Male or Female
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I am in a debate over what gender of pup to get when it comes time to get one. So any advice would be great and feel free to ask questions that might help in answering. And to help aid here's a little about my current dog.
I do have a neutered male boxer. He does have a dominace trait at times, but it has ONLY been with adult intact males that are his size or bigger, and an occasional neutered dog (male or female) that are again his size or bigger and they have a domanit personality also.
He has never had a problem with dogs that are smaller as far as eltablishing dominance right away. 90% of the time he just gives them the literal shoulder and ignores them. My neighbor has a 25lbs spaniel/boston terrier mix that pesters him to no end and as we call it acts like a hag. He has only once put her in her place because she actually bit him in the face. And then all he did was held her down with his paw and gave her a verbal warning.
When we lived in Maryland he had a male baseji buddy and they got together every few weeks to play and even when the B would start getting snarky Reggie would just get in the play stance and woof at the B and then take off running, ending the snark fest and starting a game of chase.
I'd like to get a male, but wanted to ask what basenji owners think. I have had female dogs in the bast, mix and pure breed. And I don't dislike female dogs, but I have expereinced that they are more work and more of a pain in the rear, lol. Not that I'm against it.
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My answer would be to look for a Basenji whose personailty and temperament fits your household best. Automatically getting the opposite sex of what you already have in the household is no guarantee the two animals will get along. Two assertive dogs, even if mixed genders and altered, can still be a challenge. Be open to gender but be firm about personality and temperament and you should be fine.
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if you get a male, there is a possibility of Alpha Dog issues, one will come out the dominate and there could be tiffs until that's established
a female will render your male dog dominate at first, depending on how she grows up, she might try and take it
(this is just from what I've noticed from other's and from Bindi, she's dominate at my house because the male dog here is smaller and gives in quickly, but at my mom's she submits around the larger females)
~Kat
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Thank you yodeldogs and firefox.
Yodel you have a good point about personality and temperment, I for some reason beyond me couldn't figure out what it was I need to look for and that's it, I was having one of those tip of the tounge moments.
and Firefox, I totally understand that, I used to have another dog that was a female and when she was little and growing up Reggie would roll over on his back and side to keep her interesting in playing and all that. Then came the day she challenged his dominace when she was about a yr old. They both had bones they were happly chewing on in the yard and she started chewing on the other end of his which he didn't care, then he got up to move with his bone and she growled at him, he paused and looked at her funny and then picked up his bone again and she lunged at him and caught him in the lip drawing a little blood, he quickly knocked her down and used his chest to hold her down but not hurt her, they said a few choice "dog words" back and forth and that was the end of it. I was looking at them from the window while they were outside when it happened and by the time I made it to the door it was all over. But she understood that he was the boss.
Antime that Reggie has been in a "who's more" dominant situation it has only been vocal and other than with the female dog I had never real body contact outside a paw on the shoulder or if it's smaller dog the paw usually holds them down.
I am thankfull that he is very easy going and tolerant of pretty much everything under the sun from the cat trying to stick her whole head into his ear, me dressing him up, and even dogs smaller than him wanting to either out right fight or just be dominant. He was even out right attacked by a jack russel out on a walk one time and he just knocked it down and held it with a paw and low growled at it.
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It will really depend on the dog. In general the saying, "Girls have an agenda and boys haven't got a clue," is fairly accurate. In my experience, my male defers to my females even though they are all younger than him. My girls demand respect from males and expect a certain level of treatment from them and most basenji males are perfectly happy to give them what they want. I think you should be very up front with the breeder that you want whatever puppy will be the best match for household and that sex is immaterial. Usually by the time the pups are 8 weeks old the breeder should have a pretty good idea what type of personality each pup has and what type of household it would fit into.
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well then, gender aside, get a dog you feel comfortable with, I went into a house full of boy dogs and only one girl, my Bindi, who was taking them down and being really playful but getting her point across, like have only older brothers to look up to, the younger sister will try her hardest to be as big and bad as her older brothers :3 I think it's cute and endearing <3 I think that's why I liked Bindi, she's got spunk!
~Kat
