How many of these play behaviors does your Basenji have?
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Basenji's are a very old breed who has learned and adopted traits from many African animals over the centuries. The neck bite when chasing is a hunting techniqiue among all of the great cats, lions, leopards, tigers and cheetahs. Their prey are normally to large to grab and shake so they grab their prey by the throat and hold on to suffocate them. B's also wash, or groom themselves same as cats, and will sit and groom each other as monkey's or baboons do. The boxing , standing on their hind legs and waving their front feet is, of course a signal that they are ready to play. Another sign of play is the crouch and bounce, they spread their front feet wide and then bounce forward and back with their little butts up. The running full out through small spaces id from hunting small game through the thorn bushes in Africa for centuries. And, yes, they are all very common traits for all B's.
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Don't forget the butt check!
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Anubis likes to do quite a few of those behaviors, but her two favorite moves when play fighting with doggie friends are the neck grab, and the butt push (she pushes the other dog with her hip). It almost looks like she's dancing.
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Kaiser does a lot of play on his back, neck grabbing which is so gentle most times he's just grabbing air, but not to all dogs, when excited he does the b500 with grouch bows with legs spread curved outwards which looks so awkward - to invite me to chase him, toy shaker - everything gets shaken especially if it's stolen - when I hear it and I know he's been somewhere he shouldn't I know he's stolen. When chasing a faster dog he has been known to grab their tail in frustration, could have learnt this from having it done to him often. Loves to been snuggled under a blanket or armpit etc even if it's just his head underneath which means I am going to sleep. He is not really into wrestling or leg biting have seen him only do it with a puppy we know and when he meets a dog he hits it off with at the park, he prefers to chase and be chased and usually with bigger dogs. Haven't seen him ponce but he does a stop,lay,charge greeting which he saves for dogs he likes and is eager to meet.
Jolanda and Kaiser
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Mine do all those things as well. We a table with 4 chairs around it in the kitchen breakfast area and they will run right between all the legs all the time, at high speed. They also will run pretty much full speed into a wall and crash into it sideways to stop their momentum so they can change direction. At my last house, I had to patch a dent in the drywall just above the base molding where they hit it so hard.
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Ah yes, the ricochet method - my B mix is all over that as well! Luckily, my dog's favored "bumper"tends to be the backs of couches rather than the wall directly. It is amazing to see her rebound off the back of the couch, and then sail over the coffee table and the other dog.
Below is a quote from an article that references this behavior in Africa. - http://www.basenji.org/african/bolt6403.htm
One tale that enchanted me was of a trip into
the bush, when he was walking down a narrow
game trail quite restricted on either side by dense
vegetation. Suddenly, coming at full speed to-
ward him was a bush-buck pursued by four red-
and white Basenjis. The bush-buck was as start-
led as he was and, fortunately, instead of impaling
him on his horns, he banked off a tree, striking it
with his hoofs, and dashed off at right angles into
the undergrowth. The Basenjis did the same man-
euver one after the other, glancing off the tree
trunk and following their quarry. The whole action
was so instantaneous that he said it was only in
retrospect that he could follow the sequence of
motion. The dogs were followed shortly by their
master in hot pursuit. -
My girl does most of the above listed things except that she does neck grab other dogs, but when she once caught and killed a squirrel, she grabbed and shook it, killing it immediately. Thereafter she was not at all interested in the prey and walked off. Another dog, a labradoodle, went over to grab the squirrel and started playing all over the field with it till its owner got it away from him. Shaye had no interest at all in this exchange because she did what she set out to do - catch and kill.
