping records, and not breed if a health problem presents itself....

And while there are some that will always have a problem with crates... 90% of Basenjis do not... except for the ones that come from Puppy Mills or BYB...

I am glad to hear however that you do not take the pups for your store until 10wks... but at that age, it would be pretty easy to crate train...

[JazzysMom]

And while there are some that will always have a problem with crates…
90% of Basenjis do not... except for the ones that come from Puppy Mills >>or BYB...

Please be careful not to generalize that way.We got Keoki from a very reputable breeder and he is a crate hater.

It's only been a week since he moved in, so I cling to hope for the future, but he also screams, yells, howls, cries, thrashes, thumps, tears, jumps...God knows what is going on in there, but it sounds a lot like murder.... when crated, esp. at night. It's like he is in a state of absolute and total panic.

He lived with his mom and littermates until two days shy of 12 weeks; so he wasn't taken too soon either!

Any other time of the day, he is happy and busy and a really wonderful addition to the family. He's a healthy pup, from a quality breeder. He just hates the crate.

[tanza]

I did say that 90% are usually OK with Crate training… there is always the exception.... and many breeders (this is nothing against his breeder that I know very well) start crate training at 8 to 10 wks... for pups that they keep that long....

[tanza]

And while crates are a small part of having a Basenji…. health testing is a big thing... in my book along with contracts, spay/neuter, what happens if a buyer can't keep the dog...etc..... and while it might look like I was making a general statement... 99% of the time it fits... again... not all the time...