Skip to content
Basenji Forums
  1. Home
  2. Basenji Talk
  3. How do I get my basenji to talk???

How do I get my basenji to talk???

Basenji Talk
  • P

    @tanza:

    Some talk, some never do. My OJ never uttered a yodel in 17+ years….

    Welcome to the forum... who did you get your Basenji from? Many of us are related by our Basenjis.

    Wow 17 years! That's a long time to keep quiet. My basenji came from harmony hounds, a breeder in Georgia!

    0
  • KipawaK

    Well, I am not sure if it helped to teach Kipawa, but I would 'baroo' at him, and he is quite vocal now.

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

    0
  • renaultf1R

    Maybe play some videos of singing/talking basenjis off of YouTube. Those always gets my b-kids going.

    Once you get them to yodel, if you mark the behavior (and treat it), you might be able to get it on command. I have 3 that do it on command for their dinner. My forth only yodels when she wants one of the other basenjis to play with her or yodels at her reflection :D.

    0
  • ShannaniganS

    We tried to teach Paco to "speak" when we were training him, but it was hopeless.

    I now find that he yodels when I let him in the kitchen while I cook, and he wants what I'm cooking. Sometimes he'll wait patiently thinking that he'll get some food if he's sitting quietly the whole time, and then starts yodeling while we're eating and he doesn't get any.

    Also, having a lot of people over, or a new person over, especially someone who doesn't pay much attention to him, gets him going.

    0
  • MayaM

    I think they're either talkative or they're not :) Maya always has been very keen to yodel but other than that, rarely makes any noise.

    She will yodel along with me if I sing (we must sound rather interesting in the car singing along to the radio!!) but I cant really "make" her do it. She has a mind of her own and doesnt she know it :D

    Jess

    http://www.silverbriar.co.uk

    0
  • tanzaT

    @Maya:

    I think they're either talkative or they're not :) Maya always has been very keen to yodel but other than that, rarely makes any noise.

    She will yodel along with me if I sing (we must sound rather interesting in the car singing along to the radio!!) but I cant really "make" her do it. She has a mind of her own and doesnt she know it :D

    But of course, Jess… I mean she is a Tri after all! :D

    Pat Fragassi

    Tanza Basenjis

    www.tanzabasenjis.net

    0
  • P

    Sometimes particular chords in music will set them off yodelling but then again as the others have said mabny never do. After all they manage to communicate with us in many other ways so why bother!!

    0
  • BarklessdogB

    Our red girl would always yodel when my daughter played her violin. Never fails. She chortles when she is happy.

    They all whine a lot!

    Or Tri used to yodel when a pup, but has not done anything in the last 8 years. However he did scream during the night, sounded like a human was getting stabbed to death. The most godawful noise you ever heard, loud and gut wrenching. We think he was having a nightmare, he sleeps in his crate.

    Anyone else have their dog scream like that (not getting hurt)

    0
  • Rita JeanR

    Both of my B's talk and yodel but maybe this will help. From day we brought Jayden home my daughter get on floor look at Jayden tell him to yodel then she would make this awful sound. Then Jaycee would start in and it could have been Jayden just could not stand all noise but was not long before he was make his voice heard and he is very much a talker. The only thing I am going to say be careful what you wish for when two of them get going I sometimes wish that neither of them talked.

    Rita Jean

    0
  • DebraDownSouthD

    Cara makes a great many noises (including a rather disturbing donkey one), but no yodel. I am definitely yodel/baroo envious since Arwen also doesn't do them.

    Debra

    0
  • BARTB

    I have an old harmonica that was my grandfather's, never fails to get a response. My first boy was pretty quiet on the yodeling front, but that would get him going. Current guy is more vocal on his own, but if I want him to go, harmonica always does the trick. Just to start, then he's all about the "singing" with me. Now that the weather is nice and windows are open, I often wonder what the folks walking/ running/ biking by on the street may think of the sounds….:)

    0
  • Shaye's MomS

    My 2 1/2 year old r/w Shaye hardly ever makes noise - whines and mutters when we leave a dog park, and twice has copied her "sister's" bark - (Gemma is a mix and barks a LOT, also talks and yodels), but it didn't sound the same. One time she baroo'd when we came home from a long afternoon, but never repeated it. Because we keep telling Gemma to be quiet, sometimes Shaye looks at her as if to ask "What's wrong with you?!?" so maybe she has decided making noise is a bad thing. No matter - noise or no noise they can communicate very well.

    0
  • 2baroos2

    Get a cheap Harmonica and try that or go to youtube and look for Basenji singing-turn up the volume and see what happens.

    0
  • KipawaK

    @2baroos:

    Get a cheap Harmonica and try that or go to youtube and look for Basenji singing-turn up the volume and see what happens.

    hello 2baroos - welcome to the forum! I see you are from BC - anywhere in the lower mainland?

