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Basenji Training
  • L

    Thank you all so much for the suggestions!

    It's good to get opinions from actual Basenji owners. I need to start taking her out first thing when I get out of bed b/c she peed immediately when I put her on the floor again this morning. I think I'm going get some of Nature's Miracle too and I'll try the Nylon Bones and Tennis Balls. The only problem with Kongs is she is a very picky eater - she doesn't like peanut butter or cheese or dog treats… its very odd. She will only eat the food the breeder gave her which is a Holistic Dog puppy food.

    I like the idea of putting her in her crate while I'm with her to slowly get accustomed to it - I know it will just take time. I'll try putting her food dish in it and see if she'll eat out of it.

    I'll post an image of her as soon as I can. She's a cute one!

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  • tanzaT

    Yes, that is one important thing, that you "carry" her outside the minute she is awake… if you carry her right out, then you take away the opportunity for her to have an accident... they catch on pretty quick that mornings=outside....

    I you can get her used to eating in the crate and that is the only place that you feed her, she will begin to associate it with a good place.

    Pat Fragassi

    Tanza Basenjis

    www.tanzabasenjis.net

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  • lvossL

    @logandesign:

    The only problem with Kongs is she is a very picky eater - she doesn't like peanut butter or cheese or dog treats… its very odd. She will only eat the food the breeder gave her which is a Holistic Dog puppy food.

    This is probably because she never had any variety while at her breeder's. My mom has one that was like this and there are still many things that he won't eat. She has expanded his food preferences though but mixing small amounts of things into the food he likes and over time when she starts offering him those things as treats he has started to take them. She also just tries lots of things with him. The reason she has worked to expand his food preferences is because food can be such a good motivator and she wanted to have options in training.

    The Kong doesn't have to have to have anything really special in it to be effective. One of my favorite Kong recipes is just mixing regular kibble with canned pumpkin and using that as a stuffing. I sometimes mix a little wet food in for flavoring. In the summer you can even just stuff it with kibble plug the hole at the bottom temporarily, pour low sodium chicken broth or even better homemade chicken broth over the kibble and freeze.

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  • wizardW

    All good suggestions so far for you to try. Here's my suggestions based on my experiences.
    1. When mine first came to my home I would arrange a bit of vacation time so that the first day I was with them totally, then the next day I would disappear out the door for 15 minutes and then for longer times, then the third day I disappeared for an hour or more, etc., until I could go to work for half a day then eventually for my full regular work day. This took me about a week to train the dog to be home alone.
    2. The second basenji that came into my life had been broken of his crate training by an ignorant owner so I never could get him back into it. Instead I blocked off a corner of the kitchen for him with a bed and toys for him to stay in for the first several days. Gradually I allowed him more wandering room until he was trustworthy enough to have access to the whole house. This took about a month.
    3. Be sure to give your dog a variety of toys and especially the kind that you can put kibble or other food in (such as "Kong" toys). Basenjis need mental stimulation or they get bored (=destructive). My current basenji gets frozen raw marrow bones when I go to work and sometimes she'll still be nawing on it when I get home. I also save old bones and fill the hole with kibble and yogurt or pumpkin and then freeze and give this to her sometimes.
    4. Someone mentioned rawhide but I've never had luck with that - it's not digestable and has caused problems with my dogs (one time a piece got stuck in the digestive tract and he screamed "bloody murder" with every movement). Never give your dog a treat unsupervised until you know she can handle it or doesn't have an allergic reaction to it. Once you know its safe then okay - but even then I never give the stick type treats to mine unless I'm home to supervise.
    Hope this helps.

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  • N

    Potty training NIGHTMARE help

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    tanzaT
    Stop with the free feeding... this is a dog that needs to be on a schedule. And a cup and a half might be too much for a 20lb dog. Try reducing it to a cup. I have also found that feeding 2x's a dog is better than once a day. I have never let my dogs free feed. Once he is on a schedule you can mostly determine when he should have to go... and then you take him out and stay out till he goes. A trick you can use (many don't like this but I will put it out there) is what people that show use. Insert a match in his bum half way.... This will stimulate him to go, when he does praise/treat him. And until he gets the idea, you will need to keep him crated or on leash. You can search the forum for other conversations about using a match to stimulate. Search for match trick
  • K

    Nala needs help housebreaking.

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    RivermoonR
    While it's sometimes easier to hope that the older dogs will teach the little one, that doesn't always happen. While I had it work with Apache, it didn't with Zuni. When I was house training Zuni I would leash her up and take her out into the yard and just wait until she went, then praise and treat. There were many times she wouldn't move, so we just stood there until she moved and went or went where she was. It can be a real pain, especially in the middle of the night…but that doesn't last forever. Any accidents in the house were just cleaned up and not acknowledged. When we lived in the city, the dogs did prefer to go while on walks, but would, if they REALLY needed to go, go out into the yard.
  • BasenjiB

    Toilet training help!!

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    tanzaT
    If you are not consistant in potty training, you will never get success…. and when there is an accident in the house... roll up that newspaper and "hit" yourself over the head... because you have not paid attention to the needs of the dog... It is an ongoing training... not just for a few days, a few times outside... and when you go out...you do not come in till they go....
  • U

    Need HELP!

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    JannekeJ
    @lvoss: My basenjis learn new things very quickly but they also get bored more quickly. In classes that ask for you to repeat over and over again to make sure the dog "gets it", basenjis start to goof off. All of mine get to a point where their behavior and attitude clearly say, "What is wrong with you, didn't you get this the first 5 times I did it?" This is so true! Tillo starts to talk when it takes too long for me to get the fact that he already understands the command.. so there's no need to practice anymore :D
  • C

    Please HELP with rescued basenji

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    Ninabeana26N
    My vet suggested not leaving any water for him as long as I am not gone longer than 3-4 hours. I stopped leaving water & it seemed at first to stop him from peeing but only for a short time. I feed him early enough in the day that he is out of his crate for several hours after eating. He isn't even crated daily because my sister is home from college right now & thus home during the day a lot. It's only when she has to go out that we crate. His crate being too big may be a possibility. It's a good size crate because I wanted him to have room since when I lived in FL he was crated for closer to 6 hours at any given time. Plus in FL he was still sleeping in his crate. I guess I could give a smaller one a try… As far as leaving him uncrated, we are working towards that. We leave him out if it's only like 30 minutes or so to try to see what he'll do. My goal is to eventually always leave him uncrated but right now I just don't trust him enough. We left him uncrated in my room one day & he ripped a huge chunk of the carpet out [down to the concrete!] So…yea. Haha.
  • S

    I need help having two problems

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    C
    IMHO, please be careful with the alpha roll over, I used to do that when I first started dog training many years ago, I eventually had an aggression problem with the dog, got bit pretty good. I guessed it was my fault and never rolled one since. I never used pacifiers with my son, so no dog troubles there, but his blanky got stolen often. gg It sure cannot hurt to put the litterbox there and see what happens, its easy, fairly clean, and better than cleaning the rug often. You could also try using a scatter rug over the other rug, see if that helps any! I have one spot where one of the dogs, having gotten too excited, peed, they still go there if excited. I love my dogs, oh well its only in the hall. ggg Good luck, hope you find a solution! Carole