Posts made by BittysDad

Oh to have a silent Basenji. Our Bitty has, unfortunately, learned that the loudest dog gets fed first, and yips and yodels from the instant I move toward the garage door (where we have to keep their food) until I put her dinner before her. Her other loud period is every evening when my wife comes in the door from work, all 3 of the puppers flock to her and vocally announce 'momma's home' at the top of their lungs. It must be wonderful to be so loved, ha ha.

Bitty will absolutely not put a foot on grass early in the morning when it is wet with dew. She races as fast as she can up and down the driveway, searching for any spot that is not wet. The other morning she found a small pile of cut grass from where the neighbor boy didn get all of it swept off the pavement and very carefully baxcked up to it an peed on that pile.

You want to talk about shedding, lol. Our 2 Shiba's only shedded once a year when we lived in Florida, all year long. If we didn't brush them every day we had a mat of beige fur all over everything. However since moving to Missouri we only have to put up with it for maybe 3 months a year, once in the early fall and once in the early spring. As for personality and disposition SI's are long haired smiling Basenji's. We've had Itty Bitty Basenji for 4 months now and she and Sable our SI are best buddies, shoulder rolling, ankle nipping, and playing chase with their little grey Kitty. They havent taken to cuddling with each other when they sleep, I think because Sable gets too hot when Bitty sleeps curled up close, and Bitty is usually found under the covers against dad's back. In just about every other way they are the same, you have to watch them like a hawk if you open the door, they will both try to rush it. When out in the yard, if it moves they will chase it. If it is raining the B will drag her feet before getting off of the porch, whereas the SI is ears deep in the wet grass and shrubs, hoping to scare up something to chase. Before winter ended Bitty would start shivering even before I started for the front door, but the Shiba's relative closeness to the Siberian Husky is very evident, she plows through any depth of snowbank, joyfully.

The very first night we had Bitty, she very politely informed us the she was sleeping under the covers in the middle of my back, nothing we said or tried could disuade her so knowing we were beatten we have let her stay.

Our Bitty, came to us as a semi adult, the people we got her from said she was 3 but she just dosent act it. Anyway, the second day we had her I was tossing the stuffed 'baby' for Sable, our Shiba Inu to fetch and suddenly there was Bitty outracing Sable for the toy and bringing it back to me. It is now her favorite thing to play with 'dad'.

My wife and I have been planning a short trip it Arkansas for the Folk music festival, in June, so we have been planning on boarding our 3 girls with our Vet of 8 years. Upon calling the office and making reservations for the girls to stay for the week I was informed that one of the Vets would have to call me back to talk about the reservations. As we have boarded our 2 older girls with them a number of times i couldnt quite understand the problem but said I would wait to hear from the Doctor. About and hour later the Vet called and informed me that because of the agressive behavior of our 13yo Jindo, Sami, and the fact that Bitty, our B, bit one of the techs when she was in for her spaying they would not be able to board our girls any longer.
My problem is this, we have been taking our dogs to this vet for over 8 years and have never had a problem, before, but now since we have added this ferocious 17 pound Basenji to the group we are no longer wanted, or at least that is the way it seems to me. In my opinion, we are being punished because one if the young techs was not familiar with B's and their attitudes, and got careless. Anyway, after an hour of calling Vet offices and boarding kennels we were able to find one who was familiar with Basenji's and had at least heard of the Jindo's dislike of being manhandled.
Now we are shopping for a new Vet.

About 10 years ago my wife and I became the unexpected parents of a Korean Jindo, if you have never heard of them they are like 45 pound B's with a very bad attitude. Within 5 days I was ready to take Sami to the county and have her put to sleep, but Karin, how had been a Basenji owner, breeder and showed her own dogs, had a different attitude. Slowly she got it through my head that I wasnt dealing with a GSD or a Lab, that I had to drastically change my attitude. I can't possibly relate all the different ways I messed up before Sami finally began to trust me, but now she is one of the sweetest most lovable dogs i have ever had. Now, all I have to do is adjust to all the wonderful quirks of our new baby, Itty Bitty Basenji.

