OK Basenji Fan's its appears its time to get out your fall and winter coats!


  • The temps started dropping in the last few days in the midwest and now we are down in the upper 40's at night and in the 50's and 60's during the day.

    Since we sleep with the window open its no wonder our little guy is restless during the evening hours. He is only doing what comes natural to him and that is moving around to keep warm. Of course he is trying to communicate this by pawing at the side of the bed or acting out, but as humans who do not talk fluent Basenji, we do not always understand what they might want or what might be bothering them. Our Boston Terrier is no help cause she does not speak Fluent Basenji either. She is only capable of speaking common dog which again is something as humans we do not always understand.

    In our case, a warm Basenji is a happy Basesji. A tired Basenji is a happy Basenji, and a full Basenji is a happy Basenji.

    Although I am not one of those owners that likes to dress my dog, I am in favor of practical clothes such as a sweater, coat, or raincoat for the obvious reasons. So I put a hooded sweater on him today and he is happy as a Basenji can be when they decide to tolerate sweaters, coats, and raincoats. I do dread the coldest days of winter where I have to try to get the rubber boots on his feet.

    Jason


  • We also sleep with a window open and a ceiling fan running. Nights are getting cooler here as well. The only thing saving Jaycee at night is her kennel and all the warm blankets but I can see her coat is going to have to be on her soon. Not to sure about boots we will have to see on that one.

    Rita Jean


  • I have never used coats or boots on my B, and he's experienced temps as cold as -20F. He simply is motivated to do his business outside much quicker. A couple minutes outside in the cold won't hurt him, I try to be careful around the salt though. He's a lot tougher than I expected when it comes to the cold. 🙂


  • Well either Jaycee or I are babies because I do not want her to be cold. I hate cold. When we got her back in March we all ready had bought her a coat. We used the coat until it got warmer.

    Rita Jean


  • @Kananga:

    I have never used coats or boots on my B, and he's experienced temps as cold as -20F. He simply is motivated to do his business outside much quicker. A couple minutes outside in the cold won't hurt him, I try to be careful around the salt though. He's a lot tougher than I expected when it comes to the cold. 🙂

    As you might know we have some days in IL at times were it gets below -20F and along with the windchill factors the temps are even more dangerous. We get winter advisories where we are encouraged to stay inside because of the possibility of frost bite. Our dog is motivated to get his business over quickly as well, but we noticed last year when he was out in the yard that both he and our other dog were lifting their feet off the ground as quickly as possible. I personally would rather err on the side of safety when it comes to my dogs. Of course what any body else does it up to them.

    Jason


  • @ComicDom1:

    As you might know we have some days in IL at times were it gets below -20F and along with the windchill factors the temps are even more dangerous. We get winter advisories where we are encouraged to stay inside because of the possibility of frost bite. Our dog is motivated to get his business over quickly as well, but we noticed last year when he was out in the yard that both he and our other dog were lifting their feet off the ground as quickly as possible. I personally would rather err on the side of safety when it comes to my dogs. Of course what any body else does it up to them.

    Jason

    Oh I fully agree. If unattended they should have some sort of protection.

    I go outside with my B whenever he goes. After awhile he will lift up his paws, but he doesn't take his time outside during the winter.


  • Jason, Doesn't Roo sleep 'under cover' with you?? If not, that stops the pacing, paw tapping, and in general all nocturnal activity. Just think, toasty warm in bed, no pacing, no attention getting behavior, a warm curled up pup to pre-warm the bed….
    ....then, suddenly, morphed into a sprawled dog the size of a deer hound, feet in your back and/or tender spots, with a vocal grump noise every time you try to roll over but can't because the Basenji is on the wrong side of the top sheet or comforter.....
    .....OK, never mind.

    BTW, how's Roo doing? He's such a cutie. Has he done much sailing this season?


  • @Kananga:

    Oh I fully agree. If unattended they should have some sort of protection.

    I go outside with my B whenever he goes. After awhile he will lift up his paws, but he doesn't take his time outside during the winter.

    Why would you think that we would behave any differently than you? Now this is kinda getting irritating. Your statement implies that I might not present with my dogs or they are unattended. Unless you have some specific evidence that indicates that you are correct in your assumption, I find the implication offensive.

    For your knowledge, we do not just let our dogs out in the yard. There is always one of us present. Roo is always on a leash for his own safety unless he is inside the house. When I first joined this forum, Tanza and others made it very clear that it was in any Basenji's best interest to always be leashed when outside. This is simply because more and more of them are being hit by cars and also because some of them have such a strong prey drive.

    I would really appreciate it if you would stop making assumptions and minimizing my concerns for my animals.

    Thanks,
    Jason and Miranda


  • @snorky998:

    Jason, Doesn't Roo sleep 'under cover' with you?? If not, that stops the pacing, paw tapping, and in general all nocturnal activity. Just think, toasty warm in bed, no pacing, no attention getting behavior, a warm curled up pup to pre-warm the bed….
    ....then, suddenly, morphed into a sprawled dog the size of a deer hound, feet in your back and/or tender spots, with a vocal grump noise every time you try to roll over but can't because the Basenji is on the wrong side of the top sheet or comforter.....
    .....OK, never mind.

    BTW, how's Roo doing? He's such a cutie. Has he done much sailing this season?

    Roo is doing ok. We have not gotten as much sailing as we would have liked because we have attended an agility event, Lure coursing, and 2 dog shows. Those events are usually on saturdays and sundays so you could see how we have to make some choices.

    Miranda and I do not let our pets in the bed with us. I know many people do. In the past we have to but we decided a few years back that our policy would be no dogs in the bed. Of course one of the benefits of this is if either of us rolls over and wants to plant a big fat wet one on the other in our sleep we know we are putting it on a person and not one of our furry buddies by mistake.

