Posts made by Loki_Freya

Hehe, I think they would probably be unwinding the mummies (just like they do with toilet paper), chewing on bones, running B500 loops in the hallways, and then taking well deserved naps in the beds on display in the period rooms…

We live in Reno and can help if need be.

Loki & Freya's Mom

We go to a large local dog park about once a week. Loki loves to play with all the other dogs and he will flit about from dog group to dog group, instigating wrestling matches and chases. In the mean time, we will walk or run laps around the park with Freya, who is really not into the whole dog thing. She is much more human oriented and will approach just about everyone for pets and cuddles. So Loki enjoys the park for the rough-housing, while Freya enjoys vising with all the humans that have been abandoned by their dogs.

Loki & Freya's Mom

We just spent Thanksgiving in NY and visited the Met. In the Egyptian section we found these hieroglyphs of Basenjis from Saqqara. Ohh, Loki would just looove to catch a gazelle! He is the big game hunter who will flush deer for us when we are out hiking.

Loki & Freya's Mom

A friend of mine has a very clever escape artist, and she has to use TWO different kinds of carabiners - one like the one shown above and a twist-lock like the one attached. One by itself is not enough.

Loki & Freya

We alternate between 8-mile bike rides, 3-mile runs, or assorted runs, hikes, walks. Loki and Freya get rather restless if they don't get at least 3 miles in every day (they are only 2.5 years old and have lots of energy). Sometimes, if we go for a long hike where there is no water, I will even make them carry water bottles for everyone in saddlebags. That way, the bags get progressively lighter as we drink the water. If I didn't bring enough water, I will actually make them carry rocks. People get this funny look on their faces when you tell them that the dogs are carrying rocks… Since the bags are red, people tend to think that they are search and rescue dogs... They actually love carrying their saddlebags as it gives them a job and they "suffer" less from Basenji "ADD".

Loki & Freya's Mom

Freya will baroo and wag her tail like crazy whenever somebody she loves comes to our house. It can be one of us, or one of my friends that she associate with going for walks. Whenever the kids come home with one of their friends, the reaction is always: what the heck was that? We laugh and explain that she is just happy.

Loki does not baroo, but he will sometimes bark/yelp when a stranger comes to the door. He will also cry/scream if he thinks that he is going to be left by himself. When they were in puppy school I had them in separate classes to minimize the mischief and one time I left him in the car during Freya's class. My godness! It was virtually impossible to get the other dogs (and humans) to concentrate on the lesson with Loki sounding like a human baby having its fingernails pulled out!!!

Loki & Freya's Mom

I lived in Mammoth Lakes for ten years, so I am very familiar with Devil's Postpile - it is fortunate that I love hiking, as we all know that a tired B is a good B!

Loki has always been pretty confident around water - he likes to chase other dogs, and he will follow (at least part way) when they run into the water.

But when I got Freya two years ago, she behaved like the Wicked Witch of the West - she would go to extreme lengths to avoid having water touch any body part beside her tongue. When crossing streams on our hikes, she would spend a long time determining the optimal crossing point, picking out rocks to step on. But then one day, there was a critter that needed a good chasing, so she threw caution to the wind! After surviving that experience, she has been much more relaxed when it comes to the wet stuff…

I am Danish, so they have names from the Norse Mythology:
Loki = Norse God of Mischief
Freya = Norse Goddess of Love

And they live up to them!

Loki & Freya's Mom

One time, I left Loki & Freya in the car while having a quick meeting before a road trip. Unfortunately, I had forgotten a 3/4-full 20-ounce latte in the cup holder. Loki generously helped himself to the whole thing! There was not a single drop left!!! And I really needed that caffeine jolt! Unsurprisingly, a 3 hour road trip with a B "bouncing off the walls" and diarrhea turned into a 4 hour ordeal.

Loki & Freya's Mom

Hi Congo, Robby, & Michelle,

Are you still in Reno? We recently moved here from Mammoth Lakes, CA.

We have met a couple of B's at the dog park (Rancho San Rafael) and I guess two senior B's got adopted from the shelter on Longley last week.

