So I was out at my first lure coursing trial this weekend and came home to feel very sad/upset, like an outcast.

Does anyone have the answer to this question…..why do Bs not like whippets. The club I belong to is majority whippets (of course!), the first or second day I attended a practice with them Heix kind of snarled at one of the whippets. I gave him heck and they said "don't worry, Basenjis don't like whippets!"

This weekend at lure coursing every time someone walked by me and Helix with a whippet they were like, "no, leave it, that's a Basenji", "no you can't play, that's a Basenji", "oh I didn't know there was a Basenji laying there, otherwise I would not have let the puppy go over there,"..........every time, "NO THAT'S A BASENJI" (I'm glad people know their dog breeds!). No one wanted to sit with me and talk b/c Helix was with me. I felt like I had the black plaque or something. One moment in the afternoon one of the ladies standing in front of me talking w/ a couple other ladies, blurted out, "Basenjis are nasty creatures, they have the personality of a terrier!" :mad: Cow, did she not realize I was right there. She's a freak anyways. Everytime Helix looks, sneezes, walks, runs…etc up to her whippets, she literally hurls herself onto her whippets to protect them from the mean nasty Helix- screeches, "no, get away". No wonder there are no other Bs in the club except for mine and another ladies….everyone else in the city was shunned and did not come back! One whippet owner put it a little nicer, she said, "Basenjis have this bubble around them and nothing is allowed to penitrate the bubble, the bubble protects dog and owner! It was a cute way of putting it! But still...I just think someone had a bad experience between their whippet and a B and has now blown it all out of proportion. If you allow the behavior to happen, the issue will never resolve itself. A correction has to made for the bad behaviour! :rolleyes:

I also practice the same corrections as one of the other ladies on here mentioned...
If Helix approaches another dog and I see the hair on his back stand up, I immediately make him sit and wait- that is always my first indicator that he is not approaching friendly. This weekend he did good practicing that for the most part. He approached a whippet and an ibizhan hound, seen his hair stand up, made him sit, he gave them a little "hello" yodel and stayed sitting waiting patiently, hoping that they would come over to him to say hello but after 2min of him waiting, the owners would not let the dogs approach. The other thing I do too is to tell him to "leave it" and it could be anything.....dog, food, garbage, and pull the leash in towards me and he ignores it.

I just had to get that out b/c it really ticked me off. I understand they do not get along, but could they just simply say, "no, leave it". Rather than constantly reinforcing the obvious!

A little side note....if they were worried about their dogs getting hurt or eaten, I could have let our 12 year old B- Metinga- loose on them....she's the alpha and the scrapper in our family!!!!:D

Rhonda Sitter (mom of Helix and Metinga)

@Barklessdog:

Do any of you find one dog destroying another one's favorite toys out of spite?
we have to hide our male dogs favorite toys because the female gets jeoulous and will later carry them off and rip them apart, but not her favorite toys.

Yes I have noticed this actually with our female. I don't know if it is out of jelousy, spite or what but she always just wants to pull the stuffing out of everything. Our male takes a particular interest in a stuffed squeeky toy and all she wants to do is rip it apart and pull out the squeeker. So I am always pulling toys away from her and giving them back to him to play with b/c I don't want her wrecking them for him!

Tang and Helix's mom..:)

@Capt_Jack_our_Basenji:

Well, i guess im lucky for now, Jack isnt interested in ripping anything except HIS blanket, and ONLY when hes angry or REALLY excited (when we play). and he gets corrected when he does that (and i catch him) lol. He also gets these random Surges of energy and does a little jump circle thing or rolls hid head in a circle. (LOL) hes so weird sometimes, MUST be a Basenji thing, I wouldnt understand…

Yes, I have to agree it is all a B thing…... Metinga does the jump circles too and both her and Helix do the head spins/stands. Helix rips up only our blanket, not his and that's usually b/c he is teasing Metinga -Tang hates it when he pulls on the quilt- she barks and snaps at him, that only gets him excited and encourages him more- until I put a stop to it as well!

Helix and Metang's mom:)

@dash:

Jodie, I wanted to add to make sure Lillie is well exercised. Dash chews mostly when he has not got to run that day. Other wise he is passed out asleep.

I completely agree….. a good Basenji is a tired Basenji!:D
I always know when our 2 have not had enough exercise.......they are restless and get into everything!:D

Helix and Metinga's mom

Helix is a chewer/shredder. Metinga is just a shredder.
Metinga likes to ripe up: kleenexs, toilet paper, paper towel, stuffed squeeky toys (but primarily just wants the squeeker), garbage bags (mostly w/the garbage in it). Will chew beef chews and bully sticks if Helix starts on it first (she had 8 teeth extracted and can not chew really hard items).

