• Hi all,

    My name is Nerissa.

    We (Rob & I) just got our newest addition to our fur family - Rob chose the breed!!! But i adore her so much!! She's so cute!!

    Chilli is her name. And i definitely need help in training the little brat! From toilet training to bed time!
    And anything else in between - say biting and growling at us whenever she is told 'no'!

    We have our baby girl Saki - jack russell. Both of them get a long and play fight & wrestle all day. She's just started puppy school but i don't think the instructor is very good with basenji. What she's telling us to do doesn't work with little Chilli. We've been spoilt with Saki and now we have a very hard time training Chilli 😕 Definitely need help!!


  • You will find lots of good advise here… What breeder did you get your pup from?
    What kind of things is the instructor telling you? Force doesn't work with this breed... not at all.. only reward training. Check out many of the threads on this Forum for everything from potty training to training in general...

    And have you talked to your breeder about training?


  • hello and welcome. Agree with everything tanza said and one more thing CRATE. Crate training can save your sanity as well as your house. Good luck.


  • Hi all,

    thanks for the advise.

    I didn't get Chilli from a breeder. Actually got her from a family with two basenjis - and they happened to have two litters. Chilli was the second litter and the last one to go. She knew a little about the breed but not enough to know that there is a Basenji Association here in Aust and that the breed is pretty rare.

    The dog instructor is telling as to ignore her is she's doing something that we don't like, that doesn't work as she'll start to growl at you. Use food as a reward which seems to work so we're using that alot.

    I did try one this morning when she got into the shower, we turned on the water. She didn't try again after that..so we'll try it again next time she goes in the shower.

    We're thinking of trying the water spray bottle? Has anyone tried that yet? Seeing the shower thing worked??


  • Squirt bottles are the BEST thing in the world when it come to keeping a basenji out of what they shouldn't be, lol


  • Welcome, Chilli and Saki, Nerissa & Rob! This is a great place to learn, share and have fun. Looking forward to seeing your pups!


  • Welcome-there's lots of help here. B's will push you if you ignore them IMO. It's better to address the issue depending on what the issue is-what is she telling you to ignore?


  • Welcome! Hey, how's the equinox treating you? It's HOT here.


  • thanks, we noticed that the squirt bottle definitely worked!

    kept her paws away from the coffee table & chewing on the blanket.

    It's 14degrees here in melbourne - we're in the end of spring time! Summer is soon and will got hot i say. Melbourne has 4 seasons in one day unfortunately!!

    Has anyone speyed the females? Does this calm them down or do they need to breed??


  • They do NOT need to breed to calm down. Some B's are hellraisers all their lives and others mello-but with maturity, not with spaying.


  • Ok good to know.. don't think we'll breed anyway - as we'll probably find it difficult to let go of the little pups.

    However have 'puppy sramble' on sunday afternoon. Where i'll meet all the puppies (& owners) born this year. There isn't alot here in melbourne. But hopefully i'll meet some of the breeders. Funnily enough - we've gone to alot of animal shows etc which we asked about the Bs. They never told us anything about what i've been reading here??

    I guess we'll see how we go with our little Chilli. I notice also she hates getting into bed. She'd much prefer to go into our bed. She likes to play first. Is that normal??


  • Definitely normal. Wait til she does the 'Basenji 500' around the house onto the bed-off the bed-onto the sofa-off the sofa-rebound off the door-etc. Some people like to hide the behaviours-myself and others figure if you can handle a perpetual two year old you'll like the B's.


  • hi there! thx for the warm welcome. i also wanted to add something that we do to keep wily off the coffee table and anywhere else where there's food or if he's doing something he shouldnt be, i.e. chasing the cats.. we put pennies into an empty soda can and taped up the top. when he does something bad, we shake the can and he instantly stops because of the noise. now when he sees the can anywhere nearby, it puts him on guard. no more problems with him stealing food off of the table.


  • yeah we did the same thing with the squirt bottle. everytime she sees it she moves away!!

    think she's learnt to do her biz outside!! but fingers cross no more accidents inside the house!!

Suggested Topics

  • 6
  • 2
  • 8
  • 11
  • 26
  • 5