    Fran Harder, BAB

    With Barney in my heart

    0
  • 2baroos2

    I used to live in Vancouver and now live in Courtenay

    0
  • E

    i got my boy to "sing " by mistake…..lol. i was going through a web site called singing dogs ( basenji) and turned it up loud and guess what it got my boy singing along with the dog on line.... what a noise but worth it..

    0
  • wizardW

    The two males I had previously never ever made a sound. My current female never has yodeled but she does "talk" back to me when I scold her and she "cries" like a tasmanian devil when in the car-kennel. My new male yodels every now and then but I haven't figured out what sets him off.

    0
  • DebraDownSouthD

    LOL, so I am on the way to the vet for Arwen's 3 mo teeth cleaning. First, understand she is very silent most the time, none of the usual basenji noises other than screams and demon noised. So suddenly she is talking a LOT (not normal basenji noises but something I had never heard her do). I am SOOOO excited, I am praising, reaching back patting her. She gets louder, longer and more excited.

    I get more excited. I am all but exploding happy. I am mad my phone doesn't have a video.

    Finally, she quits and I suddenly get it. She wasn't talking. She was screaming "HEY PULL THE HELL OVER I GOTTA POOP NOW!" So deciding i hadn't a clue, she did. Thank goodness I had a sheet on the back seat and a huge shopping bag in the trunk. I pulled over, let her out, pulled out the poopy sheet and put it in the bag, tied it up (and threw out when I got home). So much for Arwen talking.

    Debra

    0
  • E

    oh how lucky you are… would love to hear her...

    0
  • E

    haaaaha i just re read your letter and realised what you meant !!!!!

    0

Suggested Topics

  • J

    Looking at getting a Basenji.

    Basenji Talk
    10
    0 Votes
    10 Posts
    1k Views
    tanzaT
    @jordandwilly - Thanks for clearing that up.... 9-5 is just fine, IMO.... I work and have always had to leave mine when I was at work, never an issue. That said, we were able to set up the house that access to the backyard (with 10 to 12' privacy fences) with a doggy door and a dog room in the house for them, Locks on the gates so there is NO access for anyone. Dogs sleep 90% of the day so being at work doesn't bother them... never have mine even when I had a litter in the house (And have been in the breed as owner/breeder for 35+ years). You can hire a dog walker to take them out mid day..which is a good solution. and give them a mid day meal depending on their age. I do not and never have used free feeding, period. Especially if you have more that one... you never know what/who is eating what. And you can set up camera's on line to watch them from "afar".... LOL. Keep in mind people that many of us need to work and have day jobs. The most important thing is the time you need to spend with them when you are home. Example would be, if you have young children and you work... when you get home you are going to spend your time with your human children... NO dog would be happy if left out... they need their time also because they are a family member and need as much time as a human child. Again in my opinion
  • K

    How did you get your basenji to walk off leash?

    Basenji Talk
    17
    0 Votes
    17 Posts
    13k Views
    DebraDownSouthD
    @eeeefarm said in How did you get your basenji to walk off leash?: What I find interesting is the change in attitude to dogs on leashes. At that time, many people walked their dogs off leash, and many left them loose on their properties all day long. First, and probably foremost, you're a excellent owner. We disagree on a lot of training things (like e-collars) but you are uber responsible. On the "in the old days"... I see parents talk about not how they roved the neighborhood or all over small towns and how safe. But I also worked with women over the age of 70 who had been sexually assaulted as children and never reported it. I am not sure kids were massively safer in the good old days except for the fact that back then, your neighbors DID look after your kids... they'd scold them or call you without being fearful of being called meddling... because it was about caring. We've lost that. As for dogs, yep... we're similar aged and I remember my grandmother's farm and the fairly steady stream of new farm dogs because they got killed by wild life/snakes etc or roving dogs. It was business as usual. Dog disappeared or dead-- get another one. I know many still feel that way. Rather have to dogs run free and happy and dead young than "cooped up." Our value for dogs as companions has dramatically changed, and our view of our responsibility for them. We always had cats and dogs who were allowed out, and like you, most stayed on the property. But I remember 3 dogs who didn't (one small, probably stolen) and cats didn't live long. We just took that as the norm. Obviously I have look back at that and am horrified. (Though there was an Irish setter who would NOT stay on his property and if the owners weren't there, he followed me about a mile to my house when I walked home from school. His owners laughed, would come get him when they got home if he didn't go back. I thought that was kewl back then but not so much then.) But my experience, and I lived in a very small town then, and a smallish one now, is very different. Then and now, dead dogs and cats on the road are incredibly common. The litmus test is research statistics. Cats who are even allowed out a few hours a day loose have dramatically decreased life spans. I haven't bothered to look about dogs, though a look at shelters should be enough to prove that dogs loose are often dogs lost. The number with electric fence collars demonstrates how ineffective even that is if prey drive kicks in. (for the record, your dog your choice. Loose cats however have an almost unimaginable impact on wildlife, so it IS my business if your cat runs loose.) Yep, times have definitely changed.
  • ?

