Basenji girl in NJ shelter

[doubleB]

Nine year old Penny Rose is with me for the past two days. She has issues for sure. She is as cute as she can be. But not housebroken at this point, not crate trained, and has almost endless circling behavior.
Don't know if I can upload a photo. I have tried to add pictures of my own 2 b's, but I must be doing something wrong.
I asked the coordinator at BRAT if anyone else can take over to foster her. I think it is too much for her to be alone all day while I am at work. I will come home at lunch, but it is four hour stretches and that is a lot for her.
This is my first post, I have only looked here for basenji stories…
Mary

[sharronhurlbut]

Oh, I am sorry she is such a trial at this time.
Let us know how we can help you.

[BDawg]

Thank you for taking her on… she needs someone to look out for her. Miles was a rescue, and he STILL circles. Do you have any other B's?

[doubleB]

I have Bella, 18 months, and Buster 7 years. They are happy together, but I am keeping them separate from Penny Rose. She has enough to deal with already.

So, I am doing what I can for Penny, but I think she needs more than I can offer. At least there is some progress with housebreaking. She is learning how to eliminate outside. And I am learning to keep her attached to me so she won't go inside.

The circling is very disturbing. She is on Rimadyl for a front limb lameness, and it looks to me that the circling caused or aggravates the lameness. It is the leg on the inside of her circles.
She is great on a leash. Has not showed any signs of chewing, yet.

[Tayda_Lenny]

Does anyone know what the circling means? Is it like when you see animals at zoos circling in their cages. That always makes me really sad.

I really hope little Penny Rose can adjust soon! Did you hear back from BRAT about other fosters? I am gone from my place 8 hours/day otherwise I would try to foster her…..

[BDawg]

My dog only circles when he's charged – either eager or anxious to go out. He was a rescue and circles like crazy around the living room furniture. Drives me nuts!

[doubleB]

My male also occasionally paces in a circle waiting to go out. Then there is the crazy excited racing circle that I think they all do at times. Penny Rose's circling is the slower steady speed, and she rarely stops on her own; but she has only been out of the shelter for 4 days. She does a good job of exercising herself in the back yard. The excellent news is that she has been fine in a crate while I am at work for the past two days, and is house trained with plenty of oversight. Sometimes I wonder if she misses her dog housemate Pit Bull that was in the shelter with her. He is still there. Sad.

[BDawg]

Yeh, Miles does the trotting pace around the furniture when he really needs to go out. It's like he's gotten impatient and does that to make us get up because he knows it drives us nuts.

That is sad the bully is still in the pound.

[Tayda_Lenny]

Did the shelter give you any info on Penny Rose's history and why both dogs were surrendered? Just curious…

[tanza]

I know that most kennel dogs or "caged" over crated dogs circle… as that is the only thing they can do where they were kept... It is also a learned habit... like if you have a horses that paws, cribs, or circles the stall... usually from being bored... and very, very hard to cure... or so I have been told

[doubleB]

The shelter did not supply much information. It sounded like a family moving out of a home to an apartment where they could not keep dogs. They tried to keep them somewhere else and when that did not work out they came to the shelter. But the story changed a couple time. Who knows exactly what the environment was? I don't know if three weeks in the shelter could have caused her to lose her house training and cause such ingrained circling.

[nomrbddgs]

As Pat says, it's partly boredom. It sounds like she had been crated for an extended length of time in a small crate. I usually saw this previously in stressed, bored dogs that had no life outside of a small environment. It is hard to cure. Try gently touching the inside of her body where she is circling and distract her by walking. It takes a long time. This, as you said, does not occur within the three weeks at the shelter, it takes much longer to ingrain it. She also could have had head trauma, which I have also seen lead to the circling. Kudos to you for trying to help her.

[Tayda_Lenny]

Hey DoubleB - we'd love to see some pics of little Penny Rose and your own two B's if you get a chance!

[Tayda_Lenny]

Hey DoubleB are you still here with us? How is little Penny Rose doing?

[sharronhurlbut]

I would like to know as well.

[doubleB]

After two weeks with me, I brought her to another more experienced foster home in Maryland. She was doing pretty well here, fine with people, and very slowly making progress with housetraining. But with me being out at work all day, there were limitations to what I could do. She is doing well at the new foster home after a week; she is socializing with other Basenjis and cats. The foster "mom" is at home most of the time and nothing much phases her. She is confident that things will work out for Penny soon. It was so very sad to leave her that day. At least I got her out of that shelter. No basenji should be in that situation for three weeks, and who knows what she lived through before that.

[snorky998]

Thanks for the update, doubleB. You provided the second chance this B needed. If not for you, she may not be here at all.

Thank you.

[doubleB]

You are welcome. I felt like a foster failure giving her up after two weeks; but she has a better situation with an expert like Barbara. I definitely need some practice with introducing adult Basenjis. Those noises they make sound like the Exorcist!

[Tayda_Lenny]

Oh I'm glad to hear she is doing well. Don't feel bad, you DID get her out of that shelter and into BRAT's system….