• This is a pic of my Baron's head. (Sorry its so small but enlarging it made it blurry.) This boy oozes masculinity. He possesses many of the traits that are becoming hard to find such as hooded ears, cushions, side wrinkle, perceptible stop, and muzzle shorter than skull. The nice wrinkle and pleasant expression adds to his appeal. Yep, I love this boy's head. 😃

    His ears are relaxed in this pic but it shows his wrinkle and sidewrinkle better than the above pic.


  • Wow that is a great looking male!

    He looks totally different than Miles

    I never realized how varied Basenji's can be till I came here. At dog shows most look the same, sometimes you will find one that is a true vintage looking basenji- smaller ears, lots of wrinkles & tougher looking over all.

    But I love them all


  • I have Baron's brother Nicky, their niece Rally, and her daughters Rio and Sophie. Around here I see lots of variation in the heads in the show ring. I think when it comes to heads there is a lot of different interpretations of just what the standard means.
    attachment_p_21746_0_nicky.jpg
    attachment_p_21746_1_riohdad.jpg
    attachment_p_21746_2_rallyhd.jpg
    attachment_p_21746_3_sophiehead.jpg


  • @lvoss:

    I have Baron's brother Nicky, their niece Rally, and her daughters Rio and Sophie. Around here I see lots of variation in the heads in the show ring. I think when it comes to heads there is a lot of different interpretations of just what the standard means.

    I totally agree Lisa. Heads can look very different, but still be correct to the standard. I really like some very different (from each other) heads…but a few things really stand out as important to me...eye shape, wrinkle, underjaw, and ear shape.


  • <>
    Yes, but if you go back to the TRUE vintage basenji...those is Africa, there are no small ears there! Ears are terribly important to animals hunting in deep, dark cover like jungle. The bigger they are, the better the receive and triangulate sound...and the bigger they are, the better they cool the blood; ears are thin, but carry a lot of vascularity, so lots of blood goes thru the ear and is cooled by the outside temps....that is why most mammals in hot climates have large ears..unless they have another way to cool (humans sweat, hippos bathe, etc) anyhow...blah, blah, blah...
    I am not advocating going to giant radar dish ears in the standard...but I don't think that small ears is a "true" basenji quality.


  • Interesting - I do like a smallish ear as called for in the standard although if you look at the standards of many other breeds of dogs in hot climates - they are larger as Andrea indicated for cooling.

    I am more concerned with a couple of other things in our breed that are not so superficial. It's shoulders being set too far front, too upright and a short upper arm. What you end up with then is a B with what is called a catherdral front. As in you could park a church steeple between the front legs. This rusults in less room for lungs, less 'reach' so you will sometimes see fronts getting tangled up with rear if there is a good angle there.

    It seems that more and more of our animals that are 'mature' (3-5) are looking as undeveloped as our puppies.

    I'm not advocating bulldog fronts - but I do like to see something there.

    The other thing is too little under jaw - you then get some heads looking awfully snippy and pointing nosed.

    Oh well - I can't speak for the rest of you but I think in my kennel I have some very good parts that sometimes are not all on the same dog! 🙂


  • Ah Yes…. I think any breeder can say that.... I have all the right parts, too bad they are on different dogs!


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    Yes, I agree! But I was just listing things important to me for heads. Fronts are definitely a weak point right now for us, IMO.
    <>
    I agree..that is something that I really don't like...
    <>
    Yes! And so often it is two bitches that compliment each other so nicely...ugh...


  • dmcarty, The dog in your pic is gorgeous. I went to your website but it does not have more pics of your dogs- can you post some more of your babies??


  • I will try to find more - many of my pics were on a photo site that closed with no notice - so it's sort of a find them on my old computer and transfer.

    The guy in the pic is CH Jacque Chewztoes - he's a cool guy that does have a chest 🙂 and a nice Masculine head. You can find a couple more pictures of him on Dogster. I think I posted some puppy pics in the galery but maybe not.????


  • I love the look of Baron, now that is a cute basenji 😃 I do notice that I love the masculin looking yet sweet B's. The way the muzzle looks is important to me I notice some basenji's have long slender muzzle and to me they look a little rat like, I guess I'm just one for the blockish heads with the shorter muzzle. I also like the super curly tails! All the other traits I really dont care if its a B its cute.

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