Dog Park Pics and Noted Behaviour

[Lysh]

Hey,

We have socials at the dog park which is great fun, we have a small breed social which all the little dogs come along to and play which we go to. Hope has alot of fun. We also go to an any breed social from cavaliers to great danes attend. We also go as its a tight click group and all the dogs behave.

I have been to other dog parks and have shortly left as some people have no brains (example, bring two intact males into the same area. one being a pit bull and another a great daneXwolfhound.. of course what do you thinks going to happen??! no brains).

So im very selective of when we go. The above socials i mention is at a fenced dog park and everyones sensible with their dogs, we go every week and havent seen an altercation between dogs at all. If they get a big growly then the owners take them away, its a very good park..

Some of my B's behaviour as follows:

is this a typical B behaviour or do i have a little ballsy sh!t head on my hands (excuse the french). Is anyone else's like this?

Hopes about 6mths now. Shes friendly to everyone - runs up to anyone in the dog park.

These are just my observations with her.

1. Ring Leader everyone chases her, if not she makes SURE everyone chases HER - shes the fastest and likes to be the one getting chased.

2. We all sit on rugs on the ground in a group (the humans). (at the small breed social) Hope likes to lead a pack of little dogs chasing after her straight through our sitting area (she knows she can jump over things such as handbags, legs and duck around people, shes agile). However the other dogs usually crash into us LOL we all find it amusing 9thankfully) but shes the only one that leads them through the middle of us! the others dont do it if they get a chance to lead. Any ideas? no one minds as we are there to play with the dogs and its fun when they come running through. When larger dogs are there we usually all stand up or sit on the park benches.

2. Mischief Maker. in the small breed social theres a little poodle thing and its possessive of its owner (its resource gaurding his owner but the owner doesnt help by cooing it on and making a fuss over it and holding it/cuddling it when it carries on) and it growls at Hope whenever she goes past its owner. (i have suggested to let them just play and work it out, at the very first meet she listened to me and within 5mins they were off playing and having a ball but everytime the lady and her dog come back each followng week the same issue is there at the start and she makes a big issue of it and im sick of trying to explain to her that she makes it worse by cooing over him, but anyhow thats another story).

Hope just cant help herself and will go past the dog just to stir it up or run past and bat it with her leg or pretend to mouth it, like stirring it up. Once the lady lets her dog go and it goes off and play they are off playing like friends forever but she just cant help herself at the start to come flying past and do something to it (initiating play). As soon as the owner puts him down and shoo's him off they are off running and playing.

3. She will play with any dog… no matter how big it is. (This concerns me sometimes) She just thinks shes a big dog. Now a 6mth old basenji playing with a great dane is quiet a site to see. Alot of the smaller dogs will go away or not play but she tends to hang out with the bigger dogs given the choice.

4. Whilst other dogs go back to their owners for a break she will be running around constantly, she will not stop until she goes into her crate in the car and will go home and sleep.

5. If the "pack" gets boring, she will not hesitate to wonder off by herself and do her own thing.

6. She must greet every new dog that comes into the park, big or small.

7. She will drink water from anyone that offers her some from their water bottles

8. Ive noted how confident she is around other dogs. Nothing phases her. We had a dog the size of a small horse at the park and whilst all the other dogs went quite and dissapeared off to their owners/ different area she was there playing with it

9. If any dog takes off running back to their owner across the field (park is fenced) she doesnt give it a second thought to run after said dog even if owners are complete strangers lol

I love my B so much and we always have fun at the park and at training. She's got such a big personality on her. Had a kid stop us while we were walking and asked about her. Told him what her name was. He asked if he could pat her and im like yeah sure just call her name (she was off in la la land watching the birds in the other direction) so he called her name and she went over to him and let him pat her and went to follow him as he got up and left. Shes such a sweetie.

Ive been told they are supposed to be standoffish, we dont have kids but my partner has several nieces and nephews that she would have met but only twice. Shes very outgoing. Anyhow, some pics:

PIC 1.

Hope goes over to meet the new big doggy in the park. Nb- not sure what the lady is doing with her hands (maybe shes about to hit him?), i think she was cranky cos it was ignoring her and she wanted its attention on her but he just wanted to play with Hope as they had been playing before hand. Lets just say Hope needed a bath after playing with this fella, she was covered in sloooobber!