    When to get another Basenji

    Basenji Talk
    11
    0 Votes
    11 Posts
    13k Views
    ?
    Wow! Somehow, I never got emails letting me know I had responses to this thread and just assumed there weren't any. But now that I'm back in the loop, I did want to thank everyone for their feedback and provide some thoughts of my own. That makes me laugh about the rescue person who wouldn't let young families or lawyers adopt her dogs. :-D I can understand her rationale from both perspectives. It's a compelling argument on her part about lawyers, but not all lawyers are the same, of course. I know a lot of extremely busy lawyers in large firms who struggle to hit their billable hour requirement each month. They're machines instead of people, and I wouldn't even let them dogsit my babies for fear of neglect. That's not my situation, fortunately. The young family part will be, but I've been thinking really carefully on how I'll balance this when the time comes. My dogs are my first children, and I would hire as many trainers as needed and try as many alternatives as I could before I would give them up. Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of people have that mindset about their dogs. :( I would absolutely be open to the idea of having the breeder choose a puppy for us based on their experience and prediction as to personality. All basenjis are gorgeous to me, and as long as the markings aren't completely off-base and I can get a tightly-curled tail (I've seen that the Avongaras can be lacking in this area, and I need a cinnamon bun in my life), personality is the most important thing. I wouldn't nitpick it to death. I'll have to decide on a breeder at some point, and I'd love one who's relatively local so I could visit. The man I got Penny from had great pet Basenjis that he bred… I'd like to go with a more reputable breeder this time around. At the very least, he tested for Fanconi. I can be grateful for that, as all is well so far and I more than likely dodged a bullet when I ended up with such a fantastic dog. My plan would be to decide and get on a waiting list far enough in advance that if there were a couple litters that just didn't produce what my family and I were looking for, we wouldn't be waiting forever. In short, what I'm banking on is that the right pup with the right personality will fit in pretty flawlessly. I know what sets my basenji off in other dogs, and I'm hopeful that I could find one that would suit her and suit our home. Daisy certainly worked out well for her, and I'd love to have that same success again. I've done three puppies in my lifetime, and all of them have grown up to be well-adjusted adults. I know what it takes, and I know it's hard work. I would never go the route of having an infant and a puppy at the same time (isn't THAT actually the definition of insanity?? ;) ), but I am still trying to shoot somewhere in the next 3-4 year range so my two aren't past ten and too old to handle a puppy.
  • C

    Thinking of getting a Basenji

    Basenji Talk
    11
    0 Votes
    11 Posts
    3k Views
    C
    I have a general question. Does anybody elses Basenji not like to be picked up. Ours sometimes loves it, and sometimes not. Also sometimes she runs up to dogs as quiet as can be and plays, and than other times she makes a squeeling noise, and people are afraid she is picking a fight with their dog. But I think shes just talking. She squeels at our new Whippet puppy, and loves to play with her and is as gentle as can be, considering the Whippet puppy is really rough on my poor Basenji baby girl. does anyone know what the squeeling means. The baroo I get she does that all the time. The squeeling is confusing.
  • MayaM

    Man Gets Basenji Tattoo

    Basenji Talk
    15
    0 Votes
    15 Posts
    5k Views
    thunderbird8588T
    Irena, your Dad's tattoo looks realy good. I'm not brave enough to have a tattoo
  • AlexA

    Poll: Where Did You Get Your Basenji?

    Basenji Talk
    19
    0 Votes
    19 Posts
    6k Views
    youngandtiredY
    Well, it started when I was out with my 22yr. old son at the mall. He said, "Hey, Mom lets look at the dogs in the petstore ", I replied, "I don't have time besides your Dad has too many ideas what a dog has to be like for us to get one", I'll never find a dog like he wants". That was 3 yrs. ago this Jan., and I had never heard of a Basenji. I called DH about 3 times the night I found Sahara to persuade him we needed this dog, but she was very expensive so it took some work talking him into me buying her. She is owned by my son, me and my husband, she lives with my husband and I. She is the best dog I have ever owned, and I have had many through my lifetime. I would never get another dog from a pet store (didn't know about puppy mills)but I would have not known of this breed if I hadn't stopped and looked that night. My husband loves this dog so very much, he buys her whatever she wants or needs. I love her also, she is my joy and I can't stand to be from her for very long, we just got back from a trip and it was so hard missing her. My son said that she didn't eat very good while we were gone and was very destructive in the house. Guess she missed us as well!