Hi Hoot,
Welcome to the forum. I wanted to introduce myself to you because I too adopted a dog for the same reasons. I wanted a companion for my Golden Retriever who is also my service dog. He had gained a lot of weight during a period where I was sick with my MS. I decided to go to our local shelter and found my baby Taz. He had a great personality and got along well with my Golden "Levi" . I too did not know what kind of dog he was until my BF figured it out. All we knew was that he was hound/terrier mixed. Little did I know he was Basenji or even what a Basenji was. I learned quickly. lol.. He too likes to chew a lot and we have to put everything out of his reach, especially cell phones (from experience) He won't mess with the remote control though. He does like to table surf and will take anything from gloves to mail to cellphones off the tables. He is a very loveable dog though. He loves to be in my lap and is a leaner. You will probably find she is very cat like as it is a trait of basenji's. My Taz likes to lean up against me when i am getting ready in the bathroom or when I am standing around. He is very partial to me though he loves my BF (not sure why) but he doesn't sit with him unless I am out of the room. I have to put baby gates up to keep him from going into the kitchen or from going upstairs to table surf in the bathroom or bedrooms or keep the doors shut. You will find baby gates very helpful. Also you will find that keeping lots and lots of chew toys around will be very helpful to keep her attention off of things she shouldn't chew. We use Nylabones for powerful chewers and they love pigs ears and will take them a while to chew them. Kongs are great as well because they can chew them and not destroy them as they tend to do to other softer plastic toys. I have also found he loves tennis balls and won't destroy them as well. He is fully crate trained but will sleep in the bed with me when my BF is not here. They are very playful as well. Females do tend to try to be more dominant but being a dominant person can offset that problem. Here are some pics of my Taz and you can see they look very much alike. Taz's tail is curled but not nearly as much as a full Basenji. His ears also tip more like a terrier as well. He sheds very little though when I brought him home he was shedding very bad and I don't know if it was stress related to him being at the shelter or if it was just his diet. I feed him purina pro plan sensitve stomach and skin formula which consist of salmon, brewers rice and oatmeal which are very healty for them and keeps their fur shiney and their skin healthy as well as their stomachs. You will find though the longer you have her you will fall in love with Basenjis. I hope you enjoy her and have lots of fun.
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New Basenji Owner
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How old is she??? Just wondering because even if you can't get the DNA test immediately, you can still strip test her for signs of fanconi. If she is three years or older it is best to do it at least once a month. There is a website that gives details on how to do this… http://www.barkless.com/guide/strip.htm
And by the way, we are glad to have you on the Basenji Forums. Feel free to ask questions, Basenjis are a wonderful and amazing breed!!! We would love to see some pictures of your little one…
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Welcome, let me know if you need any advice to help you with your b's.
Also, we love photos, if you can do them. -
Congrats on adopting Reba! Do you know what happened to her puppies?
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Best of Luck with your new companion! Pictures pleeeeeese!!!!!!
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Congratulations on letting a basenji steal your heart. You'll find lots of fantastic advice and heart-warming stories here, lots of breeders and rescue people and just plain basenji lovers. We are all passionately involved with our beasties so feel free to come for help.
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Hello and welcome to the forum!! Please post some pics, we love them!
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Hi, welcome!
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She is now about a year and a half. When we first brought her home, she was way too skinny. The shelter's vet said that it was from a compination of her not being fed enough by her past owners and having puppies when she was too young to. The vet had stated that while dogs go into heat as young as 6 months, they should never have puppies before they are a full year and a half old. It took us almost two months to get her up to a healthy weight because she is soooo active. Which is great for playing with our son who is nine, but makes weight gain hard…I usually go for a 2-mile walk with her every morning, then after Aaron gets home from school the two of them run outside for about an hour and a half playing "Reba tag" and fetch...she still seems to have energy to burn though. While it is rough to get out of bed to go for a walk, it keeps her from being distructive while I am at work...
We have also discovered she has a nose that you cannot hide anything from. We have a colony of feral cats that we care for (we live on an old farm that backs up to a boyscout camp, which causes our biggest problem of people dumping cats...of course this is how Reba came to us since we were working with the rescue to have cats spayed and neutered -- my never ending project -- when we found her). Anyway she finds all of the cats "trophies", so she needs to be watched very close when outside lol. She listens pretty good when you tell her to leave it. She drops what ever she has right away, but when you take it off her, you must throw it somewhere she cannot get or she will just go get the trophy again...lol.
I will have to have the vet do a test for Fanconi Syndrome.
All of her puppies have gone to their furever homes. Many of them had been adopted before we found Reba, they were just waiting to be big enough to go home without mommy. I have to say I was not surprised since I know most people want the cute little puppies and not the old mom. We were actually looking for a slightly older dog as I was hoping not to deal with some puppy issues like teething and house breaking so it worked out perfect for us. Aaron had been bugging us for a new dog since Buffy, our cocker spaniel, and Brandy my Bermise Mountain Dog and Border Collie mix had passed (Buffy was about 15 years old and Brandy was a few weeks short of 20). After Buffy died, Brandy went down hill fast.
We had a rough first month as she was so afraid of everyone and everything. I suspect she may have been abused (and by a woman because she was more scared of women then men). Anytime you picked something up she cowered like she thought you were going to hit her, which broke my heart. I don't understand how people can do those things.
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Please note that your Vet can not test for Fanconi. It is a DNA cheek swab test. You need to register her with CPP, order the test kit from OFA and then return. Please go to www.basenjihealth.org for details of the DNA Fanconi test
Would love to see pictures
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Yes, photos please and thank your taking her in and building her thin body up.
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I was struck by the fact that your Bernese lived to be 20 years old! Wow! I know they have had concerns with cancer in the breed, and very few of them live that long. How wonderful for you that you got to have her for that long.
Terry