Wow. he replied and he's willing to help me out! I hope I don't blow it. Wish me luck!

The breeder sent her home with me when she was 7 weeks old. She's 8 weeks and 3 days old today.

I've spent every waking moment working with her since I got her. I live in Maine, and its been below freezing here, so I have her trained to voluntarily eliminate in a pee pad lined pen. She has barely ever cried in her crate, she has already developed an extraordinarily soft bite (she still gets me occasionally with her puppy canines though) and she will occasionally play up to 8 or 9 rounds of fetch with me when she's in the mood. I'm not teaching her verbal commands yet, but she's following a lure extremely well, and has an incredible front sit. I'm very proud of her.

I watch a lot of Zak George, but I'm no professional trainer. I barely taught her any of this. Its all Rogue. All I do is feed her, play tug, give her treats when she does good, and stroke and groom her for many hours a day while she has her naps.

Rogue's sire is ELDORADO N AKUABA LUCKY CHARMER, and her dam is MATA HAURI QUICK STEP. The dam, all 4 grand parents, and all 8 great grand parents are show champions. The sire did not compete due to covid.

Rogue is my ESA animal. I want to try to train her in a way where we can work together someday. My father is going to start a security company here in maine when it becomes safe to do so, and the breeder told me that the breed doesn't understand bite work, so that leaves detection and tracking as possible occupations. I'd also like to try hunting rabbits with her some day as a catch dog. Are those reasonable expectations for a show dog? I've also considered dog shows and breeding. Shows are not really my scene, but I wouldn't mind giving it a try. Can she be a hunter, a tracker, a detector, /and/ a show dog? Does anyone have any ideas of what else this promising puppy could achieve?

I take rogue out when ever the weather gets over 31 degrees. Even then, she starts shivering after a few minutes outside. We made her a coat out of an old flese jacket, and we're using Pawz dog shoes, but I I've been told that its harder for a pup to regulate their temperature. I'm sure by next year we'll be a lot more active, and things are supposed to start warming up by next week. By next month, we'll have some really good weather so she'll be able to spend more time out doors.

I'm also thinking that I need to take her out and just carry her around outside so she can get at least some of the benefits of being out without having to run around in a field of what is in elbow deep snow for her.

@tanza Oh yes. I give her 1/3 cup blue buffalo puppy kibble, 1 tbsp wet blue buffalo puppy, 1 tbsp yogurt or cottage cheese, (alternating) and if I se any sign of dandruf or dryness in her fur, I also add in a few drops of olive oil. I have chicken and vegetables every night, and I've been preparing my chicken unseasoned since I got rogue so I can use it for training on occasion, so sometimes if she's being stubborn I'll bury some tiny shreds of chicken in her food to get her to eat, or sometimes I'll do the same thing with some other high value treats. I don't feed her in a crate, but I've moved her bowl into my room so she's lessdistracted at mealtime, and she has a safe place to eat when my niece comes over. Rogue plays nice with my niece outside, but indoors, she's kind of a really big squeeky toy, so we have to watch her constantly. I also, on the rarest occasions, will give her a little tiny pinch of american, or sharp cheddar cheese. That seems to get her really excited. She doesn't get excited about cottage cheese, but american or sharp cheddar? She goes nuts. fagedabodit. And she get chews and kongs in the crate, but never meals. And she doesn't spend much time in there anymore since she's been house trained. She just sleeps in my bed. In fact, she's passed out next to me right now.

Was having problems with heel training, and rogue was getting a little bit irritated around the collar area from all the pulling on walks. Today I got a gentle leader head collar at the pet store, and I have this nice onetigris bungee leash, so I carabineered that to my belt, and hitched up the bridle thing, and rogue and I had a nice loose leash walk right away. She doesn't like bridle very much, but I feel like she'll get used to it. I have a treat stick and i was trying to use that to heel train her indoors, but even when I put chicken in there and did training right before meals, she would lose interest very quickly, preferring to sit down and stare at me instead of following. Rogue always has her nose down, and wants to follow scents instead of following me. I thing the bridle worked so well just because it keeps her nose pointed toward me instead of the ground.

I just can't get over this face!

Hey everybody, I just want to reiterate, rogue is fine.

My breeder just called me saying that several people contacted her, worried about Rogue's wellbeing. She was only out for a few seconds, and she didn't run away. I don't blame rogue for what happened, I blame myself. I would never hurt her, or use harsh training methods on her.

