That makes sense about flight temperature - during certain times of the year, I think it's ok, but not all year round. Especially not in the coming summer months.

I talked with the Chica's owner's sister the other day, and she says that it wasn't Chica that had worms, but another dog, and apparently Chica has all shots required for dogs here on St. Thomas.

I asked if she's ever drawn blood with her biting, and she said no. She bites mostly as a response to play, as she's never been taught not to use her teeth, so when children run and handle her, she's all mouth. I haven't seen her actually be "aggressive," just rougher than most parents would like a dog to be around their kids. The kids were able to pick her up and carry her home after she got loose that day, and really, I get the impression that Chica just wants to be loved. I even played with her for a bit.

She killed an iguana recently. There are other dogs in the neighborhood that she apparently gets along with, but I wouldn't be so sure about cats.

I told the owner's sister about BRAT and about this forum, and she said she'd pass the info on. Hopefully BRAT or we will hear from him soon, and find a good home for Chica.

It would be cool to get a vet here involved with BRAT - I had wondered if living here might cause difficulty if I ever wanted to adopt from them. I guess it can, which is too bad. I'm surprised that they cite temperature as a problem; for African dogs, you'd think the climate here is perfect!

I bring Paco to the Puppy Socials at How 'Bout Your Pet the last Wednesday of each month, but since I'll be off-island for the next two months, he'll probably miss those. Once I'm back, you might catch us walking on the Waterfront or hanging out at the Dog House Pub in Havensight. :) It's not too hard to find us.

Paco's sister definitely does still need a home; there's the interested woman, but she has at least one dog already, and I'm hesitant to recommend that Chica (that's the name of Paco's sister) be put in a home with other pets.

I do hope something happens soon; I see Chica four times a week when I tutor, and she's just not being well cared for. I was told recently that she also has intestinal worms, and I have no idea if she's being treated for them. sigh

Welcome! Sorry to hear about your loss.

I know the people and the dogs you are talking about; Paco was in the spayed female's last litter, and the 1 and a half year old female is his littermate, who I see on a regular basis because I tutor her owner's nephew. The black and white male Basenji you met is Paco's sire.

There are no puppies or upcoming litters that I know of, and there aren't a lot of purebred Basenji's here in the VI. The one and a half year old female desperately needs a good home, as her owner is tired of her escaping, and the breeder (the man you met) won't take her back. He is looking for an owner, but she desperately needs training, and someone who understand Basenjis. Any stimulation leads to biting, and the neighborhood children are all scared of her.

I suspect the Basenji's in the shelters on St. Croix and St. Thomas are all from former (or the most recent) litter of the dam who the man you met finally spayed last year after being unable to find homes for nearly an entire litter (the one I described in this thread; Paco's litter). I know for sure that two were sent to St. Croix free of charge when he couldn't find anyone to buy them. I don't know what happened to the two other pups that were in the litter; I have to hope they found good homes on St. Thomas.

I would recommend seeing if you can talk with breeders or BRAT about looking for basenjis in the states if you really, really want a purebred Basenji pup, and transporting the pup here. Personally, I will probably be at the Humane Society of St. Thomas when I'm ready to add another canine to the family.

edit: I just noticed that you are also looking to help the spayed female and the 1 1/2 female tri: There is a woman who works at Bella Blue in Yacht Haven who is interested in the 1 1/2 year old tri, but I gave her information to the tri's owner and I don't know if he ever contacted her. I had no idea that the spayed female needed a home as well, but she seems better tempered and trained, or did when I met her to pick up Paco.

Strange…Paco went through that phase when he was still a pup. We would just push him away and tell him "leave it," each time, and he eventually got the picture. I'm not sure if Ayo suddenly doing this now is significant or not in any way, though.

He looks right at home! Congrats! :)

I wouldn't worry about him being a try-ing Basenji….yet. Paco's a tri and he's an absolute angel as long as he's been walked. ;)

Paco will use one to paw at us…like, stretch it out, touch our toes or hands, as if he were a child tugging at us for it, lol. Also, if he's really worked up, agitated, or annoyed with us, he will sit back hard on his butt (which is unusual for him) and crank his head back until it looks like his neck might snap. It's such a crazy dog look that it gets my friends laughing every time he does it.

Good luck!

Is the leather lounge intact?

I know a couple of consultants for different companies, one from Mary Kay, who do very well by committing a lot of time to it and developing a large customer base with work, work, work. The same Mary Kay person, though, has had people tell her that they feel the way Mary Kay works is "unethical," "unfair," or other things, so make sure you do plenty of research and make sure that you don't see things that way before you start. People lose money when they enter any business venture and then back out, whether it's Mary Kay or any other kind of consulting career move.

Unfortunately, no. Water Island is my "the rest of the world doesn't exist" space, heh, so I tend not to bring a camera to distract me.

It was all fun for him, to be sure, lol. He wasn't bothered by the iguana one bit! :P

Hmm, Paco is my first dog, and for his first check up and round of vaccinations, and for his neutering, I was asked to drop him off and return later. I think because they have a LOT of animals to work with since there are few vets on the island. I never questioned it, and Paco always seemed happy and fine when I picked him up.

For his one-year follow-up and vaccinations, they asked ME to bring him into the back when I came in, which surprised me. They had me do a lot of the handling, and when he got nervous while having his stool sample taken, they put a muzzle on him and took over the handling. I actually didn't like being in the room - I felt like Paco would be thinking, "Mom, why are you letting them DO this to me?!?!" I also don't know if I would know any "better" way for him to be handled than the way he was being handled…so I'd feel like a nuisance if I said, for example, "I know he's being difficult, but do you really have to squeeze him against yourself that way to make it easier to give him the injection?"

Maybe a lot of people are like me, so you have to ask if you want to go back there?

