Penny, the Basenji Houdini

Basenji Talk

  • We came home to find out that Penny, our 1 year old Red/White not only figured out how to open her crate, but also disassemble it!

    It's a heavy-duty Kong crate, so she would have had to pull on some latches while pushing on other things, then while those things are pushed out, pull on other things. It's pretty complex for us (her humans) to take apart. The fact that she did it is blowing us away. We can't even begin to figure out how she did it, there are teeth marks on parts of the crate she shouldn't have even been able to reach. How does that even happen?!

    We came home expecting to find her asleep in her crate, and she's asleep on the bed, with the whole side of the crate wide open.

    My wife and I joke that we're in an Arms Race with her, trying to outsmart her, but tonight we lost the battle…


  • ROFLMAO.. never a dull moment. You need to set up a camera to tape her doing it. :)


  • well, if she can behave herself not in the crate, why not leave her out?

    having said that, i do believe all dogs should be crate trained. Personally, i like the kennel aire crates with 1 inch squares and the double locking doors. (or the y-latch if you can find those.)


  • That is so funny! We know Penny and she is a very petite bundle of energy. Agree with trying her out of crate…or ....a playmate for her!


  • Well, we visited the Vet yesterday and when we mentioned getting a second Basenji for her to play with, his reaction was something along the lines of "Doh, of course that'll fix most of your problems." So it's definite, Penny is getting a sister. lol


  • lol maybe you can set up a camera and share the joy with us.
    Maca my basenji escape from a cage while was on only one day rest with the vet. She is afraid of basenjis now.. lol


  • That was hilarious! I had a crate issue which I posted earlier. Although in my case he bent the bars and the door but didn't get out…thankfully because if he had I dread to think what he would have done to my house if he was able to do that to a crate!


  • @Wispur:

    Well, we visited the Vet yesterday and when we mentioned getting a second Basenji for her to play with, his reaction was something along the lines of "Doh, of course that'll fix most of your problems." So it's definite, Penny is getting a sister. lol

    Hah, be careful. We have noticed that our three work together to figure out how to do stuff!

    But watching them play is pretty awesome.

    As far as being good outside the crate, ours are 99.9% of the time. Its just that .1% :D


  • SHHHHHHH don't let my Kaiser know he should know how to get out of his crate. I suppose once they have escaped they will always have a go at doing it again. What a good solution to solve the problem getting another B, maybe Kaiser should escape. As Kaiser gets older I intend to test him being left out of his crate and hope he behaves as I always worry that if there's a fire he will be trapped.

    Jolanda and Kaiser

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