Its a long story but here goes the short version (surprising, I know). My ex-boyfriend and I got a basenji from Eric Williams and I fell in love with it. When we broke up I decided to start looking for one of my own. I found a pair that appeared perfect so I went to get them from Missouri after talking to the "breeder" on the phone for a couple of months. I was told they were raised only in their home, and were previously shown (both turned out to be untrue).Things seemed pretty good on the phone but when my sister and I got there it was a puppy mill (well over 100 dogs of 7 breeds and one couple caring for them), I am not going to throw the name into this story, but if you look at other threads I have participated on you can put it together. My sister and I decided we couldn't leave them there so we decided to take them with us. We had no commitment to them and could have turned our heads, but we didn't. We got them home and they had serious health (all which could be treated, worms, a fungus, etc, not genetic issues) and behavioral issues. Upon contacting the "breeder" to make them aware of everything we had encountered she stopped talking to me.
We weren't getting them as a breeding pair, though they had produced one other litter, and after all of that we certainly weren't going to do it. In two months we took them back to the vet and things were fine. My landlord and a couple of friends started asking if we were going to breed them and before we knew it we had already found buyers for most of the puppies through good friends and other people we trusted before we even thought much about it. Over the next couple of months we did what we thought was enough research (I know better now) and decided it was a good choice. We planned to keep one. I got a hold of both of the original breeders (the place we got them had gotten them from two separate places) and they confirmed the bloodlines and testing results and sent me all of the AKC info on each of their parents. So with their encouragement and that of my friends and an aunt, who had bred jack dogs for years, we decided to do it.
I was I know how you guys feel about this, and after being a part of this message board and becoming more involved in the basenji culture I am not proud of our decision either. However, what I am proud of is that each one of the puppies are all in great homes that we have remained in contact with and in the summer months we actually see most of them on a monthly basis at the park.
What happened to the parents you are asking, and I would too. Well like I said, we planned to keep one puppy and both of the parents. We worked for months with the parents even before they bred. We had a behaviorist come and work with them, and his assessment was that they had been abused, which we had always suspected from their behavior and a couple of scars on the male. We could not ever get the male potty trained, which the behaviorist attributed to his living outside his whole life. Then a couple of months after the last puppy went home, the unthinkable happened, the female aggressively lunged and bit one of my friends. Two months later she bit my husband. We took her to the vet and they suggested putting her down, that most rescues wouldn't take a dog with such a bite history. We wanted to keep them together and decided that we would look at other options until we found the right one. Eventually, we found a new home for them on a farm with a couple of other basenjis. It was the hardest thing I have had to do, but the best decision for them.
Again, I am not proud of what happened and I know it could have turned out worse than it did, which is why I don't throw the story up on the forums. From what we had researched at that point (which was not enough) it was not a bad decision to breed them. I don't regret it because they are all loved and in great homes with no health problems to date. I acknowledge that it wasn't "responsible breeding" but at that point I did not know any better (which is no excuse). So, if you have any other questions to ask about it, I will gladly answer them.
