New basenji owner to Milo, 6 months old. He is outdoor/indoor dog and we found him going to town on a bird. Is this normal? And what anout chasing rabbits?
Totally normal! I've heard of a B jumping in the air to catch birds as they pass by and succeeding. B's have a very high prey drive anything that catches their interest they chase. Mine chase squirrels here.
Birds? Oh my yes - my female catches them just as they begin their takeoff from the ground!
Rabbits? Mine have all learned to corner these and then …
Chipmunks? Yes indeed.
Muskrats,
Mice,
etc
Absolutely wizard, birds, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, I've even known a few to take on possums and raccoons. Egads! Tough little buggers, aren't they?
I found the transcript from the documentary. If the age part is true, the rest is not (unless there's difference between our European bred Basenjis and those in Africa):
NARRATOR: Sharing the same curly-tailed trait [as the Akita] is the venerable African Basenji.
DEBBYE TURNER: Basenji is the granddad of ancient dogs. However, they’re not that trainable. They will not do obedience tricks like other breeds.
Come back here.
And here’s an example!
NARRATOR: There is something else very wolf-like about a Basenji…
SOUND OF DOGS HOWLING
NARRATOR: …its yodel.
These breeds reveal much about how dogs may have appeared and acted after they first transitioned from pack hunters to scavengers and provide clues as to why they may have first appealed to humans.
DEBBYE TURNER: You won’t see Basenjis doing tricks, but because of their closeness to their wolf ancestors, they are considered very adept hunters.
Here's the video link. Basenjis mentioned 25 min. into it.
https://www.pbs.org/video/dog-tales-vskr2y/
Well, the lab I mentioned (chocolate overweight one) almost took me out by slamming into my knee. I commented loudly " he better not insure my knee!" No comment from the owner. Others were keeping an eye on this over exhuberant dog too. Many peeps were standing behind a bench for protection.
What really bugs me is that the park has very visible signs when you enter it that say you must have control of your dog.
Thanks Humanoid. I L'dMAO. Great idea with the home made wood bed.
I still can't praise the Duluth Trading Company beds enough. Katie proof (a bed digger), and Tyler proof (exposed stuffing of any kind is fair game). 6 years and the bed is still in use. Washable outside and re-stuffable inside pillow (inside only replaced once due to a basenji/skunk incident) After 5 or 6 dog beds, this one is a keeper for me.
My 15 year old Lab wants to devour my sons parakeet. He went after the lovebirds too when we had them. My mom has a ****zu that ate 3 of her love birds. The cats never had a problem with the birds. They'd walk around the house with birds on their backs like it was no big deal. The Macaw I used to have was a different story. He wanted to eat the cats, but didn't mind the dog even though the dog was scared ****tless of him.
