How do I get my basenji to talk???

[tanza]

@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

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

[Patty]

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!!

[Barklessdog]

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)

[Rita Jean]

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

[DebraDownSouth]

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.

[BART]

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….:)

[Shaye's Mom]

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.

[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.

[Kipawa]

@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?

[2baroos]

I used to live in Vancouver and now live in Courtenay

[erica ruth]

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..

[wizard]

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.

[DebraDownSouth]

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.

[erica ruth]

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

[erica ruth]

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

[elevan]

My boy yodels when I say "I loooooovveee yooooooouuuuuuu"