How do you socialise adult Basenjis

[ayaka]

Hi, I was thinking about socialising my Bs as they have very strong alpha instincts. I brought my Bs together with another retriever which belongs to my friend to the dog park one fine evening. They were growling at the poor retriever from the front seat on the way to the dog park:( …..They acted aggressively towards the retriever which probably outweighs them combined when in the park. Fortunately, the retriever was extremely docile and promptly submitted to them (phew), its only then, my Bs relented and went on to play themselves.
Enter another malamute (boy, it is enormous) who promptly went to assert his kingship in the park, poor retriever who was enjoying herself, bowed and paid homage to the new king of the park but my 2 rebels decided they weren't gonna be pushed around. They growled, stood their ground but I had to carry both of them to another area just avoid another confrontation and prevent myself from being maimed by the monster.
Anybody know what is a good way to do DIY socialising or a course by a trainer is the best option?

[lvoss]

There is a book about Jean Donaldson called Fight! that may be worth checking out, http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB798

[sharronhurlbut]

How old are these dogs?
Have they had any obediece training…if not, that would be where I would start.
A gentle obedience class will help them learn to be around other dogs and help give you the tools you need to help them learn your in charge.

[JazzysMom]

I'd like to see mine socialized, but I haven't seen any trainers who will take aggressive dogs into classes, and I can't afford yet the private trainer I desperately want to use {Don't know if you are familiar Sharron, but her name is Shade and she's in North Kitsap. My niece uses her with her pits and I've watched her train – amazing!}.

Keoki may be easier than Jazz - he responded somewhat positively with our neighbor's GS puppy a couple months ago, but had a change of personality when the adult male arrived -- I think the other dog showed attitude first, though.
Jazz is just a hater, LOL. She sees a dog from a distance and starts her snarly crap.

Since we stopped the shows, they don't ever see other dogs. The dog parks scare me {for a variety of reasons -- fights, fleas, vaccinations, health}, and the regular on-leash parks always have loose dogs that cause me headaches.

I think we may just have to be hermits because I don't have the skill or knowledge to go it alone.

[sharronhurlbut]

Jazzy wrote…
{Don't know if you are familiar Sharron, but her name is Shade and she's in North Kitsap. My niece uses her with her pits and I've watched her train -- amazing!}.
I don't know about Shade, but I would like to.
Can you send me contact info at brescue@wavecable.com

What area in the PNW are you in again?

[JazzysMom]

@sharronhurlbut:

Jazzy wrote…
{Don't know if you are familiar Sharron, but her name is Shade and she's in North Kitsap. My niece uses her with her pits and I've watched her train -- amazing!}.
I don't know about Shade, but I would like to.
Can you send me contact info at brescue@wavecable.com

What area in the PNW are you in again?

I'm in Port Orchard.

Yes, I'll try to get her contact info to you. I tend to forget things…. :rolleyes:

[ayaka]

@JazzysMom:

I'd like to see mine socialized, but I haven't seen any trainers who will take aggressive dogs into classes, and I can't afford yet the private trainer I desperately want to use {Don't know if you are familiar Sharron, but her name is Shade and she's in North Kitsap. My niece uses her with her pits and I've watched her train – amazing!}.

Keoki may be easier than Jazz - he responded somewhat positively with our neighbor's GS puppy a couple months ago, but had a change of personality when the adult male arrived -- I think the other dog showed attitude first, though.
Jazz is just a hater, LOL. She sees a dog from a distance and starts her snarly crap.

Since we stopped the shows, they don't ever see other dogs. The dog parks scare me {for a variety of reasons -- fights, fleas, vaccinations, health}, and the regular on-leash parks always have loose dogs that cause me headaches.

I think we may just have to be hermits because I don't have the skill or knowledge to go it alone.

Same, GeeGee is also like that. Snarls and growls when oher dogs are around but seem to accept the advances of a neighbourhood brown spitz when he tried to mount her.
Oddly, they seem terrified of my friend's stinky pug (probably is the smell, even I cannot stand the smell?)

[mauigirl]

@ayaka:

I brought my Bs together with another retriever which belongs to my friend to the dog park one fine evening. They were growling at the poor retriever from the front seat on the way to the dog park:( …..

Carrie and I each have a boy/girl pair and when the boys have issues it's always worse in the car. Especially this time of year. They're all pretty close together in a small space and for Booger and Lola it's their territory (Carrie's car). Riley actually starts it more probably because he knows he's the outsider and he smells Booger everywhere and he probably takes that as a challenge. With your situation it sounds like your two were defending their space in the car. It's like bringing another dog into your house.

Are your 2 males or females? I know that with Riley being in his "boy season" (and 9 months!) I have to be very watchful at the park and if I see a boy dog come in the first thing I look for is to see if he's neutered. Just 2 days ago we were at the park for 45 minutes before Riley and a big Weimaraner realized the other was intact. And because Riley and Booger have gotten into it before I know exactly the first warning signs so I pulled Riley away, the weimaraner's human grabbed him and held on to him for 10 seconds before letting him go (hello!?!). So here I was putting my body between this giant weimaraner and Riley, both wanting at each other. And they weren't ever going to forget and be cool. So we left. I don't really think of this as something I can train out of Riley. Dogs are pack animals and sometimes figuring that out doesn't go so smoothly, especially this time of year. Some people have to have two "packs" in the same house for that reason.
I don't know if in your case is was a pack dominance thing related to the dogs' sex. Was it?

(FYI The only reason Riley is intact is I'm thinking about showing him)

[ayaka]

The car is my girlfriend's. I guess they are bothered by the new dog or they just don't know how to greet strangers?

[mauigirl]

Check out this article on yodeldog's site:

http://www.geocities.com/yodeldogs/read.html

The one all the way at the bottom…by Suzanne Clothier "He just wants to say hi"

[lvoss]

The article that Mauigirl referred to is a really good one about dog/dog interactions.

The book Feisty Fido may give you some good information about how to help modify this behavior, http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB766

Also the DVD The Language of Dogs is a wonderful resource to help owners understand what signals their dogs are giving, http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB875P

Just this week, we had an incident with a loose dog in across the street. It was a Great Dane, adolescent. The dog was not aggressive but the owner had no control of the dog and when it saw me out with my two reds, he thought he would come say Hi. The dog crossed the street, continued to come at me and my dogs even though I yelled at it to "GO AWAY!" I put my body between him and my dogs and he still came, he trotted right up to my red girl, in spite of her and my male giving a whole host of distance increasing signals so my girl nipped him. It was only at that point that he realized that my dogs did not want him in their space and he backed off. It still took him some time to respond to his owner's calls to return. The man never left his porch as all this happened. I don't think my dogs responded inappropriately. They gave signs they didn't want approached and the other dog ignored their request to leave them alone.

[dmcarty]

Again I will say - even though there are some on the list that have great success at a dog park - I don't reccommend the use of dog parks for any breed - disease and no control of the other people and dogs. If you have Alpha basenjis - that just compounds the situation.

You need to train them seperately - because together you are NOT in charge. If you HAVE to go to a dog park - don't have both of them there. You will need obedience training and even then - an Alpha dog is an Alpha dog and they will do what Alpha's do - demand to be in charge.