Hi Arlene, I'm not sure if this will help Shadow at all but some years ago out Pembroke Corgi developed back problems, so severe that she was unable to walk. Our vet put her on a regimine of New Zeeland Green Lipped Mussel extract, within 3 weeks she was back to racing around the yard trying to herd everyone. You might ask Dr Langdon if it might help Shadow.

Having shared our bed with 2 dogs and 3 cats for the last 8 years it was no inconvience the first night we had Bitty when she informed me that she was sleeping under the covers against my hip. Since the weather has started to warm up she does move up and pokes her head out from under the covers next to my shoulder. The only problem I have with her is the fact that she always sleeps facing me and I have those 4 feet pushing me all night.

I'm sure that Bitty's favorite reply to anything I say is, "You're not the boss of me."

Oh wow, all this talk about giving baths is like waking me up. Our other 2 dogs are a 11 yo Jindo and a 9 yo Shiba Inu, both are like Basenji's in that they clean themselves like cats, in fact we hav had both since they were not quite 2 years old and have never given either a bath. They have never smelled the least bit 'doggy' even when coming in out of the rain. So, now I find that the Itty Bitty One is supposed to be given a bath even with her extremely short coat? What a disappointment, lol.

Even after only 3 months of living with our Itty Bitty Basenji I am very sure that the first time she will ever go anywhere off lead she will be so elderly and infirm she will she will have to be taken out in a baby stroller. Otherwise she will find some new way of outwitting me, again.

Until just yesterday I had never noticed Bitty take any interest in the TV. However, during a rerun of Animal Precinct yesterday, there was a very short segment with a littler of very young puppies and they were whinning, Bitty had been snoozing against my leg on the sofa and when the puppies started to make noise she popped up, looking right at the TV. When she realized that it was just that noisy box, she laid back down and went back to sleep.

Bitty is your typical permanent pre-teen. Boisterous, with a tendency to talk back, 65% perpetual motion, 15% lovey puppy and 20% couch potato. Sable is her best buddy Shiba Inu, the 2 of them are usually involved in an intense game of 'chase' with Sassycat, it dosent seem to matter who is designated chaser or chasee, as long as the game goes on. I think the main object of the game is to make Sassycat jump up on the desk in the office and scatter as many papers as possible to the floor, there to be shredded by the team. Cant count the number of times in the last 3 months, since Bitty came to live with us that the office has looked like it has been hit by a blizzard. And, yes that is another trait that B's and SI's share, the love of shredding paper. But, the beauty of it all is, no matter how snowy white things get, we wouldnt change anything.

If we were not already up to the allowable limit for dogs in KC I would love to try and turn him around. Our Jindo, Sami, was also a man hater to begin with and in a 45 pound dog it is a little more serious than with a B. I have to admit that it took a while and a lot of patience but Sami is a big lover dog now. I cannot even begin to count the number of times she bit me over the first year or 2. It just takes a lot of love and understanding.

We had 2 dogs in our family before we brought Bitty home, Sami, our Jindo female, 45lbs, and Sable, our Shiba female, 23lbs. When we walked in the door with Bitty the 2 of them sniffed her all over and she just stood there and let them. After the initial introduction they all ignored each other for about a day and a half until Bitty couldnt stand it any longer and began to attempt to get Sable to play. It took her almost a month to get Sami to accept the fact that she was here to stay and begin to play with her. Now they are just one big happy pack.

The other morning Bitty was going crazy at the front door, she had already been out for her morning stroll so I couldn't figure out what was the problem. But since she has already started my training I put her lead on her and opened the door to take her out. She immediately boltted out the door, had never seen her move that fast, and chased 2 deer off of the front lawn. Thank god I had a good hold of the lead.

And bunnies trump squirrels.

Oh my word, another trait that I was unaware of in B's. Spring has come to Missouri and with it the rain, Bitty's first indication to me that she was not happy with the rain was her refusing to get off of the porch when I took her out for her morning constitutional. Unlike our Shiba who totally ignores the rain Bitty wont even go on the wet grass after the rain stops.

I think I have finally figured how to post her pictures.