I have never had to do anything harder in my life then put down Leo. He was just shy of 3 years old, and the best dog you could ask for 99.9% of the time. He was born at the rescue and had been placed and returned once before he came to us. He had always been randomly aggressive, but we did our best to identify the triggers and avoid them. We talked with behaviorists and trainers and did our best, but knew we were fighting a losing battle. There was no way to identify what set him off. You could take his food away no problem, but if he was finished eating and trying to destroy the food bowl he would try to bite.

The only time he made contact biting was the day we put him down. Something just wasn't wired right, yet we still felt guilty that we were doing the wrong thing. He came to us when he was 10 months old, we only had him for 2 years. I know that the 2 years Leo spent with us were the best years of his life, he had a huge yard and a warm bed to sleep in…he was spoiled rotten. I think when you rescue a dog you feel even more responsible for them because not only did you give them a home, you saved them...you pulled them from a life of uncertainty.

My wife had a hold of Leos collar and he turned and grabbed her hand. She spent 6 hours in the emergency room and 5 months later still has problems using the little finger on her left hand. It was amazing how much damage was done so quickly. I called everybody I could think of that night. I called the basenji rescue we got him from, the trainer, the vet...and everybody said the same thing. We didn't put Leo down because it was the best thing for us, I still miss him every day. It was the the kindest thing we could do for Leo.

I know what you are going through with Tucker is extremely hard, but the years he spent with you are by far the best years of his life. I hope you are able to find someplace for him, but if you can't he won't be alone in the fields on the other side of the bridge.

Nexa usually eats everything you give her without looking at it, she was a little hesitant with a blueberry then decided it would be much more fun to attack.:D

[yt]c8QHBkQC424[/yt]

Title should be Nexa is noisy…I was laughing at the video and apparently my eyes didn't catch up to my typing.

I'm so glad we got a barkless dog, they are soooo quiet all the time:D I had to sneak up on her to get the video. Our living room is a disaster, we turned it in to Nexa's personal recovery area.
[yt]Ngm27UvVzOI[/yt]

Nexa got spayed on Friday and everything went good. They did find a spot on her soft palate when she was out that they are doing a biopsy on to make sure it is nothing to worry about.

We put a mattress in front of the couch as a step so Nexa wouldn't jump up on the couch, trying to keep her as inactive as possible. In typical Basenji fashion the first time she went down stairs she jumped over the back of the couch because somebody put a mattress in front of it.:confused: So much for the keep your dog as inactive as possible.

Thank you all so much for your kind words. It is amazing the hole in your lives when one is gone.

You will be missed so much Leo…
[yt]3M2iGKYlupc[/yt]

After three weeks of seperation from their big fight I decided to see how Nexa and Leo would do together. We went for a long walk, then to the backyard off leash, then inside. Everything went great!:D No ridges up, no grrring (except when Leo cleaned Nexa's ears but that's normal), everybody was happy. It's so nice to have them back together. When they were seperated and I was here by myself whichever dog I wasn't with acted like they had been negelected for weeks. Here are a a few picture from today.

Leo

Nexa - sleeping beside me in the office right now

I think this picture is perfect, it looks like they are still trying to figure out if they like each other, and if the couch was bigger they would scoot even further apart…but it's really comfy so we'll stay here for now.

Leo is out for a walk right now with my wife and Nexa is inside with me. She baroo's all the time, but she just started the fire engine yodel. WOW is that loud. She's never done it before. I think she's ready for her walk!

@nobarkus:

I found this info on how to get your dog to throw up. Anybody ever try this?

It's not pretty, but the hydrogen peroxide has saved us more than one vet visit. The best was when a leather glove came up missing…nobody saw the glove disappear, but Leo just looked guilty. He won the coin toss...and "gave" back the glove.

Could be that there is a female in season around or maybe they just know it's that time?

@tanza:

Has she always been that nasty when in season? If so, you might want to ask Carol Ann about getting her spayed….

Aside from a little grumpiness she has never been nasty when she's in season before…and we thought the same thing, the spay has been scheduled.

So I've been out of town for a few days and I came home to two basenjis that can't be in the same room. On Saturday Nexa and Leo got into a big fight, it escalated to blood in just a few seconds. Nexa went in to heat last week and has been cranky and Leo finally had enough.

