Posts made by Mucky

@LBRunyon:

Do any of you have any recommendations for supplements for skin conditions caused by allergies ? Some of these supplements claim to treat the immune system , thus "treating the cause not the symptom " . Most appear to be based on Omega 3 and Omega 6 plus various and sundry natural ingredients . I'd appreciate any input . We want to keep our new boy happy and healthy.

I know that the Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils will help clear up dry, flaky, itchy skin (They have done wonderfully for my boy). I'm not sure if it helps the underlying condition, but it will help reduce the symptom. I have both of my dogs on a skin and coat vitamin from petsmart (can't remember the brand off the top of my head), but it has been keeping them flake free and I don't see much itching. My dogs don't seem to have as severe allergies as yours does.

In humans the Omega oils are being used to help treat autoimmune disorders (my fiance has an autoimmune kidney disorder and is taking large doses of fishoil as one way to help combat it), not sure how it translates into helping dogs with allergies.

I think the myth of the "non-shedding" basenji comes from the fact that throughout the year, you won't see very very minimal amounts of hair coming off your B. Normally (when its not shedding season), I only see a few loose pieces of hair a day. As compared to my old room mate's dog who would loose handfulls of hair when you petted her.

The most noise my B makes is a bark-like sound when startled, or to greet someone coming home. And, when he is trying to get my other dog to play with him (he jumps around like a fool and does an imitation growl, imitation bark, and a-roos at her until either he pulls her out of bed or she gets up willingly)

They usually just shed for a month, or maybe 2 out of the entire year…. but when they shed they loose their ENTIRE coat. There are separate threads here with different opinions on dealing with the shedding. Personally, I brush my B once a day with one of the metal U shaped shedding brushes (not sure what it is called). Bathing does seem to get a lot of the hair out of his coat as well.

Thanks all… the outward hound isn't a bad price. I think I might try that one.

My B smells like fritos too… but only his feet. I notice it the most when he bats at me to get out of bed in the morning.

He is probably just a tired tired B. I took my B hiking the other day up our local mountain, and he slept on the couch for the rest of the day. While we were at the mountain he was FULL of energy, but once we got home he completely passed out. You'll just have to ease him into it more (as will I).

When it rains I normally have to pull colbey out of the doory, once he gets outside he quickly does his business so he can get back inside faster. Once back inside he promptly licks himself dry. Over the past year he's gotten more comfortable with water and its less of a struggle to get him outside in the rain. He even voluntarily gets his front feet wet in the pond (usually when he is trying to figure out what our mutt is doing wading in the pond).

Those are great! I would love to get my B to do that. My B actually picks up tricks pretty well…. lets see... he can sit, lay down (only on soft surfaces), paw, other paw, and high five. Knowing how independant minded they are, it's been fun trying to see how many tricks he can learn. I like to think that he is easy to train because of how attached he is to me. Unlike most Bs, he actually wants to please me! However, I have had several times when he just gets frustrated and does all of his tricks all at once. Its really cute, and I have a hard time keeping from laughing!

I'd love to get a pack for my B for when we go hiking so he can carry his own water and treats. Has anyone found a brand/size that fits a B well?

My B's favorite spot in the house is right in front of the heat vent.

When I bathe my B I put him in the tub, and kneel next to it to bathe him. I have a massaging shower head with the long hose that you can bring down into the tub and turn on and off from the shower head. I usually keep one hand on his chest and only put the water on when I am rinsing him off. It works well for my B who hates water so much we have to drag him outside when its raining. Overall, the less traumatic you can make the experience the better it will be for your dog.

Over the weekend we had a twist to our dog bed experience. Colbey (my still has not chewed up the new bed (thankfully). However, Indy (our mutt) decided to chew the zipper on Colbey's bed (that has been chew mark free for like 6 months)! Thankfully I caught her in the act and there is only minor damage to the zipper, and not the rest of the bed. Argh… why can't dogs just be happy that we gave them beds and not insist on trying to destroy them.....