Helix on the other hand gets into everything (I think it is a puppy/adolesent thing!): one year ago when we first got him he chewed on the corners of our wood bed and the drawer handles of the tallboy that my grandpa made. Good thing they had no stain on them b/c I just sanded the surface smooth again. However the nightstands my grandpa also made was not as easy to fix. Helix chewed and pulled an entire corner off one of them. I spent half an hour one day trying to glue pieces back on. To solve that little chewing problem I douced it all in Bitter Yuck. I have to agree w/them there- it is yuck (I accidentally inhaled some of it myself):p He has not chewed wood since!
His list of destruction is as follows: any kind of paper and paper products, plastic garbage cans (our Umbra bathroom garbage can has broken pieces all around the rim of the can!), plastic pop bottles (he has this thing w/chewing the caps off), this could be a very long list, so to sum it up: paper products, any kind of plastic products (toothbrushes too), foam and fiberfill products (quilts, pillows, his dog bed, mattress….)

When we got Metinga at 5yrs of age, we could not understand how her teeth could be so worn down and broken, but now that I see how Helix chews it is understandable. So I watch close attention to what he chews so his teeth do not end up as bad as hers. That's why when they are restless I give them beef chews, it keeps them out of trouble and out of my hair!:D

I don't give them rawhides anymore now that I had discovered beef chews. Rawhides they always end up choking and gagging it back up, beef chews there is no gagging or choking.

Rhonda- Helix and Tang's mom

That's awsome! She's a little cutie. The reporter is very funny!

Rhonda- Helix and Tang's mom:)

All 3 of our dogs lick lotion. Winzer (who has no departed- lab/staf mix) used to always lick the lotion from my hands. Sometimes I could not rub it in fast enough before he tried to lick it all off.

Helix always licks my hands when I put lotion on. His main fetish is water though. Everyday just as I'm getting out of the shower he is there already waiting and ready to do his duty. Tanga comes in shortly after that, then I have both licking me dry. When the last bit of wet spots start running out, there is usually a dispute between the 2 of them to see who gets to finish. I feel like property and a battle is raging on to see who will conquer and defeat.:D

Lissthor: your girl- Athena, not liking your eucalyptus lotion- does it smell kind of minty? Helix gives me this funny face when I have a cold and bring out the Buckley's rub. He sniffs it and pushes up his nose and gives a little "yuk" lick and walks away. It's funny:p

Rhonda- Helix and Tang's mom

This is all too funny!:)
When we got Metinga (our 1st B) 5yrs ago, we used to get stopped quite a lot with ppl asking "what kind of dog is she, she's very pretty". One day I had a man at the dog park ask me "is she a Dingo", I said no close relative though.
Now a days I have found more ppl recognize the breed here in Calgary. They still ask but more now say "what beautiful Basenjis".

As far as other Bs go, I have met a few more ppl w/Bs here in Calgary. Helix and Metinga had there first try at lure coursing a month ago. We met a lady that had 2 female Bs and they live 5min away from us,….who'd a thought!:eek: Apparently there are others that attend practice but were not out that day. One Sunday I went to our annual Dog Jog for the Humane Society and this couple came running up to me and said "we saw your 2 Bs and just had to come meet you!" They have a 3yr old, red/white male (who is a lot smaller than Helix). There has actually been quite a few Bs that we have seen and met out at the dog park we go to. One couple we met bought a 4mth old, red/white female from Petland Pet Store. I was both surprised and horrified all at the same time. They told me a local breeder was selling them to Petland!:mad: Another couple that we see out there has a little black/white female about 6-7mths old. A few years back before we got Helix, we met a lady out there that had an older female, red/white. Her B- Rosie, has since died. Had also seen a big male brindle, but have never seen him since.

All in all though, the number of Bs in Calgary is still quite low- about 6-12 or so.

Rhonda- Helix and Metang's mom:)

@vstripe:

I had read in the "Dog World" magazine from a couple years back about the B in The African Queen and rented it right away lol. Now I have to go rent Out Of Africa!
BTW if anyone happens to see another Basenji on the cover of a dog mag. could you post~Thanks

The September 2006 issue of "Dogs in Canada" has an article about Helix's breeder and the dogs she donates to PADS. Alas, it did not have a picture of Helix but was of her other school drop out B, Tanner. One of the "Dog World" issues about 1-2yrs ago had a B on the cover.

There is a quick scene of a B puppy in the movie " The Constant Gardener". A cute little red/white. There is another movie I read about in I think "Dog World" as well, called I believe "My Fair Lady" (a 1940/50's movie). Something really interesting as well, last fall during the season finale of "Heros" a McDonald's commercial came on and I believe a Basenji appeared in it. I have never seen this commercial since so I can not confirm this.

I think I will have to go rent "Out of Africa" and "African Queen" so I can look for the Bs as well!:)

Thanks,
Rhonda- Helix and Tang's mom:)

I would have to say our B's sound just as normal as everyone elses!
Tanga, I think chewed underwear when we first got her 5-6yrs ago. Now that she is older (and wiser!), she does not chew much of anything, except for fuzzy stuffed animals and all types of paper products made to man! One time though she did manage to chew and shred an entire rattan basket!