The pack dynamic in our house is pretty simple: Our female Nexa can do whatever she wants whenever she wants to. If she wants to grumble at Leo she does. Our male Leo is not to retaliate at all to Nexa. The second he does it escalates, although usually it's not a big deal. Leo is pretty laid back so most of the time this works out just fine.

Leo finally had enough on Saturday and with everybodys hormones raging his warning growl to Nexa didn't go over well. They started fighting and he pinned Nexa down by her throat. My wife and mother in law were in the same room and it took both of them to get Leo to let go. As soon as he let go as they are trying to get them separated Nexa was able to swing her head around and she just let Leo have it. He's got puncture wound through his cheek and about a one inch spot on his neck that looks pretty bad. His poor cheek is swollen, but he is healing up nice. He's got little scrapes and bumps all over his head. You can barely tell anything happen to Nexa.

My mother in law got her hand too close when she was pulling Nexa away and her finger got bit, it went right through her fingernail.

Should be a fun month trying to keep everybody separated. Leo is completely over it and ready to play. Nexa doesn't want him in the same room. He lays at the gate waiting for her to play and she just grrrs constantly. Hopefully the after Nexa is finished they will coexist peacefully again.

Both Nexa and Leo are probably clear/normal:D With Leo being a rescue with no history, we were a little worried about him.

@tanza:

Reminds me lots of our newest addition, Lukuru Amisi (scoll down to the bottom of the page http://www.basenji.org/NativeStock/ImportIndex.htm) and isn't he handsome!

There are some great pictures of Amisi and Dr Jo's other imports here, they really show the color well. http://fopawsbasenjipuppies.com/african_basenjis_and_dr_jo

@lvoss:

Here are some links to see some of the other colors that were mentioned in that thread and some that were not but do occur. It is too bad the older photos are in black and white so you can't really tell the true color.

Creams and Blue Tris if you scroll down - http://www.newworldbasenjis.net/OldAds.htm
Mahogany Tri - http://www.basenji.org/african/Nyanabie.htm
Blue Fawn - http://www.basenji.org/african/Siri.htm
Capped Tri - http://www.basenji.org/african/P_Lady.htm
Trindle - http://www.ktcampbell.com/taji/tazi.html
Saddle - http://www.basenji.org/african/B_Tena.htm

Although not as dark, Nexa has a similar sable saddle as Avongara Bahati Tena. Her face and legs are 100% red and her back is darker with black hairs. They do share Avongara Diagba and Avongara M'Bliki in their pedigree. I love all the pictures of the different colors.

Last week Nexa caught her first chipmunk and flipped it up in the air like it was a toy, after it landed it got away under the fence. Today, the chipmunk was not so lucky. When you have two B's chasing one chipmunk, the chipmunk doesn't have a chance (neither did the now destroyed flower beds:mad:). Is there anything we should watch Nexa and Leo for health wise after their tug of war with this thing, worms…etc? As fun as it was for them, the cheese in the house was too tempting and they came in when I called:D I think they went completely deaf during the chase though.

@dcmclcm4:

My first guess would a UTI. If not, possibly Fanconi Syndrome which would be glucose in the urine. How old is your B? Have you been strip testing monthly for glucose?

Jennifer Hill

She is only 2, so we have not strip tested.

@tanza:

If I remember right, this is a full Af from Carol Ann, so would be really surprised if Fanconi… however that said, the more that are tested in the data base the better...

She is a full af from Carol Ann. Offa is shipping us a second cheek swab kit for Nexa. Leo's is ready to mail in, but in basenji fashion Nexa's kit was "compromised" by Leo. I am a little nervous for Leo as he is a rescue and we have no idea where he came from. I agree on getting as many in the database as possible.

The vet wasn't able to get a urine sample, (Nexa is a bit stubborn:rolleyes:) but they are pretty sure it is a UTI so we are going to treat her for that. They were a little concerned because she had a temperature, but she was nervous at the vet. We took it a few times after she was back home and it is normal now. She hasn't had any signs of feeling ill other than going pee in the house. Hopefully it clears up soon, it would be nice if the dogs could just tell us if somethings wrong.

In the last 2 weeks Nexa has peed in the house 3 times without any warning. Tonight she had just been outside for a few hours and she hadn't been inside for more then 5 minutes. She hasn't gone inside more than 3 times since we got her 2 years ago. We are planning on taking her to the vet, what would cause this other than a UTI? That was the only thing we could think of.