Today was to be a day of many firsts for Paco.

I anticipated that he may get a bit nervous with all of the going-ons, so I brought some cheese (a favorite treat) and hoped that I'd be able to keep him calm until we got to the highlight of the day: a secluded beach away from roads, with only one exit, which made me feel safe about letting him off-leash. What's more, he'd have a good friend, Bondo, who he'd played with before at puppy socials, to romp with.

I had my fingers crossed.

But, there were hurdles to overcome. First, we'd have to catch a ferry to Water Island, an island that is less than one square mile, populated by people who drove mostly golf carts to get around, and slowly at that, as the roads are very narrow and windy and you never had any idea if someone would be coming around the next corner in the opposite direction. Even if Paco got away and onto a road, the chances of him getting hurt were s-l-i-m.

But, the ferry. Paco, being a Basenji, hates water. He's never been on a boat. What would it be like? Would he panic? Spook?

I carried him onto the ferry, instructed him to "sit," and gave him cheese when he did so. More cheese for good measure…and...

The boat engine started, we left the dock, and we had a successful, uneventful ride!

Now...arrival on Water Island. We would be meeting the owner of Bondo and getting a ride to the beach. We'd be riding in...yup...a golf cart. Another first for Paco.

He gets in; he and Bondo squirm around together, wanting to play already, but we get them seated...and...

Successful golf cart ride! Paco even stuck his head out the side to enjoy the breeze.

And now, the beach. Only a couple of close calls with the one beach exit, both which were averted by using my new recall technique: blow a whistle, Paco comes, he gets cheese. Bondo got in on it, too. I've been practicing this for days with Paco just for today, and it worked out wonderfully. Paco and Bondo ran laps up and down the beach for hours and hours, taking breaks once in a while, until they collapsed in holes they dug in the shade and were finally all burnt out.

I couldn't have been happier for Paco.

But the adventure wasn't over yet.

We wanted to bring them to a beach where Bondo's owner's friends were. There weren't many people there, and we knew the dogs were all worn out and perfectly friendly. With all the good recall they were doing, what could go wrong?

...famous last words.

They did fine for a while, getting called back twice when they meandered a little too far for comfort. On the third time, though, only Bondo came back. Paco looked back, and decided it would be more fun to take a turn around a building on the beach, so I went to look for him.

After a couple of minutes, and managing to follow the sound of his jingling tags, I found him

...in the middle of shaking an iguana to death.

eeeeeeeek

I couldn't get to him, as my shoes weren't on and he was through some brush (Paco had already had an encounter with a cactus for the day - I wasn't about to make the same mistake). I called, I whistled, I held out my hand as if I had cheese, but he was deaf to anything but the sound of that poor iguana smacking the sides of his face and ears as he shook and shook and shook...

I ran back to grab some treats, shoes, and his leash. By the time I came back, the iguana was lying dead in the bush, and Paco was playing with the still-twitching tail.

eeeeeeek

I held out a treat, he got close, I leashed him, and leashed he stayed for the rest of that beach trip, heh. Paco was very, very proud though, and was definitely showing off his blood-spattered white legs and chest.

Bleh!

He's fresh out of the shower, now. I wonder if he'd have attacked the iguana if he had known it was sure to lead to a wash-down? :P

A wonderful view, and a very handsome B :)

Paco has eaten grass, but I almost think it's purposeful to make himself vomit, because it happens every time, and seems to happen after he's eaten our neighbor's Pedigree dog food…

Paco eats Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul; it's the only thing besides Pedigree we can find on St. Thomas. He occasionally gets raw or cooked chicken or beef if we don't finish what we've prepared for dinner, and also will sometimes get scrambled eggs in the morning if we're feeling generous.

For treats, mostly hot dog pieces, bits of cheese, or maybe bits of cold cuts.

We tried to teach Paco to "speak" when we were training him, but it was hopeless.

I now find that he yodels when I let him in the kitchen while I cook, and he wants what I'm cooking. Sometimes he'll wait patiently thinking that he'll get some food if he's sitting quietly the whole time, and then starts yodeling while we're eating and he doesn't get any.

Also, having a lot of people over, or a new person over, especially someone who doesn't pay much attention to him, gets him going.

@agilebasenji:

Odd because the other dog show (the one with the English lady, Victoria something or other) does not have that disclaimer. Ask yourself why do CM techniques need such a disclaimer?

Victoria Stilwell; the show is called "It's Me or the Dog," and it plays on Animal Planet.

I absolutely adore the show and watch it almost every weekend. We've used some of her techniques to train Paco and they've worked well.

Ayo has gotten so big and beautiful! It's nice to see him hanging out with the family. :)

What a face in the November picture! She looks like a lot of fun. :)

@renaultf1:

I came away from it thinking that I have 3 that could be well trained to recall and 1 that probably never could. I've since been working on recall training. The one I have my doubts about being trained reliable to recall goes into a whole other zone mentally when running or chasing and no food/treat/anything of any type is important when that zone has been entered. If there was another dog around, she might likely run to that dog (to say hello), but if there was no other dog about, she would be gone I'm afraid.

What kind of things helped you to come to that decision? I want to take Paco to a beach on Water Island (a tiny island nearby where they drive golf carts on the roads) to try and start recall training him. It's a beach surrounded by cliffs, so there's nowhere for him to go except out the one entryway into the beach, so I feel it's relatively safe as long as I'm near the entrance to try to keep him from running out that way.

I was going to bring a bunch of cut-up hot dogs and a whistle. Whistle, treat, whistle, treat, whistle, treat, and expand the length of time in between whistles such that he can have time to explore in between being called back. He is trained to sit, lay down, stay, jump up on things, get off of things, etc. and will "come"….but all of this is only if he knows you have a treat for him.