Basenjis: A Review
Some Basenjis yodel a lot... but my dog has yodeled maybe 10 times in his entire life. He has barked maybe 5 times. He is a very quiet Basenji. When he was younger, he used to squeal when he was upset. Our neighbor thought we had a pig because he would squeal when we left the house. He outgrew that pretty quick though. The no barking thing has completely spoiled me. I don't know if I could even handle another breed now. Whenever I go to a friend's house, and they have a barky dog, I just think "Oh yeah, this is what it's like having a normal dog." I still love most dogs, but now I prefer quieter dogs.
When he was younger, he was a pretty good jumper and climber. He stayed in the yard mostly, but he could get over our high fence if he tried. I saw him climb over it a couple of times. He killed and ate rabbits when he was younger as well. Unlike most dogs that would probably kill a rabbit and play with it, Q would kill it and wolf down the whole thing as fast as he could and then get sick. Before we had Q, we had a German Shorthaired Pointer (Bowser, he was a sweet dog), and that dog never killed anything or found anything in our yard. Q found all kinds of stuff in the yard because the primitive nature of the Basenji is to hunt to survive.
I mentioned before that he sneaks up on his water dish. A lot of Basenji owners have told me their dogs do the same thing. It makes sense because in Africa, the watering hole is the most dangerous place. You could get eaten by a crocodile or a lion! He is a pretty cautious dog on many levels. He doesn't eat unfamiliar things without thoroughly inspecting them first, and if he wants to go out at night, he sticks his head out the door to smell for coyotes. If it seems too dangerous, he comes and gets someone to escort him.
Other than that stuff, he's just crazy smart, which is a Basenji trait. He doesn't hear very well anymore, but when he did, he knew A LOT of words. We tried to count all the words he knows, and we stopped after 100. One time I gave him a rawhide stick, and he acted like he was too good to eat it, so I simply said "I'm going to give that to the kitty," and he looked at me like he was thinking about it for a few seconds, and picked it back up and chewed it up.
He has definitely been the most interesting pet I've ever had, and I think I'm probably going to have Basenjis from here on out. I recommend them to people who like cats, because they're kind of cat-like in their personalities. But they do require a lot of attention when they are young because they have a lot of energy, and if you don't spend enough time with them, they will get mad and destroy your house when you aren't home. They have to be trained pretty thoroughly and exercised a lot. Great dogs if you are an active person though!
