Thabo is fascinated with horses, though he prefers to have a fence between himself and the equine. He has sniffed noses with one, and later the two of them stayed near the fence and looked closely at each other.
Kwame goes off lead
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Kwame had his first off lead experience today. We went down by the river which is quite remote and reasonably safe.
He was thrilled to be able to run in the long grass and follow Malaika. He did however stick quite close to us and came back each time he was called.
How i wished they stayed like this, Malaika is getting harder and harder to get back, despite all the training.
It was made worse today because i forgot the chicken and the puppy biscuits failed totaly to inspire her.
We put Kwame back on his lead when another dog came by as i didn't want him to become scared and bolt. Poor chap still got bowled over by Malaika when she decided to have a romp with the lab.:eek: -
Forgive me, but I can't remember how old Malaika is. Did you feel 100% comfortable with her recall when you were training it to her? Perhaps a 'refresher course' on recall would be good for her. I believe that if you let a basenji off leash, even in a safe area, you need to be super confident that recall will work. YOU have to be viewed by your b's as the best thing to go to, even if there is another dog to play with, another squirrel to run for, etc. I do carry treats and reward Kipawa when he comes on the first call. I've also trained him to come when I whistle (a ref's whistle) because some of the areas we walk in are huge and I don't think my voice carries over distances. Maybe try going back to training Malaiki with just you. Don't involve Kwame. She might need to feel her importance with you again.
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We let our b's run off leash at the Oregon coast.
There are no cars on the beach, but they could "decide" to just run and go.
We have worked to keep great treats when we call…but we also know it's a trade off.
I hope everyone's b's come back when they need to.
I just so worry when they don't... -
Fran, Malaika is 14 months old and we have worked very hard with recall. If there is just her and us, her recall is text book, she comes and i heel her up and then she sits before getting her reward. However if there is something more interesting we can call, whistle, wave the treats around, all to no avail. I found the best way to get my first Basenji and her back is to run or walk away. However this isn't always appropriate.
I used to take her to a local park to run with a large group of dogs, but the problem is our parks tend not to be enclosed and are in the middle of surburbia. Twice she has run off and put herself in danger so unfortunately i have had to make the decision not to allow her off lead there anymore.
We have a few places we can let them off, the beach like Sharon has mentioned and remote places, so at least they can have some off lead exercise and of course now with two they can rampage around the garden.
Like you Fran i am trying a whistle as i find it a strain to shout. -
Shelley, I know a basenji breeder (that is also a dog trainer) that trains all her basenjis to Really Reliable Recall and has done so for years. I was talking with her at the National last year about it.
I had always heard stories of her driving somewhere in her van and letting her dogs run off leash after they arrived at their destination while on a road trip. So I asked her about it and how she dared to do it in a strange place and she told me about the Really Reliable Recall training that she had done with them. But then she also told me that she has had a few basenjis that just CAN'T be trained to recall reliably and that those dogs are not allowed off leash except in a fenced in area.
I found it really interesting and we talked quite a bit about as did another basenji breeder that was present during the conversation. Both breeders are long, long-time breeders that have not only done conformation with their dogs but also performance. To listen to them both about training their different dogs was really fascinating. They both have really lovely ways with their dogs - really nice connections.
I came away from it thinking that I have 3 that could be well trained to recall and 1 that probably never could. I've since been working on recall training. The one I have my doubts about being trained reliable to recall goes into a whole other zone mentally when running or chasing and no food/treat/anything of any type is important when that zone has been entered. If there was another dog around, she might likely run to that dog (to say hello), but if there was no other dog about, she would be gone I'm afraid.
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I came away from it thinking that I have 3 that could be well trained to recall and 1 that probably never could. I've since been working on recall training. The one I have my doubts about being trained reliable to recall goes into a whole other zone mentally when running or chasing and no food/treat/anything of any type is important when that zone has been entered. If there was another dog around, she might likely run to that dog (to say hello), but if there was no other dog about, she would be gone I'm afraid.
What kind of things helped you to come to that decision? I want to take Paco to a beach on Water Island (a tiny island nearby where they drive golf carts on the roads) to try and start recall training him. It's a beach surrounded by cliffs, so there's nowhere for him to go except out the one entryway into the beach, so I feel it's relatively safe as long as I'm near the entrance to try to keep him from running out that way.
I was going to bring a bunch of cut-up hot dogs and a whistle. Whistle, treat, whistle, treat, whistle, treat, and expand the length of time in between whistles such that he can have time to explore in between being called back. He is trained to sit, lay down, stay, jump up on things, get off of things, etc. and will "come"….but all of this is only if he knows you have a treat for him.
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Like you Fran i am trying a whistle as i find it a strain to shout.
Consistency is the key to get the whistle training to work. I use it in the house as well (not all the time though). I get odd looks from people when I use it outside with Kipawa - I guess lots of people have never seen border collie competitions.
Another thing I do is shuffle my feet when I want Kipawa to come back to me and walk with me. This technique wasn't planned by me, but I discovered Kipawa ran back to me when he heard this sound, so I also use it now.
Any new off leash walk I do with Kipawa is always preceeded by one on leash, where I carefully check for hazards. If there is a road anywhere near the park, it never becomes an off leash park for Kipawa. Do what your gut tells you when it comes to selecting areas to let your b off leash. Beaches are great, but again make sure any parking lots are far, far away.
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Renault, i would be interested to hear more about the Basenji breeders techniques.
Fran, yes i can so identify with doing a recci on a new walk before it becomes an off lead walk.
On one of the occasions Malaika did a runner in the park she got through a fence and there was a dual carriageway just down an embankment, i was unaware it was there.
There was a terrible moment when she spotted the traffis whizzing by, below and i just knew her prey drive was stimulated. I tried to recall but she shot off to look for a way through.
Fortunately she was distracted by a man and his dogs walking towards us. -
I get too nervous to let Ayo off leash!! I've only done it twice, Once was in palmar de ocoa, I posted some pictures, but he was in a enclosed yard, only he didn't know that if he wanted he could get out on one side, but he never did, and I knew that if he did there was no danger of cars.. When there are lots of people, specially children he always goes to them so it was ok. The other time was yesterday, and this was a house up in the mountains with a huge property which is fenced on three sides, but the forest below is relatively open, only some barbed wire which he could go thru. But again, no danger whatsoever of cars and there were two labs he just played around with them. And when he was beat he just came by me and hung out with us humans. It was great. And I feel bad that he never gets to do that but I am just too scared. I take him as often as I can to do the dog park and he gets to run a round with other dogs, although it's a small place its better than nothing. but I couldn't live with myself if something happened to him!! For the same reason, lack of a safe lace, I have not been able to train recall very much. Although both times he was off leash I called and he came, got lots of praise. At the dog park though , he is too excited to listen!!
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In my experience there are Basenjis who are reliable and those who are not despite trainig. The Really Reliable Recall interests me I think I've heard it mentioned on the forum before.
I've also found that there are those who can be trained not to chase stock and those who can't, I've had Basenjis who ran free amongst sheep and chickens but I couldn't say that I had any reliable method of training that worked with all.
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in a way it's dissapointing that with some Dogs all the training in the world goes out of the window in situations where it realy matters.
However this is how it is and we do the best we can by our beloved Basenji delinquents
