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Can Basenjis find water underground?

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  • B

    I met a guy today while I was walking my two basenjis, Benga and Lulu, back from the dogrun. We were chatting about the breed, and he was telling me, while Lulu was pawing at the sidewalk, that when they do this, they are smaelling water underground, and that this is something that they can do…to seek out underground water, being a desert dog... Does anyone know if this is true? Are they "Divining Basenjis"?

    Very curious....:D

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  • Shaye's MomS

    They have great smell sense, so maybe so - whether "divining" or not, they are surely "divine" - I use that term loosely.

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  • B

    They certainly are DIVINE! There a couple other things that go along with this…He mentioned how they like to lick the water off his feet when he gets out of the shower, and Lulu does this to me all the time...Another is whenever I walk them, they go crazy lunging towards the fire hydrants, not to pee, but to smell...I always assumed they are doing it to smell other dogs' markings, but maybe the water as well. They don't go crazy like that with other places dogs mark, at least not as fervously...It would be interesting to take them out to the dester and let them look for water, and start digging wherever they start hovering... anyone want to try?

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    I take Blaze into the senior's lodge to go visit Grandma (in a town of less than 300), sure enough, there's a gentleman there that knew what Blaze was. He was an archeologist back in his day. His last dig was in 1976 deep in the Congo, and he stayed with villagers and witnessed the hunts and the lives of the basenjis in the village. He told me about one hunt. The basenjis chase antelope into huge nets that are strung up in the forest like barriers. The nets are handmade with ropes and vines. Some of the hunters stay near the net and hide, the majority of the hunters take the basenjis to the water hole and wait. When the antelope arrived, they release the basenjis and chase behind almost soundlessly. You can really hear the gourd bells, which are mostly around the loins. The antelope hit the net and are shot with arrows. The basenjis have to get beaten off… they get a little too excited. He has some amazing pictures. I'm trying to borrow his album to scan, but he's not comfortable with that idea. He loves Blaze though and he knows the african word for the breed which I can never remember or pronounce.
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    So what did you do with your Basenji today?

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    Sure! I have only worked with UKC at this point, but there are others out there. http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPages/DogWeightPull The dogs are divided into classes by weight. Placements are given out in each class, although they really don't matter much. The weight classes are 15 lbs apart for smaller dogs and 20 lb increments for big dogs. For example, the Basenjis bascially fall into the 30 lb class. (anything from 16 to 30.9 lbs) There are two ways to calculate placements, and it is decided ahead of time by the clubs holding the event. Format A is by most weight pulled. Format B is by most weight pulled per pound of body weight. It is calculated as a percentage. Most clubs do format A one day and format B the next. Also each day there is an overall winner for both the most weight pulled and most weight pulled per pound for all classes combined. I have seen everything from an American Bulldog to an Italian Greyhound win the most weight pulled per pound. :) All titles in UKC are earned by each dog's individual pulls compared to their own body weight. So classes and placements really don't matter, except for fun. There are 3 types of carts/surfaces to pull with, and each has their own point scale. Snow pulls are the hardest, so it doesn't take as much weight pulled in those events to earn the same amount of points as say a pull with a rail system. Wheeled cart pulls are inbetween, and the rail carts are the easiest to pull. Therefore it takes more weight to earn points. For example, a qualifying score for the first title takes only 3 times the body weight on snow to earn. It takes 7x the weight if its a wheel cart, and then 10x the weight on a rail track. Then to earn championship points after your first title, you only need to pull 5x body weight on snow, but you must pull 10x weight for wheels and 20x weight on rails! The more you pull the more points you earn, up to a max of 20 pts per event. Some titles can be earned by pulling on any of the surfaces. Other titles are for showing off versatility and the dog must earn so many points in two or all 3 of the surfaces to get them. There are 6 titles total you can earn. IWPA is another organization just for pulling, and they accept all breeds. I have never pulled with them however because the closest pulls in my region are over 3 hours away, up North. We have enough to do with everything else in the dog world that I don't need to make those kind of drives for this. lol http://www.iwpa.net/ APA is another one I just found this winter doing some googling. They have some pulls very close to home this summer so I am looking forward to going. I don't think they're a very big or influential organization to bother pulling with, at least for Basenjis, but will be nice to check it out. http://www.weightpull.com/ I think these are all the ones that will accept all breeds. Both IWPA and APA I think give points based on class placements, so I know they have some different formats than UKC. The only thing you really need is a custom fitted harness. It's an investment of about $50 -100 depending on who you go with and what you make of it. There are 3 harness makers that I've either used or know others personally who have, and they all do nice work and come highly recommended. Missy Kehler - The Working Canine (she's in the middle of redoing her site) http://www.theworkingcanine.com/ Harnesses By Carol http://harnessesbycarol.com/ CD Pits http://www.itsmysite.com/cdpits/ Most of these sites also have links to training articles, so search thoroughly. :) Our club got to host the "national" snow pull this year for UKC, organized by UNWPA. Here's a link to my little Roxie placing 4th in her class of 8, beating out 4 other Basenjis. This was only two weeks after her very first pulls. (And yes, there's more than one of us crazy Basenji people out here!) And two of those placing Staffies flew out from CA for this! lol Our lovely frigid below freezing MI temps were so welcoming. :) And check out our little racing friend BJ, the IG! http://www.unitednationalweightpullassociation.com/2009%20shows/UNWPAsnowpull2009.htm