When my wife and I got Cosette in Bénin, getting her to pee wasn't an issue; she quickly learned to pee on dirt or in grass (but not in the house). But she refused to poop unless she could find a nice patch of bush (tall grass, weeds, thickets, etc.) to burrow into first.

Even now that she's in the U.S., she almost exclusively poops in stands of tall grass or thick bunches of weeds. She'll sometimes settle for a lawn that needs a good mowing, but even that is a last resort.

It makes sense that a dog used to African forests (and, nowadays, motorcycle-clogged roads) would prefer the relative safety of a thicket rather than being indisposed in a more public setting. But then again, there could be snakes in that bush!

So is this pooping in the weeds typical basenji behavior or a quirk unique to our dog?

The rule of thumb I was taught is that a puppy can only wait an amount of time equal to their age in months plus one. So, at eight weeks old (two months), your pup can hold it three hours tops (1 month + 1 month + 1). You should probably schedule a couple of potty visits outside during the night, even though it will be a pain.

When we got Cosette, my wife and set a timer for three hours and three hours beyond that. We took turns taking her outside. At twelve weeks old, we were able to lengthen the time between breaks to 4 hours, then 5 hours at sixteen weeks, etc. It's tough, but it will keep your home (and her crate) clean!

The insulting version of the word dates to the 1400s and derives from the term for a female dog, which is older. I'm guessing dogs in Medieval England were not usually the companions they are today, so the term was probably analogous to calling a woman a sow or a cow today, with the implication being uncleanliness and aggression.

My guess is that when the dog fancy was gaining steam, the upper-class folks who were showing dogs weren't inclined to even acknowledge the vulgar version of the term, so they went with it!

See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bitch

@DebraDownSouth said in NEW BRAND of DOG FOOD??:

You cannot look at a dog and know if malnourished... they can be fat and not getting the right nutrition. But I was talking about the ones living pretty much wild, not owned. Many cultures around the world care for their pets.. I hope you didn't think I meant owners neglected them. That wasn't my intention at all. The comment was about dogs scavenging for food... that typically isn't an owned dog who is being fed.

Yes, people cooking far longer than 200 yrs, but dogs were still hunting and eating raw/dead things, and of course some or a lot of table scraps. Research has shown parasites were a bigger killer than most problems, but dogs and people can live a long life and have terrible nutrition.

Gotcha. I was just making sure were were on the same page, and it looks like we are. One small proviso: The West African dogs were both scavengers and pets, so their diet came from a combination of both food found in communal refuse piles (from which pigs, goats, chickens, and sheep also were fed), and from the owners' table scraps. It's a very communal system, with refuse piles containing so much organic matter from cooking that it's not as inhumane as it might seem at first blush. But, yeah, this is a far cry from pariah dogs that have no owner to speak of.

Parasites and vaccines were indeed another issue. There was a vet in town who handled that sort of thing, but most dog owners only used him for emergencies, I suspect.

@DebraDownSouth The dogs in Benin weren't malnourished, not the ones that had owners, at least. And people have been cooking far longer than 200 years, so dogs have likely been eating cooked food for much longer than that. Dogs that died young in West Africa were usually killed by cars or motorcycles.

@eeeefarm said in NEW BRAND of DOG FOOD??:

Dogs historically were fed leftovers from the table, and before that whatever they could scavenge around a human's camp. Probably still eat that way in villages in Africa. Feed companies have implied that you need a degree in nutrition to nourish a dog properly. Funny, children don't get that much consideration! Junk food would seem to suffice for them....

This is absolutely true! The dogs where we got Cosette were free-ranging, and they ate from trash piles by day and got table scraps at night. People thought my wife and I were crazy for buying French dog food in the big city...

@Nancy-Berry said in NEW BRAND of DOG FOOD??:

@Baba-Bamidele I hate that we're having this problem with the stools & R.Rays food but I am glad that it's not just me! Well, the 4 leggers. I've noticed that if I reach into his bowl & get some of the food in my hand, it's greasy! Really greasy & I don't think that's good at all. Does yours feel greasy too? To the point that you can see the grease on your hand?

I picked up a piece when I fed Cosette this morning, and it does indeed greasy! I wonder if that's part of the problem?

@Nancy-Berry said in NEW BRAND of DOG FOOD??:

@tkdbasenji The boy I have now is 3 & I was given the food he was eating, Rachael Rays Grain free Turkey & Potato. My problem with it is when he has his b.m.'s.....it's always 3 rounds. I can pick up the 1st round if I'm careful. 2nd round......is very soft but round 3 ~ wait til it's frozen to pick up. When the stools are that soft all the time, it doesn't express his anal glands normally so he constantly "cleans" when he comes in & I can smell what he's cleaning, it's anal glands. I have some Iams Essentials left from my other b but he won't touch it. Does the Chicken Flavor make the stools better??? I hope!!

We've been having similar issues with Rachel Rey's beef and bison formula. We left Cosette with the in-laws over the holidays, and we forgot her food (oops), so we emergency ordered the Rey food online, since our normal stuff didn't have a one-day delivery option. Ever since, we've been getting three BMs each day, with them getting progressively softer each time, exactly as you describe. I'd agree that there seems to be something wrong with this brand!

We normally feed Cosette Canidae's grain-free line of foods. We rotate through the different kinds, and we've had great success with the fish, duck, and bison blends. It's about on par in price with other high-end foods, and you can get it for a discount on places like Chewy.com or Jet.com (where they're trying to lure people away from Amazon by offering big discounts if you hunt around online).

Determining breeds in a mix is always hard, but I could see her being part basenji. She might also have some chihuahua, judging by her face. Such a cute girl!

CARE is another good resource for desensitizing a reactive dog such as this: http://careforreactivedogs.com. Good luck!

Basenjis are pretty rare, so they're not a breed that often turns up in mixes. But it's certainly possible. Some telltale signs might be a curly tail, fused paw pads on her two middle toes (see http://basenji-freunde.com/pfoten_goldsch_bas.JPG), and a wrinkled forehead. (The absence of any of these doesn't indicate non-basenji parentage, either, of course!)

Behavioral giveaways would be aversion to water, yodeling instead of (or in addition to) barking, strong chase instinct, aloofness, and cleaning herself like a cat.

And if you're really interested in getting to the bottom of her genealogy, you can get a DNA kit nowadays for fairly cheap. Some of them even test for genetic illnesses, as well. The Wisdom Panel series used to be considered the most accurate, but that may have changed in the last year or so since I checked.

At any rate, she's a cutie no matter what her parentage is!