You know, as I think about it, after having read Young and Tired's message, Rowdy's actually pretty good. I had a 2 yr old Corgi for a while, and she was a lot worse than Rowdy. She barreled through all my screens on my sliding glass doors, ate my sheets and bedspread, ate my T-Shirts and bras, broke every bit of decorative things on my patio until I glued them to stepping stones with Gorilla Glue, banged head first into the back of my knees, knocking me down, sat out in the back yard and barked for no reason, etc. She was a canine jugernaut! She was also an escape artist, and would take off, Zorro in tow, and end up at the animal shelter, where I would have to bail them both out. Finally, I found a home for her through the Corgi Rescue, and she went to live with a wonderful retired woman who had two acres of fenced land, and 3 other dogs. Lucy, the Corgi, loves it there. Anyway, from my experience, Corgis are worse than Basenjis. She was adorable though. I took her to training class, and she would be brilliant there, but when she was off leash, she was a nightmare. Corgis are a herding breed and they have to have a job. She just didn't have enough to do at my house. Oh, yesterday at the dog park, I finally saw Rowdy play. Zorro talked him into a good go-around. I also tried Rowdy out in the car with the harness, and it worked great. He doesn't seem to be much of a chewer.

Hmmm…I'm thinking very hard. There must be something...He is very loveable, and kind. He gets along with Zorro who is always bossing him around. He looks up at me adoringly when he puts his head on my leg for some lovin' He's much better riding in the car now, staying in the back seat, and not zooming around like a f a r t in a punch bowl any more. He will sit, down and come on command if you have a treat. He settles down nicely now after dinner and has stopped trying to pull the comforter off my bed and eat it. He's a very good boy when we go to bed, and doesn't chew anything up or chew his leash in two. He's not food aggressive, nor is he aggressive if I take something I don't want shredded out of his mouth. He really is a good boy--he's just VERY ACTIVE AND BUSY. You have a nice big yard and he can run more of his energy off when he gets to your house. I've noticed after we get home from the dog park, he is much better behaved because he's had a good run and worn himself out. There...does that help some? Don't be too scared; you too will soon have funny stories to regale friends and family with.

Just wanted to share something with everybody…I am a psychotherapist and last night in one of my groups, I described my first week with Rowdy, the agent of mass destruction. The whole group was in stitches, and one woman, after wiping the tears from her eyes and getting her breath back, said, "You have enough material with that dog to start a standup comedy routine!" So I can imagine what comedic material people who have had years of experience living with Basinjis could have. When Rowdy is out in public, people say how beautiful he is and they'd like to have a dog that doesn't bark. Not barking is the only positive behavior I've seen so far to recommend Rowdy--well, not really, because one has to love him in spite of his "evil" ways. When all his rowdiness is over, and he's settled in his bed, he's very sweet and loving.

I got a good idea from someone at the office this morning, who has a specially designed harness safety belt thing that she bought at Petsmart for her dog, so he can be harnessed in with a seat belt. I'm going to try that with Rowdy. Do those dog halters work on basenjis? I've seen those that are supposed to be a humane way to keep dogs from pulling when you're out for a walk.

That's pretty incredibly rude of that man. You would think people would believe the owner of the dogs, but some people just have to be right, I guess. Even people you would think are knowledgeable can be ignorant. I know once when my Shiba Inu and I met friends at a park, a woman there, who said she was a vet tech, insisted that Shiba Inus were unpredictable and vicious at times. I told her my Shiba was very kind and gentle, and had never even growled at anyone, and I had never met a mean Shiba, but she kept insisting that I better be careful with him.

You must be a good trainer to have such well-behaved Basenjis. Rowdy is making some progress. This weekend we're going to work on not catapulting over the driver and exploding out of the car when we arrive at a destination. He's getting much better about riding in the car though. He's getting better about sitting quietly to get his dinner instead of attempting to knock me down to get at the bowl quicker. I don't think he's been taught much about manners and appropriate behavior.

Mickii is beautiful! I never saw a tri-color basenji before. That's so cute that she rats her fellow puppies out.

I had never seen a basenji in real life. I've only seen pictures of them, so when I went to the pound that day and saw Rowdy peering at me through the kennel gate, I was amazed. I knew what he was, and was really surprised to see what I though to be a relatively rare dog in the pound.

I don't know if I've heard Rowdy yodel yet. All I've heard is a bleating sound he does, and a strange little whimper he makes when he gets excited in the car. Once when he got his head stuck in my picket fence, he emitted this horrible screaming noise that made me cover my ears and Zorro run for cover. That's about all the sounds he's made in the three weeks I've had him.

Are your dogs both Basenjis? It's nice to know they have the capacity for guilt - Cody, now named Rowdy (we figured a name change is OK since he doesn't come to anything you call unless there's a treat, and then he'll come no matter what you call him) by Jeep Jeep, is getting better. His riding-in-the-car manners are improving, but now we have to work on letting me get out of the car before he does. His house manners are a little better, but he's still very busy and destructive if I don't watch him every minute. The cats all HATE him. So far he's had sense enough not to bother my Manx cat, who is almost as big as Rowdy, and would slice Rowdy to ribbons. He's only had two accidents (both peeing) in the house and that was the first two nights I had him.

That's so cute about your male dog telling you it wasn't him. Zorro, my Shiba Inu, always looks scandalized when Rowdy does something Zorro knows is not allowed. I can almost hear him saying, "Ummm, look what Rowdy did!" You all on this website have been so helpful for me fostering Rowdy.

Hi Duke and Tanza - are those little pictures of your babies? I never knew Basenjis came in black and white too. They look so sharp - like they're wearing tuxedos! It's helpful to hear that Cody is a normal Baseji and that there's hope for training him. I know treats are how I discovered that he 1. knows his name 2. can sit on command and 3. will down on command. Up until then, I didn't know he knew anything, because there was NO response to my voice…not even an ear flick. Even my cats will give me that much. But I had a Puperoni (which is my Shiba's favorite snack and for which he will do ANYTHING), and you should have seen how fast Cody zipped over to me when I called him after he saw the Puperoni in my hand! So now some of the mystery of Mr. Cody is exposed -- he will respond if somethings in it for him. If he does something naughty, he appears to care nothing for my reprimands and just goes on his merry way. Zorro at least looks ashamed when he gets in trouble, and tries to cute his way back into my good graces. But not Cody! He cracks me up. He's my little foster juvenile delinquent.

Thank you, everybody, for the tips. I'll get that DVD. I'll also get that book about dogs who pull too. Cody and Zorro both are pullers. Cody is VERY strong too. That will really help, I think. You're right about knowing your dog. I've had Zorro, my Shiba Inu, for two years now, and I know how he thinks and can read his behavior. Cody is different though, so I'm never sure if it's a Shiba thing, a Basenji thing, or a dog in general thing. Do Basenji's tend to be picky eaters? At first, Cody was, but now he looks foreward to dinner and cleans it all up. He also has a "saddle of coarse, lighter-colored hair on his back that I thought was a "winter" coat, but he's not seeming to shed that. I don't know if that's normal, or if his coat suffered from being kept outside all the time. I have no idea what he was fed before I got him. I read that Basenji's have problems sometimes with sensitive tummys and skins. His skin is beginning to look better already, but he still has that funny stiff-haired saddle.

Yes, Cody drops his head and sniffs the ground when Zorro tries to play with him. Sometimes he looks off into the far distance and Zorro races madly around him. It's kinda funny to watch. Eventually Zorro sighs and gives up. Is that way of communicating "Chill out" a Basenji thing or a dog thing? I am learning more about the way dogs communicate, having been a cat person for years.