G'day Mate!!

Hope all is well in your part of the Land Down Under…

I'd welcome you to the site, but I've been here less time than you have!!

I'm from Cairns, and have a 9week old Basenji, that is so adorable.

I look forward to chatting to you and other Aussies for long time to come.. and if you do know about Lure coursing in Australia, I'd love to hear about it..

even if Little Rafiki is too young at the moment, I'd love to get into a sport we could do together!!

Welcome,

Gwawleyboy.

Thankyou for your responses to my little dilema,

It has now been two days since that incident, and I can honestly say the dog hasn't been alone since!! We now have a good little routine, that seems to be working well..

the way we've handled the last couple of days is that we wake up extra early, so we can spend a lot of time in the morning playing & walking little Rafiki. We then get ready for work, and he gets to go and hang out with Grandma & Grandad (my inlaws) for the morning… (they have raised many little Basenji's) until my Fiancee picks him up at about lunch time and takes him home with her. He is now loving Life!! and is cuddled severely!!

As for the Neighbour, we're not too concerned anymore.. because Rafiki has been so quiet at home. He has no reason to cry, except when he sees his reflection in the mirror. We don't expect the Neighbour to bother with us at all.
Please don't think that we left him out for very long... it was his second day, and the first and only time he's been alone!! I think we're going to take your advice, and get ourselves a crate for him. it might just help for those times when we need to leave the house for small periods of time. I can understand all of you that spoke of incidents where a dog has barked all day / night and has driven you crazy.. but this was Rafiki's second day, and the Neighbour would have known this. As they would never have heard or seen him before... I mean just a little understanding of the little guy would have been nice. but Granted, the little guy shouldn't be alone.. and now we've learnt this!!

He's such an intelligent thing!! As I stated in my first thread, I had never owned a Basenji, but I've fallen in love with them... in the space of three days, the little guy has learnt the full use of the doggy door, has learnt to do his 'business' outside (Providing he was downstairs at the time) he hasn't quite figured out that we want him to go outside for potty if he is upstairs, but downstairs is all good for him.. Since our bedroom is upstairs, he still has a couple of accidents at night time.. but he is learning sooo fast.. have you all found this, or is my dog just a brainiac??

I do have a question for you though, since I'm speaking to the highest grade of Basenji lover... I like to think I can count on your advice...

I do like to spoil the little guy (I know I shouldn't, but he's just so adorable)... anyway, my Fiancee & I are having a few friends around for a barbecue this weekend (We're Australian... it's a function of life here) and I was wondering if I could include something for our little boy on the menu..??

at the moment, he eats complete food from our vet, and has a steady eating pattern. we don't feed him scraps or anything other than top quality Puppy food. He's 9 weeks old, and is in a very healthy state. But this weekend is a special one for him, it's his first Barbie, and I'd just love to cook something on it so he too can feel included. do you have any suggestions... I wouldn't dare do anything to hurt him, so please tell me if you think there is nothing I could prepare for him.. & I'll keep it at that. But if maybe I could cook him some chicken or so, that'd be great!!

Look forward to hearing from you...

Thanks guys..

Gwawleyboy.

Hi guys,

Sorry about the length of this thread… but I'd really appreciate your help.

I'm brand new to the forum, and in fact I'm brand new to the world of Basenji's.... For my Birthday, my Fiancee bought me a brand new 8 week old Basenji Boy.. He's red & White, and absolutely adorable!!
My Fiancee has grown up her whole life with Basenji's and is well aware of their temperament & nature. I on the other hand, had never met one befor I met our little "Rafiki's" mother... and am now willing to jump in 110% for the little guy, cause he's just so much fun!!

for a bit of background on the two of us, I work full time from 8am to 5.30pm every week day, and am unable to be home... my Fiancee on the other hand does not have a structured work day as such, and goes out for about 2-3hrs a day (broken up) for appointments. the rest of the time she can be home looking after little Rafiki.

I have a bit of an issue though, that I'd like to run by you.. and hope that you could give me a hand with this one... the story goes something like this...

on the second day that he was at home We had to put the little guy in the yard by himself for an hour as I had to get to work & my Fiancee had an appointment. we left home at 8am, and at 9am when my Fiancee returned, she found him howling in the back yard.. (I think the guy is suffering from Seperation Anxiety... but it's early days yet). We didn't expect the next part though.... when my Fiancee had opened the front door to the house, and walked to the back door, she found a note stuck to the back door, reading the following:

"Your Dog has been howling all morning. Stop neglecting it or get rid of it."

Firstly, this is extremely disturbing, because straight away my Fiancee went into defense of our actions. I don't think 1hr alone one morning, in a fenced yard with access to water & food equates to "Neglect", but secondly it means that somebody has been in our yard while we weren't home.. and our yard is fenced all around with 6ft timber fencing. Worst of all, Rafiki was there on his own and didn't know this person from a bar of soap. Granted, this was day one, and we have found that when we are in the next room from him for more than a second, he starts up the howling... He stops as soon as he can see us.. but we are now very afraid for him. We want him to have full run of the Yard & house, as he's a big part of our family... but we're afraid that now this has happened, as soon as we put him outside for those hours that my Fiancee isn't home, we can't trust our neighbours!!.

We're afraid this person might be back, and hurt him, or steal him... or even worse, poison the little guy (I know, the brain conjures up the worst).
He isn't going to stop the howling, not yet anyway...

We've started taking him to my mother in law's house of a day so we know he will be safe, but that's not what we had planned for the little guy...

Please help us to help him...??!!