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Housebreaking and Bonding

Basenji Training
  • ?

    Jenga is going on 6 months of age and most of the days he spends with me at my side constantly. During the day when we are home alone he very rarely will have an accident in the house and when he does I can say that it is probably my fault as I was not watching for his signal to go out.
    However, when the family comes home, particularily my husband, he will usually urinate. Last night my husband let him out for a few minutes and then he came in and just went on the floor in front of him. Hubby is beginning to get a bit frustrated and thinks he is not the super smart dog I keep claiming him to be!
    Any ideas?
    Also, is it common for this breed to bond with the primary person (myself) and be a bit aloof to the rest of the family?

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  • eeeefarmE

    It could be submissive urination. Especially if your husband doesn't particularly like him, the dog may be picking up on that. Yes, Basenjis may be aloof from people they haven't bonded with.

    "In order to get along with a Basenji, you have to be at least half as smart as the dog!"

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  • P

    Can you persuade your husband and the rest of the family to feed Jenga for a while. It sounds to me that he is wary of your husband. Yes they will bond with one person but it is all matter of patience. Feeding especially by hand will most probably solve the situation.

    Do you have a command for him to urinate? Maybe when your husband takes him outside he (your husband) doesn't use it.

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  • D

    You also need to be outside with the dog to make sure he actually goes to the bathroom. I have to do this with the adults especially when the grass is wet or when it is raining!

    Jennifer

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  • eeeefarmE

    Been there, done that! It gets tiresome after awhile. I even wrote a Haiku about it:

    Stupid f**king dog
    has not peed this morning yet
    and I want breakfast!

    "In order to get along with a Basenji, you have to be at least half as smart as the dog!"

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  • TMartinT

    Our first B is also 6 months old now. It can take far longer than a few minutes outside for him to potty and unless one of us actually witnesses him peeing or I look under to see if his hair down there is wet, I never just think he went because he was outside for a bit. My boy can be stubborn about taking a long time to go! For example, we're at my mom's right now babysitting her cats (never again!) and he refuses to potty in her yard, so I walk him across the street to a few empty lots and he'll promptly do his business. As to the bonding, he's bonded with my husband, myself, as well as my in-laws (though not to the extent that he is with us) since we all live together. I stay at home right now, so he's used to me being there with him but he isn't necessarily more bonded to me than with my husband, it's just a different type of bond. How does your husband feel towards him? If they are not bonding, I'd say to try having your husband play more, walk him, help with training, and even do some hand-feeding. I've noticed with mine that he listens better to me as I do the bulk of the training with him, though my husband is finally catching on to the fact that if he wants Loki to listen to him, then he actually needs to work with him himself more often ;)

    Loki & Kaia

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  • krunzerK

    @eeeefarm:

    Been there, done that! It gets tiresome after awhile. I even wrote a Haiku about it:

    Stupid f**king dog
    has not peed this morning yet
    and I want breakfast!

    LOVE the haiku! I think because it is so true. Especially on wet days. As for the husband doggy issue my B's both definately listen to me more because I do most of the training with them and he goes from wanting them to do something to frustrated when they don't do what he tells them to. They are smart and they know and intimidation will NOT work with this breed. When housetraining my boy I used the clicker to get him to go outside. After he was done then he got a super yummy treat (freeze dried liver). He caught on real quick. Maybe hubby should try to give him a treat when he does go outside to potty. I also believe having a code word is a great idea when training them. Take puppy outisde and say 'go potty' once they start doing this click the clicker wait until they are finished and they run over to you and give them the treat. I find clicker training very effective.

    Owned by Becca and Tucker![](images/smilies/biggrin.png "Big Grin")

    BRAT rescue

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  • Shaye's MomS

    @eeeefarm:

    Been there, done that! It gets tiresome after awhile. I even wrote a Haiku about it:

    Stupid f**king dog
    has not peed this morning yet
    and I want breakfast!

    Gotta love 'em - LOL. I can remember thinking your haiku quite often when Shaye was little. Once she learned it though, it was solid, no forgetting.

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  • R

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    I got my pup when he was 7 months and he was sort of house broken. When I took him to the vet I found out that part of his house breaking issues was that he had a bladder infection. If you continually have problems house breaking (like very frequent urination or peeing in the crate) you may want to have your vet test for a bladder infection just to make sure. Another problem I discovered was that he didn't know how to tell me he had to pee. I hung bells on the door and by having him ring them every time we went out I taught him to tell me when has to pee. It has been great. Some times he rings them just to go out and play, but mostly he rings them when he really has to go out. Now the only "accidents" he's had is when I ignore the bells b/c I am busy. (he literally peed all over the living room the other night because I ignored him) One other suggestion, make sure you use an enzyme cleaner on any "accident" spots. These really eat away the reminants of the feces/pee so that your b will not recognize the area as an ok place to go to the bathroom Other helpful tips I got was to be sure you use the same door when you take your b out and take it to the same part of the yard. Give your b LOTS of praise for going outside (and a treat if it is food motivated).