Loki, Freya, Pete, & Cecilia

Hi Buddy & Dan,

It is Horseshoe Lake at Mammoth Lakes, California. This is a very popular "dog lake" and I guess Loki & Freya have seen all the other dogs go into the water and figured that it was not such a big deal.

The ocean is another story all together though! They are not keen on being overrun by waves!

Loki & Freya just crack me up! In the first picture, Loki went as far out into the water as he has ever gone, and getting his butt wet kind of startled him… Just don't tell them that Basenjis are supposed to be "allergic" to water.

They are both about 2.5 years old (not from the same litter, or breeder), and have no intention of slowing down...

Loki & Freya's Mom

I went to visit them yesterday and the staff said that they had both been adopted, apparently together.

Loki & Freya's Mom

youngandtired:

I know that a lot of people will tell you that the amount of mischief quadruples when you get another one. But my experience has been that it has stayed more or less constant. Loki is the troublemaker, while Freya is a little lady who "rolls her eyes" at Loki's antics (even though they are the same age). They will teach each other both good and bad things though! Freya was at first timid with other dogs, but Loki showed her that most dogs are friendly and unable to resist the charms of a B puppy. Loki on the other hand was timid with new people - especially the small ones, but Freya taught him that humans are very similar to dogs and also cannot resist a charming B. However, it can be difficult to get Loki's attention now that Freya is the center of his universe (boys will be boys…). So the "selective hearing" has definitely gotten worse...

Also, Loki suffered from separation anxiety when he was little and would howl and cry when he was left alone. Fortunately, it would only last about 15 min, or else the neighbors would probably have strangled me.... Now that he has Freya, the howling and crying has stopped completely.

Cecilia

Thanks Everybody!

Natalplum: you can buy saddle bags at a lot of pet stores and specialty dog stores, but some of them can be rather expensive (some of them also have lots of unnecessary "bells & whistles"). The one Loki is wearing in the picture is very basic (and reasonably priced) and is made by Outdoor Products. You can find it online as their "Dog Pack Small Red". This one fits both Loki (25 lbs) and Freya (23 lbs) perfectly. They each happily carry up to 4 water bottles (16 oz) at the start of the hike, gradually dwindling down as we drink the water. Most other packs that I have seen for this size dog are either too small (capacity-wise), or the straps need a lot of jury-rigging. I hope it is OK to list brands/products on this forum - I do not own stock in this company…

Loki & Freya enjoy carrying their packs: they actually seem more relaxed and less wound-up having "found a purpose in life" - and they get a lot of attention from other hikers!

Cecilia

Greetings from Loki & Freya (and their human Cecilia)!

Loki (the Norse God of Mischief) is the b/w one in the pictures and Freya (the Norse Goddess of Love) is the redhead. They were both born in December 2006, so they are still rambunctious puppies.

Loki chose Cecilia to be his human (he was from Sandra Cyrus - Mountain Basenji Dogs in SoCal), when he was about 10 weeks old. At that time, the neighbor had a Husky who was Loki's best buddy and they would play every day. Sadly, Dakota had to go to doggy heaven and as a result, Loki was very lonely. Fortunately, Loki found a girlfriend: Freya (from Connie Paulsen - Khani's Basenjis in Oregon), when they were both about 9 months old. It was love at first sight and they do EVERYTHING together: sleep in the same crate (even though it really is too small for both of them), eat out of the same bowl, carry the same stick around, chase squirrels, etc.

In two of the pictures, you can see them wearing their wireless fence collars (no, they are not bark collars). It took them one "zap" to figure the system out, and they stay within their allowed area even if there are interesting critters (dogs, cats, bears, squirrels, etc.) passing by outside of the boundary. The transmitter is portable, so it goes with us when we travel. I know that wireless fences are not considered "proper" fences. But I must emphasize that I never leave them alone in the yard - we have coyotes, bears, stray dogs and other "wild" animals that are not being prevented from crossing the boundary. When they are home alone (which does not happen very often since I work from home), they go in their crate for some quality nap time.

In one picture, Loki is wearing his saddle bags. Both of them love having a job (carrying water) when we go hiking, and it also helps slowing them down a little bit ;-). We go hiking every day (it's either an hour of exercise, or an hour of cleaning up toilet paper and toy "guts" scattered all over…)

Cecilia