PIC 2

After a play we got our photos taken together. Unfortuntly the phone was silly and didnt keep all the other photos of them playin. (and my head cut off)

Can anyone tell me what type of dog that is? I cant remember? It was huge.

One tireddddd basenji. The other half couldnt help himself but make this pic with the remote LOL - hard night out on the town (or dog park in this case)

Hope on the couch relaxing.

[Janneke]

Fun to read all of Hope's behaviours! Tillo was exactly the same at that age!! Always trying to play with everything, trying to get chased, never scared of anything, challenging big growly dogs, being the first who met the new dogs coming into the area, going away from the pack when things weren't interesting enough anymore etc.. Hope sounds like a great Basenji Lovely pics of her as well! The big dog looks like a Newfoundlander (Don't know if it's called the same in English ;))

[MacPack]

Absolutely normal park behavior for a young basenji! Fearless, bold, friendly, more energy than any other 10 dogs, and leading the pack through the group of humans, whether sitting or standing! Love your descriptions. And that seems to be a Newfoundland, my Topper used to love to play with a big Newfie, and yes, he would be wet from drool afterward. Hope is a lucky to have a good dog park group. As you said, it can vary enormously from place, or even time, you just need to have a good group.

[Patty M]

What a great post! I can see my Lola doing the same thing~ I took her to the park yesterday and apparently, basenji's can't read English, because she wanted to spend some time with the "big dogs" and some with the "little" ones. No one can tell a basenji it's not a big dog!

[DebraDownSouth]

Sayblee used to run the Rotties til their tongues hung out… she ran under and leaped over them like a gazelle. They didn't have a prayer of catching her. Cara likes Arwen to chase HER but sometimes Arwen insists she be chased. Yeah normal behavior.

I would, however, ask people to NOT share water bottles. She is still young enough her immune system not fully developed and shared bottles can be a problem.

[hiwaygal]

Hope is one pretty little girl!

[Lysh]

@DebraDownSouth:

Sayblee used to run the Rotties til their tongues hung out… she ran under and leaped over them like a gazelle. They didn't have a prayer of catching her. Cara likes Arwen to chase HER but sometimes Arwen insists she be chased. Yeah normal behavior.

I would, however, ask people to NOT share water bottles. She is still young enough her immune system not fully developed and shared bottles can be a problem.

haha thats it ! a gazelle! people always try to describe how she jumps so agile like over everything etc. gazelle is perfect.

Thanks for letting me know about the waterbottles. I never let her drink out of the shared water troughs at the park but never really thought about sharing waterbottles as usually they are the human's water bottles

@Janneke:

Fun to read all of Hope's behaviours! Tillo was exactly the same at that age!! Always trying to play with everything, trying to get chased, never scared of anything, challenging big growly dogs, being the first who met the new dogs coming into the area, going away from the pack when things weren't interesting enough anymore etc.. Hope sounds like a great Basenji Lovely pics of her as well! The big dog looks like a Newfoundlander (Don't know if it's called the same in English ;))

aw thanks Yes, thats it! - its a newfoundlander! he was a sweet thing.

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We have been doing agility training and we had our first tantatantrum last night (LOL) so basenji! 15min into training, it poured for about 10mins. enough to soak everything. the grass was a little long as its our wet season here and its hard to mow and it was wet, very wet. guess who planted all four paws and refused to participate in any of the activities for the rest of the night LOL she wouldnt even chase me (even the instructor gave her a little push) and she still wouldnt hahaha four paws planted and uh uh im not moving! and food .. pfft you can shove that too "attitude" lol got home and she sulked and went to sleep. what a sook

[Arwen]

The Newfie is gorgeous. Used to groom a bronze one for shows. Beautiful beasts but too much drool and hair!

[KennyampBlondie]

We have a dog park here in Adelaide and there are 3 other basenji's that go to it so with our 2 makes 5 running around like crazy! It's a funny site with them all chasing each other. Also the above behaviour mentioned at the park is pretty much what our 2 do all the time and there 2 1/2 years old…

[Kipawa]

Yes, that is a slobbering Newfie, and I can understand how 'violated' Hope felt as that slobber dried up on her. Thanks for the great pictures.