IMO it sounds like she is acting out because you are leaving her. Probably a separation anxiety type behavior. I would recommend confining her to one room of the house (not the bedroom) until she gets used to being alone. There are lots of great pee cleaners on the market which have enzymes in them that "eat" the pee. Anytime she pees in the house I would recommend using a pee cleaner to make sure anything residual is gone. Having a spot even faintly smell of pee can trigger them to pee in the same spot again.

In addition to what others have said:

Never allow your B to do something that you don't want them to do, even if it is cute. B's are so smart that once they are allowed to do something once, they will continue to challenge you to do it again.

On this same train, always be consistent and clear with you B. I strongly avoid telling my B no, instead I tell him what I want him to do with discipline commands (off, leave it, enough). He responds very well to those.

With my B, giving every dog a bone is just a challenge for him to end up with all the bones at once. My fiance's sister has 2 dogs that are about twice his weight and slightly taller. One time while staying with her, she gave all the dogs a bone. Colbey went up to each of the dogs, pretended that he wanted to play, and…. when they went to play he just stole the bone and ran. Needless to say he ended up with 3 bones, and the others had nothing.

My B turned his head completely sideways and tried to find a dog under the computer on my lap. My other dog did start howling back though….

Colbey does what we call the "head whip" he'll be all cuddled up with us, hear something and whip his head around. Often it results in hitting us with his head!

We were doing really good with keeping our B out of the bed when we first got him. However, my fiance is the light sleeper and was responsible for kicking him out of bed. In contrast I am a very heavy sleeper and wouldn't feel Colbey climbing in bed when Ed wasn't home. Colbey learned very quickly that he could sleep in the bed when Ed was gone. And then, winter came. We keep the house pretty cool and Colbey would climb in the bed shivering, and that was the end of my resolve to keep the dog out of the bed. So now, the rule of the house is, animals are allowed in the bed, but only on my side. Needless to say, I have about 1/4 of the bed…... but, I am a cuddler, so I am ok with it. We are keeping our other dog out of the bed, mostly because there would be no more space left for me!

When first working on discipline with Colbey we ended up using the squirt bottle with him when he was ignoring commands. I had to get after my room mate several times because he would squirt Colbey and then give him the command, instead of giving the command first and only squirting him if he continued the bad behavior. Now we rarely use it. We still keep one out and handy for the times when he is ignoring us from across the room. Now I simply have to say his name and touch the bottle, and Colbey immediately behaves.

@ComicDom1:

Even if you get a trainer, in the end the dog has to respond to you not the trainer. So it is in your best interest, to work with your dog, at least 15 mins twice a day to get him/her to respond to you.

I agree in my opinion, the best trainer is one that teaches you how to train your dog, and doesn't train it for you. That's especially important with the extremely smart Basenji.

bcraig, you are doing lots of things right. It's often difficult when you bring home a dog with an "issue." She is obviously making process. When you get frustrated just look back at how far you've already come. Don't lose perspective.

My B isn't very food motivated either, except for his favorite treat (Nutro Natural Choice Treats, the stick ones). Once we found his favorite treat (which took a few months) I was able to teach him several tricks. We had several hurdles to get over ourselves, such as discovering his allergy to food dyes and milk, and his refusal to lay on hard floors. We have all hard floors, so it was very frustrating not being able to get him to lay down. I used all of the training tricks I knew of… finally... I started training on the living room rug instead of the kitchen floor, and ta-da, he started laying down on command! Morale of the story... persistence and experimentation pays off. I swear, to make progress with Basenjis you have to be as versatile

One thought that just popped in my head…. I don't know how you normally discipline her, but you may want to try using a squirt bottle or water gun as discipline instead of physically pulling her away from things. In theory, that separates the discipline from you. Then she reacts to the bottle, and not a motion that you make.

I think that it is good that you are working with a trainer. Do you have a personal trainer that comes to your house to see how you interact with her? Or is it more of a group class? Also, is your trainer more of a behaviorist or simply a trainer?