Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I would love a second basenji!!!! Though I don't think I can afford one at the moment haha.

There's a lot of different suggestions which is great because one will probably work and several probably won't! The key thing that everyone agrees on is not to make a big deal when returning which I've already been practicing and it has good results each time. I will experiment with each suggestion in blocks and see what seems to work best.

Thanks again, and if anyone has more stories please continue to share!

@eeeefarm good ideas. I never make a big deal when I'm leaving or coming back. I try not to reward her excitement when i get home, or to make her known to the fact that I'm leaving.

Right now I just make the treat and give it to her, but making it an anticipation game sounds great. I will try that tonight.

Thank you.

Hello.
My wife and I got our pup 2 weeks before lockdown (just by chance, wasn't planned with the timing).
For about 2 weeks we would leave her home alone for a few hours while we were both at work and things were okay.
But for the past 6-7 months of quarantine I have been home almost 24/7 with the dog. My job, now remote, is very demanding of my time and I'm basically on call all the time. I rarely ever leave to do anything so almost every single day for the past 6-7 months the dog has not been alone. When we do leave we bring her with us pretty often as it'll be for several hours to go visit family.

With work being lighter this month, I'm trying my best now to get her situated to being alone but it is tough due to her howling/crying, and we live in an apartment building with neighbors in the building.

I'm trying to leave for just 10 minutes at a time but it's been tough. I do NOT bring any attention to the fact that I'm about to leave but you know how smart these dogs are. As soon as she see's me put my jacket on without putting her leash on she actually starts to shake. I try to leave her a difficult to get treat in the kong but it doesn't seem to help as she follows me pretty closely. She also gets free roam of most of the apartment. Just not the bedroom or the office. She gets the entrance and living room/kitchen which makes up most of the apartment.

Sometimes she does okay if I REALLY tire her out with a half a mile intense run, but it's difficult to get enough energy out of her so that she just passes out.

Any help would be great for me and my neighbors who are very nice and haven't complained to me yet haha.

She only get's put in the crate when we are doing something where we cannot keep a close eye on her, and if there's only one of us home.

If I am cooking with a skillet or dealing with raw meat and can't suddenly drop everything I'm doing to stop her from doing something, then I crate her. Same thing when I'm taking a shower and can't stop her from eating toilet paper. This is usually for at most 20 minutes which seems perfectly reasonable to me.

@dagodingo great advice thank you. I'm looking forward to Victra being a neat-freak when she gets older haha.

Whenever we have to suddenly put her in the crate, in case we are cooking or something like that, we try to give her a small treat in the crate so that she understands nothing is wrong.

@dagodingo that's good to hear. It's nice to know that it seems normal. It's just so strange that she does it within seconds of entering the crate each night haha.

And yes, we keep the crate next to the bed and she whines for 30 seconds and then sleeps for hours. She is a very good girl.

Hi. We just got our 11 week old basenji last Wednesday. You can find pictures of her in the show off section if you want. Her name is Victra.

She's been very good with just about everything to be honest. She has been teething but it's fairly easy to redirect her unless she really just wants some human flesh lol.
She has been learning simple tricks fairly well.

The only problem we have is something with the crate. We take her out on regular walks (every 30 minutes to an hour unless she is sleeping) and she typically goes every time.
Here's my problem: For the past 2 nights I will take Victra out just before bedtime. She will pee or poo, and then I will give her some extra time just in case she needs to do both. Once I feel good about the time I've given her I bring her inside. I go straight to the crate with her for bedtime. She IMMEDIATELY started circling and attempted to poop. I got lucky and stopped her just as she was about to. I got her outside and within 5 minutes she pooped. But 2 nights ago we had a similar issue when she went outside and urinated, and then within 2 minutes urinated again in the crate.

Funny thing is, after the initial issue, she will sleep in her crate with little to no fuss ALL NIGHT. She passes out and hasn't woken us up until 8am or so. She's been fantastic. I just want to make sure she doesn't go in the crate right after a walk. I'm guessing this is because she doesn't completely see the crate as a place she lives yet and is in a habit that is a bit difficult for her to break.

I would appreciate any advice but in the mean time I'm just going to keep walking and loving her as often as possible.

EDIT: Also just want to note that she went into the crate semi voluntarily when she pooped. She was not anxious at all and actually enjoys entering the crate by herself sometimes. For example, if we give her a treat, she tends to bring that to the crate so she can chew the treat inside the crate.

Thanks!

Hello. We just got our puppy last Wednesday. Her name is Victra and she's amazingly sweet.

If you want to see more I made her a tiny instagram. @victra_the_basenji

Looking forward to talking about her, as we are looking for some advice that I will ask in other areas of the forum. But overall she's been a great girl.