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First Attack

Behavioral Issues
  • She is the most gentle loving dog. She never bites anyone. She's as sweet as she can be, then wham, the instinct switch gets flipped and all that goes out the window, then the sweet switch goes back on just as fast???

    It comes from genetic programming as this is not a learned behavior. The Tri does not have a clue on these instincts (except biting people). It's just so bizarre how they are so different, yet have their primitive sides, different, but just as bad.

    I guess you have to remember they are still animals and very efficient predators and as much as we would like them to have human values, they can't.

    99% of the time she's a huge love bug- it's just so shocking when they flip that switch.

  • @tanza:

    Again, I have seen that too, all jump on the bleeding one when there is a bad fight… but unlike Barklessdog, I have never had one jump a sick or injured one... like her bitch is doing to the Tri dog....

    Me neither, just the injured/bleeding one during/after a fight.

  • @Barklessdog:

    That's part of fact that on one side she is the most gentle loving dog. She never bites anyone. She's as sweet as she can be, then wham, the instinct switch gets flipped and all that goes out the window, then the sweet switch goes back on just as fast???

    I guess you have to remember they are still animals and very efficient predators and as much as we would like them to have human values, they can't.

    99% of the time she's a huge love bug- it's just so shocking when they flip that switch.

    I tell people all the time you have to remember, they are dogs. They act so humanlike at times we tend to not treat them like dogs and more like our kids.

  • I don't give mine human values.. just stating that my Basenjis do not attack the injured/sick…

  • Dogs provide a unique bond that many humans can't provide- unconditional love.

  • @tanza:

    I don't give mine human values.. just stating that my Basenjis do not attack the injured/sick…

    Thinking back,

    We did have a terrier mix that had a cancer growth removed and the day we brought her home from the Vet the Basenji's acted a little weird, hoovering around her with these strange looks and my wife thought they would attack her if we didn't keep them away. It was fresh from surgery, dried blood and so on…......it was weird though.

  • I would also like to add, that she only does this when he is screaming in pain.

  • My two have had such bad fights that they now live on separate floors in my house. Rosie attacks Willie - she's much smaller, but much more fierce when she fights than he is. It's pretty scarey stuff - the first time they got into it when I was around, I thought Willie's ear would be ripped off when he got up. She's quiet, but he's usually screaming because she's just too quick for him and she's pulling on some part or another. They worked up to this gradually and I'm now in the process of trying to get them back together, at least when I'm home. I don't think I'll ever feel okay about leaving them together when I'm not around.

    Your fight does sound like a little food frenzy rather than a real fight.

  • Just to weigh in…I haven't had my Bs try to kick each other when they are down...but they do get nervous when somebody comes home smelling like the vet (well, not the vet...the vet's office...you know what I mean ;) )

    But I have seen this in gorillas from when I worked at the zoo. It was instantaneous. If a gorilla started getting ill, or injured, the subordinate gorillas of the same sex (usually females, since generally you don't keep multiple males) would immediatey start to pick fights with the ill one. The two who were the worst were two sisters that were both wishing to have the highest status (non-Silverback) status in the group. They had status issues going on all the time, though...and you may see that same behavior in dogs that have ongoing, but supressed status issues when one gets sick.

  • I'm guilty of treating my Bs like kids sometimes and like they have human values/feelings….but I did see a program on tv recently about a study done on animals feeling "love" and other emotions--like grief. It was very interesting. And I do know some people whom I think my dogs have more feelings/values than :)

  • After all things said and done - today for the first time ever - Duke laid in his crate for an afternoon nap. I was up & down doing errands and think - it's strange one or both aren't following me! hmmm . . . I find Duke in his crate and behind him on the rear half of his comfy fluffy bed is Daisy - snoozing away! I couldn't believe my eyes - I had to look twice to see if it was really Daisy lying with her head resting on top of Dukes behind. Duke would never-never-never let her come close when he rested - always he sounded a warning growl. I went and grabbed my camera and darn if the thing crapped out on me today. Yeah - it's dead. New batteries wouldn't wake it up. Darn - I had a Kodak moment and don't know if I'll see that again. I hope maybe that scary attack on Daisy was a turning point in their relationship. Is there love after all? :) :confused: :p

  • :confused: Okay! Am I going nuts? Here is this thread about Daisy and Duke's fight and suddenly in the midst of the thread (top of page 3), I have a picture posted by Barklessdog that is so funny that it is almost disturbing. It is of a tricolor B in a Santa outfit. Now…the picture clearly has nothing to do with the thread but no one else has even commented on it.......which leads me to wonder if I'M the only one who has the picture. Tell me....are the voices in my head now showing me pictures!? Does anyone else have the picture? It is funny.

    Pat

  • No, we all are seeing it… personally I think it is a little over the top

  • @BasenjiDiva:

    :confused: Okay! Am I going nuts? Here is this thread about Daisy and Duke's fight and suddenly in the midst of the thread (top of page 3), I have a picture posted by Barklessdog that is so funny that it is almost disturbing. It is of a tricolor B in a Santa outfit. Now…the picture clearly has nothing to do with the thread but no one else has even commented on it.......which leads me to wonder if I'M the only one who has the picture. Tell me....are the voices in my head now showing me pictures!? Does anyone else have the picture? It is funny.

    Pat

    What? Does that strike you as strange? ;)

  • I posted that relating that to dog owners who like to humanize their dogs, but when they go primal that image goes out the window.

    The point was, people can dress up their little dogs and give them names, but deep inside they are primal animals. The Santa Basenji illustrates that idea.

    That how it relates, to me, that's why I posted it.

    We have a Christmas pillow with that picture!

  • @BasenjiDiva:

    :confused: Okay! Am I going nuts? Here is this thread about Daisy and Duke's fight and suddenly in the midst of the thread (top of page 3), I have a picture posted by Barklessdog that is so funny that it is almost disturbing. It is of a tricolor B in a Santa outfit. Now…the picture clearly has nothing to do with the thread but no one else has even commented on it.......which leads me to wonder if I'M the only one who has the picture. Tell me....are the voices in my head now showing me pictures!? Does anyone else have the picture? It is funny.

    Pat

    I had seen it before, it does have a comical quality to it.:D

  • @Quercus:

    What? Does that strike you as strange? ;)

    LOL….not really. It doesn't strike me strange that a bunch of basenji owners are a tad bit eccentric OR that the voices in my head are now showing me pictures! :D

    Pat

  • I thought it was kind of Grinch like…........scrooge.....ect.:rolleyes:

  • It made me laugh :) I like how his paws are devilishly folded together. It is photo shopped, I think, no? He wasn't forced against his will to wear a little Santa suit ;)

  • @Barklessdog:

    I posted that relating that to dog owners who like to humanize their dogs, but when they go primal that image goes out the window.

    The point was, people can dress up their little dogs and give them names, but deep inside they are primal animals. The Santa Basenji illustrates that idea.

    That how it relates, to me, that's why I posted it.

    We have a Christmas pillow with that picture!

    I dunno….a little anthropomorphization (whoo...hard to spell) is okay. Dogs are similar to people, that is why we love them so much..and why they can share our homes. OUR dogs are maybe a little more primal......

    Let's not forget that humans can be horrifyingly primal as well.....

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