    Some reasons for not allowing our pets in our bed:

    1. If for some reason our pets have an upset stomach they do not throw up in our bed.

    2. They cannot pee on our pillows if they get mad at Miranda and myself.

    3. We do not have to fight them for covers.

    4 We do not have to fight them for the part of the bed we want to sleep on.

    5. We do not have to put up with hair on our bedsheets or pillows.

    6. We do not have to put up with either of the dogs fighting each other for covers.

    7. We do not have to put up with our dogs resource guarding our bed.

    8. We do not have to put up with explosive diarrhea in our bed.

    9. If our dogs have a urinary infection or problem we do not have to put up with Urine in our bed.'

    10. If its raining outside and we walk our dogs we do not have to worry about muddy paw prints or wet or damp dogs in our bed.

    11. We also do not have to put up with a dog digging to nest and tearing up the top of the mattress, sheets, covers, pillow cases, or pillows.

    12. We do not have to worry about our dogs chewing the wooden posts or other parts of our Oak 8 poster bed.

    If you have every tried to dry a Boston Terrier you know that its almost impossible to get them completely dry.

    Jason


  • Here in Houston, Sun and Humidity 9 months out of the year. Basenji heaven…..when it rains and drops below 60 it is cold to my B's. My pack is outside most of the day, when it rains they come in and play and sleep, when it rains for days they have to be walked on a leash more frequently with their raincoats on. After IKE, Belle was out the next morning, sniffing and very excited about all the trees down. I'm pratical too, sweaters and raincoats. Life is good when your Basenji is happy.....

    Happy tails;)


  • My dogs LOVE LOVE LOVE their clothes. They like the attention and their coats keep them warm. 🙂


  • ComicDom - I don't believe Kananga meant anything offensive at all (his statement didn't read that way to me), in fact I believe he was agreeing with you; he was just making a general observation and cautionary statement.

    Unless my dogs indicate they don't want to go outside, unless it approaches 0?F/-18?C we go for walks everyday - but a coat goes on (see: http://www.basenjiforums.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1676/ppuser/790) and so do booties to protect from the salt they spread on our streets.


  • @wizard:

    ComicDom - I don't believe Kananga meant anything offensive at all (his statement didn't read that way to me), in fact I believe he was agreeing with you; he was just making a general observation and cautionary statement.

    Unless my dogs indicate they don't want to go outside, unless it approaches 0?F/-18?C we go for walks everyday - but a coat goes on (see: http://www.basenjiforums.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1676/ppuser/790) and so do booties to protect from the salt they spread on our streets.

    Precisely. I did not mean to be offensive in any way. I read that they were out in the yard, which usually would imply they are not on a leash, but I was purely stating that since my B is on a leash whenever I am outside, he's with me and I know when his tolerance begins to wear thin. Thus I typically don't worry about him having to wear a coat since I make sure he is only outside so long. I guess I was trying to clear up any confusion that I let my B freeze outside for a long period of time.

    But then again, my B is an odd one. Refuses to sleep under a blanket or comforter (when one is provided) and would rather curl up in to a ball on top of the bed. I could never get a coat on him. 🙂


  • on the subject of coats/sweaters my poor zoe is already shivering and last year I bought her some sweaters they had in clearance 3 for $10. But she did not get as big as we expected and they are a little large. Just to get an idea could you tell me what size you get and how much your Bs weigh. Zoey is only 16.5 pounds. I can still put her puppy sweater on her but it is very tight.


  • I bought a S/M coat from Lands End and it was a little tight on EL D who weighed 25 pounds; it is a little loose on Gossy who weighes 22 (I made the fleece coat in the picture).


  • Tillo has a coat, but I only put it on him when it's really cold and wet and we go to training or to another place where he has to be outside without being able to move around all the time. Otherwise we just walk to stay warm. And I almost double his amount of food. We do the same with Lycia.

    Tillo and Lycia are also cold when they have to sleep without a blanket.. So we always have blankets laying around and we tuck them in at night 😃 (In their own beds 😉 :D)

    Maybe we can all post a pic of our B(s) in her/his (their) coat(s)? 😃


  • It's getting rather autumnal here in the UK too. I took the pooches for a breezy run on the beach today and put their fleecy jumpers on them for the first time in ages.

    My basenjis hate the cold/wet, but luckily for them we have TWO aga's in the house!! 😃 They don't realise how lucky they are!

  • Houston

    Ok, so I got to admit, I am jealous you have an AGA, but you actually have two..? Lucky you and your dogs.


  • @Basenjimamma:

    Ok, so I got to admit, I am jealous you have an AGA, but you actually have two..? Lucky you and your dogs.

    Lol! I know, it sounds very extravagant! :eek: Let me explain. It's is quite a large house (built as a vicarage), and is split into two households. My mum (the 'babysitter' :)) lives upstairs and myself and hubby live downstairs with the dawgs. Yes, lucky everyone! (It's oil fired and quite expensive to run though :()


  • When I got my boy last November, he came with collars, bowls, and a coat. I gotta tell ya, he could care less about the coat. On or off, if it's cold outside he wants to be inside. I don't worry about boots 'cause they only treat my dead-end street about twice a year and it's usually with sand/crushed rock as opposed to "salt"/chemicals. Heck, I'm lucky if they plow at all, let alone drop anything. I have a kerosene heater that has been fired up for the last couple of days (I refuse to turn on the furnace yet) and my guy has been a puddle in front of it. He moves away occasionally because its just a little too warm. About two minutes later…..

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