@listeme:

We despaired that it would ever stop with Zelda. My sister (basenji breeder) kept saying it will stop, don't worry, keep doing the "playtime over" thing! And then all of a sudden we were noticing, hey, she's not doing it. And now it's really done.

Zelda is – er, what, 20 weeks? Around now is when I start using months instead of weeks :) She's almost five months. So you should be getting real relief very soon using this method.

Thank you. If nothing else, this is encouraging!!!

@basenji_fan:

I'd like to also suggest on top of the "good" suggestions of everyone else when the dog is nipping and grabbing the clothes: is to NOT pull back. To just FREEZE- stop moving, then give your verbal corrections then remove the clothing from the dogs mouth by putting the gentle pressure there at the corner of the back of the mouth until they open. If it is a towel or balnket do the same thing. Mine does this when I am drying him off and he gets excited, and I just stop drying, tightly grip the towel now give the verbal correction of "drop it" and he will spit out the towel.

Sometimes he will get froggy and grab my pants in play, and I stop play and say "drop it" he spits out my pant leg. He unfortunately learned the pant leg thing from my boxer though. Same thing can be done with long sleeved shirt.

If you pull away from the dog you are showing them that you are trying to play a "tug" game with them. Just stop moving and then teach them the "drop it" command.

Thank you! I'm trying to teach the kids to stop, but they seem to have a natural tendency to back away. My 8 y/o has learned to deal with the nipping by herself, but my 5 y/o still has a tendency to back away while yelping, so i intervene there quickly.

well… we've been using the "ouch!!!" and give an alternative... method thus far. but to be honest, it hasn't been working all that great... (but i'm sure patience is key). It does seem as though she has lessened the pressure at which she nips and actually goes for clothes more than parts of the body now... but the nipping continues.

when she does grab a hold of clothing, she tends not to let go... and rather than get into a tugging match with her, i gently place a finger into the the side of her mouth at which time, she'll let go...

Generally, when she starts this, she'll continue... basically, once she lets go, she'll be at it again within the next 15 seconds... we've tried engaging her by playing with her in more appropriate manner, i.e. "fetch".. well.. attempted fetch...lol. but nothing really settles her down. even sitting down petting her, she'll flip on her back to have her belly rubbed and she'll get really mouthy in the process... it appears that she simply gets more worked up if we engage her. I've tried placing her in her crate after and giving a toy/treat and let her stay in there for 10 minutes or so... and she'll settle... but when we let her out, she's at it again...

It's kind of hard to tell if any progress is being made since she has good days and bad days...

Also... she is not like this the VAST majority of the day... in fact, she's a perfect angel most of the day... extremely obedient, and very close to being house trained (not that we'd trust her alone just yet...lol)... but she roams the house most of the day, finding places to nap and sun bathe... she rings a bell to exit and enter the house... all in all a super sweetheart and well mannered... it's really just twice a day that she becomes somewhat "rowdy."... in the mornings, and early evenings... and she's like this for maybe a half hour or so... it's just like she's a totally different puppy! Jumping on the furniture, sprinting around, and trying to nip people.... she's obviously having fun because she's play bowing, and just looks like she's having the time of her life. but she certainly won't listen to any kind of commands to sit or down... even though she KNOWS "sit" and "down" very well... (as she does it ALL the time except when she's in this mode...).

She does get walked in the morning for about 30-45 minutes... and on somedays, she gets walked in the evening... but she is played with throughout the day... her version of fetch... which is us throwing a toy and her running to it and pouncing on it... with an occasional retrieval!

At any rate... we're continuing to do what we are doing in hopes that she'll catch on... she's a very smart pup from what i see MOST of the time... it just appears that she has no desire to listen for these short bouts of time.../sigh... Either way... we just figure... persistence... persistence...persistence...

any further recommendations would be greatly appreciated... anything i can try, or adjust to what i am already doing... or do i simply stay the course? i just want her to engage in any other way, rather than nipping at people/clothes.... We're patient with her... but for a pup that learns things fairly quickly, she's having a bit of trouble catching on to this...

