Let's also consider that when you chase your dog, the dog thinks it's a game and will run away from you. Like... "you can't catch me!" Man, Basenji's can bolt! On the other hand, when you are the one running away, the dog instinctively joins you because you are part of the dog's family/pack. This is not to be confused with a learned command to chase an assailant, in Police work, for example. That would be a totally different game of chase.
Halter?
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I recently bought a "halti" halter for Keoki to work on behavior on-leash.
ha! What a joke.
We didn't even get off the front porch before he had the face part off and hanging down under his chin 
There needs to be a strap of some sort that goes from the muzzle piece to the top of the head or something.
Does anyone else use this brand of halter? I think it's similar to the gentle leader idea, but I couldn't find a gentle leader, so…..... :rolleyes:
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I have not used the Halti but have used the Gentle Leader and my dogs would just fall over on the ground and refuse to move. Nicky is real dramatic when he doesn't like something. He is also real determined to destroy it when he has a chance and did manage to get a hold of the Gentle Leader and chew it to bits.
Several puppy people have used the Easy Walk Harness by Premier with much better results. The dogs accepted it much better without the constant trying to get it off. Most basenjis seem to fit the Small/Medium tweener size pretty well.
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We tried the gentle leader on Nexa and had similar results. I think it lasted about 20 seconds:mad: We got the gentle harness next and it worked better, but she would usually just stand there and not walk. Both the gentle leader and harness worked for Leo, but he spent the majority of our walks trying to figure out how to get out. We had them in obedience class and worked on nice leash walking the most. Amazingly now we can finally walk both of them at the same time with nothing but their martingales and they do great. They look up at us quite a bit looking for a treat, right now we are expanding the distance between treats. At first we would take their entire meal with us and just feed kibble when they did good. They caught on quickly that nice walking means food. Pulling, spinning, pestering, begging, and fighting don’t get treats – unless you actually get the food bag out of our pockets
If you asked me a few months ago I would have said there is no hope for any success to get them to walk nice. Aside from the occasional Tasmanian devil – I just saw squirrel or rabbit antics, they are really doing good. -
I also work with mine on loose leash walking and don't use halter or harness. They are not perfect and will pull when they see something like a squirrel or bird but they can walk nicely.
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Mine do relatively okay on leash. I wouldn't say it's "loose", but it's not a tugging/pulling thing either.
We just have so many – SO VERY MANY -- loose dog issues in our neighborhood, I was hoping for something to assist me. It's hard to
do the look/treat thing while trying to get some big dog's nose out of my dogs' butt. -
I can understand the frustration over loose dogs but I am not sure that any tool used to help with loose leash walking is going to really help when a loose dog comes up to your dog.
Having just had my dogs charged and attacked by a lab last night when we walked out the door to walk them. In those situations it may be much more helpful to carry something like Direct Stop.
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Someone (maybe WBL) recommended the mesh halter by Sporn and so we got them for Cory and Jayden and we really like them. They have reduced the pulling a lot. They both still pull when they see something really interesting (like a squirrel!) but they don't pull nearly as much. Cory is a small Basenji and she took a size small. Jayden is a fairly big Basenji and he wears a medium. (He could have gotten away with wearing a small if he HAD to but a medium is clearly better for him.) Neither seems to mind the halter. We keep their martingales on when we walk just in case they try to get funny with the halters but neither dog has ever tried to back out of its halter.
We ordered the halters from the Sporn webite because we couldn't find the mesh style locally. We had no trouble and we had the halters about a week after we ordered themPat
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I tried the Halti halter….what a joke. Jack was able to get right out of that. Luckily I was trying it inside the house first.
That easy walk harness looks interesting, I might try that next...
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I recently bought a "halti" halter for Keoki to work on behavior on-leash.
ha! What a joke. We didn't even get off the front porch before he had the face part off and hanging down under his chin There needs to be a strap of some sort that goes from the muzzle piece to the top of the head or something.
Does anyone else use this brand of halter? I think it's similar to the gentle leader idea, but I couldn't find a gentle leader, so…..... :rolleyes:
Funny! Mya did the EXACT thing. She's getting much better at walking with us if we just keep her on a short lead.
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First of all, I think the Gentle Leader fits FAR better than the Halti. You should aboslutely be able to tighten a GL so that it is impossible for the dog to get out of it.
Secondly, I now prefer the Sensible/Sensation harness (google it), or the Premier Easy Walk harness over the head collars. I think it gives you almost as much control, and the dogs tolerate it much better.
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First of all, I think the Gentle Leader fits FAR better than the Halti. You should aboslutely be able to tighten a GL so that it is impossible for the dog to get out of it.
Secondly, I now prefer the Sensible/Sensation harness (google it), or the Premier Easy Walk harness over the head collars. I think it gives you almost as much control, and the dogs tolerate it much better.
What size would you recommend for basenjis? I am debating between a small & medium. I fear the med may be too big for him right now though since he's only 5 mos.
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What size would you recommend for basenjis? I am debating between a small & medium. I fear the med may be too big for him right now though since he's only 5 mos.
You probably have to get it online, but Premier has an in-between small/medium, 19"-25" that worked perfect for us.
Dan
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We tried a harness that fit around Cyrus's body. Cyrus almost cackled out loud with glee before using his extra leverage to drag us around the neighborhood. He was like a sled dog! We now walk Cyrus with his regular collar and a choke collar. The choke collar doesn't pull tight because we do not want to hurt his neck, but he pulls so hard that we are afraid his leather collar will snap and he will get hit by a car. He still pulls, but we are hoping he will mellow out as he gets out of puppyhood.
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It is true that a harness with the leash attached at the back only gives the dog better leverage for pulling. An Easy Walk Harness or Sensation/Sensible harness has the leash attached to the front and will decrease pulling.
If you are getting an Easy Walk Harness the small/medium tweener size is the correct size for most basenjis.
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I bought it today. Thanks you guys so very much! I would hate to get the wrong size & have to go through the hassle of sending it back for a different one
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I got my easy walk harness at PetCo, so if you have one near you it may help relieve any "sending it back" fears. The one near me had a whole display of easy walk harnesses apart from their regular harnesses.
I only had to use my EasyWalk harness for a few weeks before mine learned to not pull so much. I still use it on hikes since he gets so excited about making "new friends"
