Wow, for some reason I stopped getting emails when ppl replied to this thread!
Im glad this set off to such a productive discussion!

Well, here's an awesome little update:

Princess Zelda has become accustomed to my voice and my commands! When she's in the yard, anywhere in the house, exploring within the gated complex just outside my girlfriend's apartment, or in a small park off-leash, she will usually come back to me the first time I call her! If we have just gotten outside and she hasn't had her fill of sniffing and eyeballing her surroundings, she generally wont come running, but she will stop dead in her tracks, turn 90?, and continue looking around. Im absolutely ecstatic that my 2 year old female Basenji / Red Heeler is so dang smart!

My GF and I went camping recently and we brought out furry friends (she has a 4-5 month old beautiful brindle pit / lab mix). I bought a metal corkscrew stake and a wire tether to keep her close at the campsite, and she constantly wrapped herself up comically to a point where she would just give up and lie down, lol. When we went on walks, however, I brought a 30 foot non-retractable leash to drag behind her (so i could step on it and verbally recall her when she got too far away) and she learned almost INSTANTLY how far she could go before I made her come back. After about 3-5 times, she began responding to my voice alone!

So yeah, there you have it! She's doing absolutely great and learning so quickly! She has quickly become the dog of my dreams, and has completely given up her home-alone chewing habits, so I no longer have to keep her locked up in my room when I'm at work. (it probably helps now that I have a roommate with a 2 year old Blue Heeler).

The only problem I seem to need to deal with now is her habit of pulling cat poo out of the litter box and leaving it on my new rug! :-0

@eeeefarm:

I would make this momentary initially, working up to a collar hold, perhaps attaching a leash, then treating and releasing. I would also work on teaching her that there is another treat available if she waits a moment after the release.

Wonderful advice! That seems like it would work incredibly! Thank you so much!

@Kipawa:

So practice calling, treating and loving for something well done (returning) ad then releasing him/her to be allowed to go back to the fun activity.

I had been doing this. Now, when I CAN get her to come, she runs back in my direction, but just keeps running right past me, lol…

Generally, the treats she's most interested in are hotdog weiners, and string cheese. Sometimes whens she's too playful to care abotu even those, I reward her with a game of tug, which she will often be glad to join in on.

Yeah I understand that with the short amount of time I've had her, it would be hard to have established a strong enough bond. I just wanted to make sure that her behavior wasn't unheard of in the Basenji world, and wanted to know if there was a way to work around it, or if it was something I would just have to live with.

Thanks for the advice thus far, and please keep it coming. For now, I'll just work with her in the back yard off the leash and only call her name when Im positive that she'll look at me when I call her. Maybe if i hammer on it for long enough, she'll respond in other places.

I adopted a 1 year old Basenji/Red Healer female about 2 months ago form a local shelter. From what they could tell, she was a stray when they found her.

House training her was a breeze (unless I take her to someone else's home) and when she's indoors, she is an absolute charmer. She comes when called from across the house, she responds when I mention treats, bed, out, or walk. The problem now is when she is outside. No matter how much I try and train her to look at me when I call her name, if she is more than 5 feet away from me, she acts like im not even there, until she is done exploring whatever sound or smell she is attracted to.

Were currently taking a basic obedience class, and the instructor has been trying to give us a bit of special attention tailored to her attention span and independent nature. Even with the training at hand, Zelda will still wander off when she gets the chance off-leash.

Imagine it is kind of like having a child at a park, who walks away from you, starts following another couple, and denies that you are his/her parent.

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with any training techniques or games they have had luck with in the past with training a Basenji to listen more often. I'm currently trying to tackle her chewing habits, 'come' command, 'leave it' command (on leash), as well as many other basic behavioral disciplines, so its getting frustrating when I try to let her have fun and run in an open field (she is SO fast!) and she just begins ignoring me.

Also, IDK if its relevant, but many times when I have her outside off-leash, she has ZERO interest in treats of any type, even chicken!