I have an alpha female basenji and brought a newborn into our family. I was in the hospital for four days (my in laws stayed with dog and horse), when we came home, we had my Mom bring her new boyfriend. He was a great distraction, but also allowed me some alone time with Cricket. When they left, she noticed the baby in the bassinet and was a bit concerned.
She adapted to the baby, but I don't leave them alone just in case. Cricket is not nearly as jealous as she was, now that he drops food for her at the table, but she did get a bit jealous for a few weeks.
While I was pregnant, I was told that 'the test' was to play baby crying videos on YouTube. How the dog reacts will tell you how they will interact with the baby. Cricket beat the crap out of my phone when I tried… So not a great test! 🙂
Basenjis and Toys!
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How many toys does your Basenji go through on any given day? I have bought about 10 toys over the past week and Cali has detroyed all of them except the Kong. She loves to play catch with a tennis ball, but she always chews a hole in them. Her stuffed animals don't last because she pulls the stuffing out of them. Also she likes to chew on rope, but she ends up eating the strings so this doesnt last long. I have started going to the dollar store to get her toys because she goes through them so fast. The only thing that will keep her occupied for awhile is one of those dental bones and the Kong when I stuff it with a dog biscuit.
Any suggestions of toys that will last a little longer?
tlbuddy -
Jazzy will only play with stuffed animals, no balls or anything really. Well, she may chase a ball across the room, but once she reaches it, she just walks away. She will "fetch" a stuffed animal though, and bring it back for us to throw again.
The cheaper stuffed animals are gutted and in pieces all over the living room w/in a half hour. It looks like a massacre has happened.
The someone nicer stuffed animals I get from The Three C's or other stores last longer. They do lose some stuffing w/in a couple of days, but it takes a while for them to be completely gutted. And the bodies hold up better. We have several completely flat but still very loved and frequently played with mallard ducks and a quail. Her toy basket is really rather macabre looking! LOL
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My boy loves to eviscerate all his toys, but he only considers the fuzzy ones his. My girls are very gentle with their toys. They will toss them and bat at them but rarely chew them. Their favorites have been the fuzzy stuffed hedgehogs from Petedge, and the fuzzy tug toys I get for $2 at dog shows. They also like the Galileo bones. I also have two pet beds from Petedge that Nicky and Rio have started to unstuff and occassionally drag around the house like they are toys. I also keep the unstuffed remnants and they have fun playing with those too.
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Abbey's alltime favorite toy is her bunny. Several times a day she brings bunny to me and I have to wrestle it away from her, throw it across the room and yell Bunny!! She grabs it as soon as it lands and brings it back so we can do the same thing all over again. She has one of those hedgehogs too and two MOOS. One is a toy and one is actually a CD holder shaped like a cow's head. She has several balls and a weasel ball with a battery in it which goes all over the room by itself. She likes anything that squeaks or rattles especially her racoon.
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Thorn who never ever liked toys under whatever form I bought them, decided november last year that the new stuffed vegetables toys were for him and at 5 and a 1/2 y o started to act like a puppy. I never saw him having so much fun with a toy, and I was delighted.
I still have these 2 stuffed toys, just the arms are missing, pretty good after what happen with the other ones. -
The Buddy Glow Ball has lasted the longest in my house. it doesn't do anything, and it's not stuffed or fuzzy, and it doesn't squeak… it's just a ball, that glows in the dark. but it's durable. Tucker is a year & a half, and we're only on our second Buddy Glow Ball. anything stuffed, gets gutted. Anything rope, gets shredded. anything crinkles, rattles or squeaks, gets torn to itty bits. even frisbees get chomped to pieces in minutes.. but Buddy Glow has outlasted them all.
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Duke's longest lasting and still going ball is a big hard plastic one (6" or 7" diameter) that you put in a handful of dog food. He rolls it around and food drops out of a hole. He gets pretty vocal playing with it until there is no more rattle of the kibbles left. I don't the brand name of this toy. It's too big around for him to put in his mouth.
All his other toys are victimized to pieces as described by Jessi76, except his Kong and Nylabone. Sometimes they get lost and replaced. I've eventually found them when the house gets a good cleaning - then they're back in action.
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Sahara has lots of toys, but she is crazy about only a few, one of those fuzzy hedgehogs (Petsmart) her stuffed monkey, she is not a toy kind of dog I guess, they are in a box in the den and she will jump in once in awhile and pull one out but it is not that often. I don't buy toys now, it is a waste of money, she just wants me to throw the hedgehog, or monkey, they have squeakers and she will bring them back to throw again. I read that Basenji's are not retrievers, NOT, Sahara learned this trick in a flash, but then again she is extra, extra smart, haha!!!!!:D
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Hollie too, loves to gut and destroy her toys. The only one intact is her black Kong, she chewed the opening bigger on the red kong - so the treats come out easier, so we moved up to the black one for the more aggressive chewer. I still buy the cheap $1.00 plush/rope toys for hollie to destroy. She will continue to play with one even after the stuffing and squeaky are gone. IT's worth a dollar to watch her act nutso playing and running the
B500 with the toy in her mouth. -
For the most part the only toys that hold up in my house are kongs, the "plush" toys made for dogs who destroy do last for a few weeks, but thats about it. I get the "mean kitty" and "mad cow" dolls for them every so often, and there are these wabba toys that you can get that are made from recycled firehose material. They all have fun chewing and chasing these toys. I have a couple of "tough dog" toys that are sorta like fabric frisbees, that have lasted for almost a year! the squeekers have since died in both of them, but the pups still like to tug them around, and have me throw them. I keep a lot of recreational bones and such available in the house, and some cow hooves which take them awhile to chew on. But its hard to find good bones for them because they can not be beef. If I get them without any marrow, or any meaty material than we can have them, but otherwise we have to steer clear because my Masi is allergic to beef. So when I get marrow bones, I actually take all the marrow out, and wash the bones before they get them. It's sorta sad really, she loves them so much!
kim~
