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How do I get my basenji to talk???

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  • 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

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  • 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….:)

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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

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  • 2baroos2

    I used to live in Vancouver and now live in Courtenay

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  • 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..

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  • 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.

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  • 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

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  • E

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

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  • E

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

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  • E

    My boy yodels when I say "I loooooovveee yooooooouuuuuuu" :D

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