Helix on the other hand….since we got him a year ago, I think we've had to replace at least 3 dozen of my boyfriends underwear and about 2 dozen of mine. So we too have resorted to taller hampers. However, if we do not hide it, he somehow manages to get the underwear from the bottom of the hamper!:rolleyes:
Given the chance, he really likes to play with my padded bras! A few mornings have been spent chasing him around the room to get my bra back. He likes my soccer socks for some reason. I'm thinking it's b/c they have the shin guards in them too (he wants to chew the plastic).
One of the girls at work, everytime I talk about Helix, she asks "now what did he chew up!":eek:

Rhonda- Helix and Metang's mom:)

Hello all. I regret to say, I do not have any baby pics of Metinga as we got her when she was 5yrs old. I did have some pics of her that we posted on the "Basenji Magazine" on the photo gallery but that website does not seem to exist anymore. So I can not retrieve them.

However, Helix I do happen to have baby pics of thanks to his puppy raiser and the PADS website (we got him exactly one year ago this week).

I hope this works(I will be guessing at the time frames):
1. Helix at I think about 3mths of age
2.Helix at about age 4-5mths

Will have to post 2 current ones in next message but first have to try to resize them so the files fit.

Rhonda- Tang and Helix's mom

Hello all. I regret to say, I do not have any baby pics of Metinga as we got her when she was 5yrs old. I did have some pics of her that we posted on the "Basenji Magazine" on the photo gallery but that website does not seem to exist anymore. So I can not retrieve them.

However, Helix I do happen to have baby pics of thanks to his puppy raiser and the PADS website (we got him exactly one year ago this week).

I hope this works(I will be guessing at the time frames):
1. Helix at I think about 3mths of age
2.Helix at about age 4-5mths

Will have to post 2 current ones in next message but have to try to resize them so the file will fit.

Hello, I have some ideas for your stains. Everything these ladies have been saying is correct. Hairspray definately works for ink stains, it has been tried and tested many times by myself. It works on all fabric types from synthetics to vinyls and all polycotton and cotton blends. Just spray your carpet (I like to over spray usually) and take some carpet cleaner and it should wash out. The Tide pen is a miracle in it's self, I too have recently discovered. Spot shot works really good on most stains, it used to be a household necessity until we got our Hoover Steam Cleaner. No pet owner should be without one!:D

As far as the Basenji, good ol soap and water does the trick with some elbow grease! I am disgusted to say that my boyfriend one day decided he was going to give Tang a tatoo using a black sharpie marker. I got mad at him and took Metinga upstairs and washed her head until it came off. It did not take that long maybe about 10-15 min of washing and the white was good as new. I used a bit of dog shampoo as well.:D

Good evening:
I think I know what you are talking about. Our girl Metinga, has a hard tiny bump behind her right ear. When I first noticed it about a year or 2 ago, I thought the same thing. When I mentioned it to our vet I think we both agreed it was a mole or wart or something like that. It has never gotten any better or worse- is still the same when I first discovered it. I would probably mention it to your vet in the morning though just to be safe.

Rhonda, Tangs mom:)

Welcome Erik:
You are going to have so much fun with your new little one. Can't hardly wait to hear some of your funny stories to come as he grows up.:D
Waiting in antisipation for your photos,
Tanga:)

Trixie:
That video was very sad. But it is a hard reality!

Quercus:
Thanks. I will check her out. It's so hard to know whose technique or who the right trainer is when there are so many out there. I have also been watching "At the end of my leash" with trainer Brad Pattison.

"[ I strongly believe that genetic temperament is the foundation for behavior. You can have a dog that is dangerous and you can have done everything humanly possible to improve this dog's behavior, and you may not be successful. And dogs can be mentally ill just like humans….
Dogs are animals, animals can be very dangerous, particularly when we expect them to live in our families]"

I guess I live in a very optimist world and have been watching too much of the "Dog Whisperer"!:) Ceaser seems to think that every dog can possiblly be rehabilitated despite how bad the situation.

I too agree that dogs are animals and can be dangerous. I remind myself that our sweet little B's originally were somewhat feral dogs in Africa before they were domesticated. Now I also know too that temperments were improved on, but they still have their wild instincts I believe.:rolleyes:

@barkless513:

These dogs were bred to dog fight, I have been chased, cornered and flat out feared for my life and the life of my basenji and rat terrier, who by the way, seem to think they could take the pit. LOL .

I have, well my boyfriend had actually experienced this himself. I was not with them. But our female B (Metinga) actually fought off 2 pitbulls herself until my boyfriend and our other dog (Staf/lab mix) at the time jumped in and got them off of her. They had been out walking that night and the 2 dogs ran out of the house.

I too have come across 2 instances where we have actually pried Metinga off of other dogs: both times were dogs of my parents:( So I was very glad to be able to just grab Tang by the scruff and pull her back.

[These dogs were bred to dog fight, I have been chased, cornered and flat out feared for my life and the life of my basenji and rat terrier, who by the way, seem to think they could take the pit. LOL

I have, well my boyfriend had actually experienced this himself. I was not with them. But our female B (Metinga) actually fought off 2 pitbulls herself until my boyfriend and our other dog (Staf/lab mix) at the time jumped in and got them off of her. They had been out walking that night and the 2 dogs ran out of the house.

One other additional thought I had….....
Here is a prime example.....Ceaser Milan, I know we all know who he is, has a pitbull name "Daddy". Who if you watch the shows, this dog is a big kittycat. His full bio is posted on Dogster.