I have two basenjis - male and female, and a young mixed breed female. My basenjis lives on separate floors. The male was the first in the house. A year later I got the female so he would have a playmate and all was fine at first. But slowly the female started bullying him. I wish I had been more aware of it at first - I might have been able to intervene before it escalated to where it is now, but I can't let them in the same room. I'm convinced she would kill him if she could. He's terrified of her and not much of a fighter. She can be fierce. They both got along with the new dog at first, but then Rose started picking on her a bit. The luck here is that Gracie weighs 20 lbs more than Rose. She'll never start a fight, but can always stop it. As a result, Rose has learned not to pick on her, but she also won't play with her now that she's full grown because Grace has become too much for her with the size difference. The both played with Grace when she was small.

Because I have a multi-floor house I've been able to manage things with gates. I love them both so much that I didn't want to part with either of them. I will enjoy it, though, when the gates can come down.

They are soooo smart. When my Willie was about 8-1/2 weeks old my daughters were playing a game with him around the kitchen island. They had him chasing them and it took him about a minute to figure out if he stayed at the end of the island, he could just go left or right from there to catch them.

That being said, if he doesn't want to do something, it's really hard to get him to do it. Food helps, but he is, as they say, an "independent thinker." A very intelligent independent thinker.

Willie and Rosie do that also, and they each give me a look as they do it as if to say "how cute am I!" They know they've got me!

Very sweet book - not a literary miracle, but such a sweet story. The way the Basenji speaks to his owner, though, is very like the way my guys let me know what they need without words. I really think Basenjis are incredibly expressive - not such a stretch to imagine them actually communicating in English, if only through our minds.

I've also had a dead squirrel in the house, and the dogs had scratched up noses, but except for the surprise of it, all was well - no infections. The dogs - particularly my female - were very proud.

Good luck. I have, in addition to my two basenjis, seven cats. I've always had cats and they give each other (not the ones that live in my house together, but other neighborhood cats) puncture wounds. Gross as it sounds, I've learned to pick at their scabs so any infection can drain because of the likelihood of abcesses.

And I agree - our female dogs are the tougher ones. My boy is a big baby - it's my Rosie you have to look out for in a fight.

Thanks - maybe I can get the vet to check his thyroid on the blood that was drawn today.

He will be 6 in November.

I had his thyroid levels done a couple of years ago and they seemed fine. Today we're doing a fasting blood test for his liver and we'll see what's going on with that. The orthopedic vet won't do surgery unless his liver is okay.

That's what I thought. I've used them many times before - always for short stays, and there has never been any problem. But I find it hard to believe that they didn't notice anything when the injury happened.

I picked my boy, Willie, up from the kennel a couple a weeks ago. He was limping. This did not concern me at first as sometimes when he's running around with other dogs he'll slide and strain a groin muscle. But the limping didn't get any better. I took him to the vet and it turned out that he has ruptured the equivalent of our achilles tendon (it's called something very long that starts with a "g").

He's been to an orthopedic vet and will have surgery for it (I'll be in debt for quite a while!). But she said that this in not a common injury. Does anyone know if Basenjis are more prone to something like this than the average dog? In the end it doesn't matter, I just want to help him get better, but I'm curious.

The kennel owners did not notice anything unusual, they just noticed that he started to limp. I would think that it would take something major to cause such a serious injury.

He will probably never walk the same way again, and he has always had such a beautiful gait.

Before he can even have the surgery, we have to determine whether his liver is better. I posted months ago about his raised liver enzymes. He has been much better since he's been on Prescription Diet - he's gained weight and his personality has improved drastically. He was pretty grumpy for a while, and I know that liver disease in people can cause irritability. He's being tested for that today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

As far as chocolate goes, one of my dogs (not a basenji, but a 70 lb. collie, spaniel mix) ate a full bag of chocolate chips. She stole it from the kitchen table while I was baking for Xmas. This was before we had a 24 hr. emergency vet where I live, and it was the middle of the night. I really thought we were going to lose her (xmas eve, not to many vets available). She was about 8 years old at the time. Luckily, she threw it all up (on my bedspread, but that worked out well as I just picked up the bedspread and threw it in the wash). After that, she started to recover, but it was pretty scary for a while. I guess we all need spirit of icapeck (I know I spelled that wrong, but the stuff we keep in the house for our kids to make them throw up if they eat something poisonous) in the house for our dogs.

Anyway, I've never been so relived to have one of my dogs throw up all over my bed.

She lived another lovely 7 years, and I never left chocolate where a dog could reach it again!

Willie has had a couple of accidental swims - he fell off the boat while running around it to keep track of my daughters and their friend while they were in the water. He seemed okay with it - he has walked into water up to his knees if the girls are in the water.

Rosie, on the other hand, will not - she doesn't even like to get her feet wet and will run from waves when I have her at the beach.

Those are really sweet pics of your dog.

Great pics - good to see him happy and home.

So glad to hear that all is well. Congratulations on having Jack back!

I'd love to hear how Jack is doing. Please let us know!

I would be out of my mind.

Your neighbors sound really scary. People who would do something like that make my queasy. I was going to suggest a fence to protect you from them and their pets, but I see you're planning to move. You need a mote with people like that for neighbors. And I think, like some others have said, I wouldn't let him out of my sight until you move.

So sorry to hear about this. Many good thoughts for you and Jack. Hope he's home soon.

Willie has spots that are very light during the cold months, but once it gets warm, he sunbathes and they all pop out. They're pretty dark in the summer.

Rose has absolutely none.

I actually backwards trained my boy - I got him during a terrible winter, we'd go out and he would just stand there and shiver until I couldn't stand it any more. So he learned to go outside and then come in and go in the house. I hired a trainer for that and other things. For housebreaking the advice was to make sure I took him out enough, of course, but to never scold for accidents and to always food reward as soon as he went outside. The instant he finished, he got a treat. He's been almost perfect ever since (it didn't take long for him to get it and he was about 2-1/2 or 3 when we did this). If he has an accident now, I can blame myself. He always tells me, I'm just not fast enough to respond - or, at night, when he's dead asleep, but I know he'll need to go out, if I'm tired and don't wake him up, we have problems in the morning - my fault!

You can definately train this dog. Good for you for giving this dog a chance.

I have to wake up to lift the covers as Rosie decides to get on top of them because she's hot, and then get under them again, because she's gotten cold. It can happen 5 - 6 times in a night!

What a sweet face - this makes me so upset. I hope this boy finds the home he deserves - I wish it could be me. My girl wouldn't have it. I think my boy might, tho…