Oh and Tanza.... Carol said that the litter didn't really display any real heirarchy... no pup really displayed being alpha or othewise.. they simply got along very well...so nothing really to report there...

thoughts???

@tanza:

Yes Carol is an excellent breeder!…. is this pup from the litter that was born in January? and she can certainly give you some good pointers about working with your pup. lvoss's suggestions are totally right on...

right on! yes, Zaire is from the litter born in January!:D… incredible that you would know that...lol.

@thunderbird8588:

Hi, welcome to the forum. Zaire sounds very like our Pup Malaika who is 13 weeks old.
Everything you mention with Zaire we are experiencing with Malaika, exept we have no youn children. Malaika gets very excited during play and will try nipping/biteing, she actualy hurts and so we stop play immediately. Sometimes the very fact that we've shouted No or Leave or perhaps yelped seems to excite her even more. She was quite bad for nipping at clothing and i'm pleased to say that this has decreased a bit.
Good luck with Zaire, i think if you go to puppy classes you will feel supported as you no douby will on this forum.
They are delightful but a challenging breed.
How about some pics ;)

Aaaah… good to know that things should subside (assuming we teach her properly:D...) "delightful, but challenging".... that about sums it up!!!

Pics:

@tanza:

And have you talked to her breeder about this? Was she the dominate in the litter? Was she the most outgoing? And if you care to share who you got her from and what her breeding is, many of us have related Basenjis here on the Forum..

By the way, welcome to the Forum…

i have not talked to the breeder about this… but that doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'll shoot her an email about it. I got Zaire from Carol Webb in So. Cal. From what i can tell, excellent breeder!:D

thank you for the links. I'll look at those.

We have not yet enrolled in puppy kindergarten although its very high on the list at the moment! We understand the importance of socialization…

Its amazing... we THOUGHT we knew how to deal with puppies, but the more research we (me and my wife) do on basenjis and training techniques.. the more we realize just how little we really know! lol..

thanks for your help.

and on a side note, both my son and "Zaire" (pup), are very mild mannered… they don't generally play rough. He'll try to teach her to fetch. doesn't tug things from her, etc... i have him give her treats here and there so she'll associate him with good things, etc...

and i want to be very very clear...there is definitely no signs of aggression or anything... its purely during playtime! Zaire is a sweetheart!!! she just has sharp teeth... lol

Hi everyone,

my first post here: My family recently decided to add a basenji puppy to our family. We have now had her for about a week. And she appears to have adjusted well. And for a breed people say is not very obedient, i find that she is extremely well behaved and obedient.

At any rate, 2 days ago, she nipped and bit my 5y/o son. They were playing and it definitely was a scenario where she just got a little worked up i think. I quickly intervened, told her "no" stearnly, and told my son to not play with her for a few minutes and just ignore her (simply to show that play time ends if she bites)… i also give her a chew toy, which she promptly ignores.

And just for reference, they play together a lot and both are enjoying themselves when they play.

Yesterday morning, she wanted to play and would bite on his t-shirt trying to coax him to play. she caught his arm in the process as well. I intervened and separated them. no play time.

yesterday afternoon, while they were playing, she bit again...

Strange thing is that this only happens with my 5 y/o and not my 8y/o daughter.

Now... she's never bitten hard enough to cause any real injuries, but it does have me a little worried. My son ends up crying, but never holds it against her.

It appears to me that she'll want to play with him and resorts to nipping at him to get his attention at times. At other times, she's just playing and i think she just gets too rough.

is this something i should be concerned about?... am i correcting the behavior correctly? is this a phase that will pass? or a behavior that will likely worsen? I just want to correct this as quickly as possible and move on...

i'm fairly sure this is just a "learning how to play" situation... but is there more that i can do to help teach these important lessons?

just as a point of reference, she stayed with her littermates til 10 weeks....

thanks for any advice and input...