I agree with all the above. My oldest at 15 has spine issues and has been on rimadyl low dose for about a year with great results, he had pain before, but has had a very good year. Eddie (11) is on thyroid meds, he was a cranky-pants a couple of years ago and after thyroid meds, is a happier dog.
A vet visit is in order to figure out what has caused his change, 11 is still pretty young.
Poopy behaviors
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Anyone have some insight?
I have not observed this sort of thing in any of my/foster basenjis. -
Have never noticed this behavior in a B but we did have a pair of Shiba Inu's and a Jindo that would do it occasionally.
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Loki does this. If he goes in the back yard, he will often choose a spot in a more sandy area so he's better able to circle around afterwards shoving sand and leaves over his poop until it's completely covered. You wouldn't even realize anything was there unless you saw him go. He'll even go back later and bury old poop that hasn't been scooped up yet. I've also seen him do this at the dog park, and once or twice while on a walk, though on walks he doesn't get enough time to cover it before we pick it up. I have not seen Kaia exhibit the same behavior although Loki really didn't start doing doing it until he was about 8-9 months or so.
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Uzie does the 'snout' pit; but I've always called it 'snowcone-ing' because he eats the sand like one would scrape a snowcone with your teeth. Most aggravating because then he needs grass to either vomit the next day or so if the sand does not 'evacuate'. But I really can't say this would be a Basenji or ancient dog activity because a friend of mine has a dobie rescue, and she observes this same thing. Not just females between Sept and Jan either. I am continually working on the leave it command instead of running him off…...pouring stinky water on the 'favorite areas' (only in the morning in the shadiest part of the lawn where it is unfortunately mostly sand right now...) I have to keep him and my labmix in sight. Never saw him bury his feces though.....
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Ava doesn't use her snout, but she does kick with her back feet to cover it. She doesn't care if it's fully covered; she just seems to feel the urge to do it. It's hard on the lawn.
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Now that I think about it, Kaia has taken up something similar to the snout pit thing to eat wet sand while at the dog park. Quirky little dogs.
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This is an interesting thread. Any afghan owners notice this in their dogs as well?
When Beo was younger, back when I was using the crate with him, when he would have a 'poop' accident he would take a blanket and use his nose to encircle said accident, didn't do the same thing with pee accidents….I don't know if it's the same thing or not, honestly I think he just wanted it as far away from him as possible. He still does this mounding behavior with like bones and the like; he'll use his nose and push a blanket or something on top of it, and then further us his nose to bunch it up into a relatively good looking circle shape.
He won't have anything to do with dog feces now though ....he prefers to go in the bushiest/covered area he can find, and then wants absolutely nothing to do with it afterwards (I have to literally drag him through public areas where there's a lot of dog poop lying around).... It is kind of funny to see his "wide-eyed, EW! ICK!" reaction when he accidentally steps in some.
Seems like it's more common for basenjis to half halfheartedly attempt to bury it, as opposed to take the time to cover it up with their noses?