Rogue had slipped out the door last night when my brother and his wife left, and everybody there was watching out to make sure that didn't happen. She's just too sneaky.

I should have known, as I have seen her running behind the couch and doubling back when I try to head her off. I've heard the breed being referred to as escape artists, and she really fits the bill, and honestly, inconveniences aside, I love that about her. I just had to adjust things in order to account for her being quicker than the eye can see.

I'm a very big, very straight, very masculine man with autism. I know that frightens a lot of people, but that's my identity, and I'm not going to change, but you all need to understand, Rogue is my emotional support animal, and I don't just love her, I also need her. If she ran into the street and got hit by a car... She is my medicine, but I can't just go get a refill at CVS. I would be inconsolable.

She is my most precious possession. Can you even fathom what it would be like to come out of a 30 year depression? When she came into my life I went from listening to dethklok's briefcase full of guts to ELO's Mr, blue sky over night. Can you imagine what that's like? Its like feeling the sun on your skin for the first time.

So, please understand, that rogue is my blue sky. I was simply lamenting the need to keep her on a leash in doors, but it's become clear that doing so is the only way I can make sure this doesn't happen again, and it will never happen again. Sorry for being overly dramatic about it. I was upset. I really should have saved it for my therapist, but the nature of my disability sometimes makes that difficult.

@nancyss That's funny, because one of the things that struck me about the breed, the first time I saw one in person, (during my interview with the breeder) was that all the adult dogs had this adorable puppy quality about them that just melted my heart. I said it before, but I'm so lucky to have my rogue. What with them only going into heat usually once a year, and the small litter size, I had no idea how long I would have to wait. I have never felt so lucky.

You know how when you get so upset you can't think straight? Yeah. We started locking the door. I talked to the breeder who said I need to keep her off leash in the house. Honestly not what I was expecting to hear. So, mom is still adamant about not having a gate on the front door, but I'm just going to hold on to her when company is leaving, and rogue can just say goodbye from the couch. I started working sit-stays with her almost exclusively now, so hopefully that will translate into a threshold sit-stay over the next few weeks. The breeder's going to give me some tips on doing sit-stays, but i've seen a million videos, so we should be ok.

I joined the North East Hunting with Hounds group on FB today, and an admin deleted my introduction post. Apparently according to them my dog isn't good enough to hunt, on account of her breed. All I did was post my introduction (Hi I'm mitchell and this is rogue, rogue is a basenji, i want to learn how to hunt with her) and after a few people responded with laugh emojis they just deleted it entirely. So, now the only reference material I have is a magazine article from 1971.

So I guess you can get a license to bring a dog with you on any hunting trip in my state, so between the training from that article, and just taking her out into the woods and on hunting trips with people who know what they're doing, that's my starting point. Those jerks can keep their big dumb dogs and their redneck secrets. Rogue and I will start our own traditions i guess.

@zande She also goes for a 4.5 mile walk twice a week, other days its a 1.5 mile to 2 mile walk. Then she gets 2 or 3 more walks that are half a mile to a mile every day.

Her recall is getting to the point where, when she's done being in heat, I'm going to start taking her to a fenced dog park to start training off leash recall in hopes of giving her an athletic outlet that way.

@zande Oh my gosh, is she fat?

We give her 2/3 of a cup puppy kibble, a few shreds of white meat chicken, plus training treats right now That's for the whole day. It doesn't seem like a lot. My mom's always talking about how Rogue seems desperate for food.

I use a 1/3 cup measure for kibble, and judge a half cup, to get the 3/6 cup measure per meal, 2 meals a day.

We use small size pupford training treats, a mix of beef and sweet potato.

@tanza i just stacked her yesterday outside on a bench. It was my first time trying and I didn't expect much, but she's a natural!

Oh my gosh, i want to hunt with my dog too! Tips?

You can't see it in the pictures, but she's got a good scissor bite. I've been training her on heel since she was a puppy, and she'll do it for treats pretty reliably. We haven't done much stacking work.

You guys think she'd do well in a show?
is it too early to tell?

I got her a sweatshirt and a winter jacket from "Like a Fox" basenji cloths. I paid in rubles! lol
I'll get you guys some photos as soon as she's done with visit from mother nature.

@kembe I am!

She didn't want to show me the side of her face, so this is as close as I got.