When you are dealing with something that an animal is afraid of, the best approach is to find his "comfort" distance from the thing that scares him. A busy street makes this a bit more difficult, as you have to find a way to give him that "distance". If you have a car, maybe transporting him to a less busy area might make a good start. Perhaps a side street, where he is comfortably away from busy traffic. You could then walk toward the busy street, pausing as soon as you see some sign of anxiety, and retracing your steps just little until he is in his "comfort zone" again. Gradually…...with the use of bribery and rewards......ask him to approach closer to the scary stuff. Liberally reward him for being there, then retreat. The idea is to not force, let him decide when he is ready. If he feels he can retreat at any time, he will have more confidence. This approach may take awhile, but is less likely to create a permanent aversion. (it works well with spooky horses).
Random question - left curl/right curl
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since there are many common differences between left-handed and right-handed people, i'm wondering if there are any differences between the left-side curl and right-side curl of basenji tails? what is the cause of the differences - genetics? environment when young? any commonalities? anyway, just a random thought….
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I've never noticed any differences, and we have had lefties, righties and right down the center tails here. But…I never thought about it, and I will be more observant from now on.
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LOL never thought of it either, 2 of mine have curled on right, one on left. Wonder if it relates to "handedness" (or would that be leggedness?). Now I have to look to see which food Cara and Arwen start out on!
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Maya's goes both ways… wonder what that says about her
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LOL, so does C-Me's, hmmm (and they are related too!)….... which is nice because in the show ring, I think they look better with the tail on the show side. That said, all my other Basenjis's tails went on the non-show side.
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when suki was younger i kept checking to see what side it was on, but it was always different. however, now, it is firmly on the right. even when i curl it over to the left, it pops back over to the right in just a few seconds.
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Jigsaw and Indy both have ambidextrous (sp?) tails. Their curls are relatively tight and for the majority of the time stay to the right side. But they also will easily switch to the left and stay there comfortably for a while, especially while out walking. If they shake themselves, their tails will usually correct themselves, but the "wrong" way doesn't seem to bother the dogs. Do other basenji's tails behave similarly?
When Indy is in the show ring (altered classes only now) I've always debated whether to try and deliberately put his tail to the left. It would probably stay there for long enough. But for some reason I've never been able to bring myself to. It's funny, but it feels like that would be betraying his true self. -
For years all my boys had tails to the left and the girls tails to the right but this has changed now and my current pack contains 2 female and 2 male lefts and 3 female and 1 male right. They will all hold their tails on the opposite sides but not for long.