BASENJI
AFRICA DOG
information worth knowing about Basenjis
More than one Basenji
In 1980 we bought our first beautiful r/w Basenji male with a black mask from the breeder Mrs. Berta Burkert in Munich. In 1982 we decided to build a Basenji dog friendship with two un-castrated males. We bought another r/w male with a black mask .
d’Casa Regina Enzio d’Casa Regina Fucino Kalulu
A friendship was born between Enzio and Fuzzy, which lasted several years in contradiction to all prior warnings about Basenji males. The fundamental opinion was to cohabit only a male and a female dog. It’s true there is no easy going with more than one dog. In retrospect I can say that much good luck was at play when I decided to throw caution to the wind and boldly, being not a breeder, elected to keep two uncastrated males. My husband and I experienced with great happiness the emergence and fulfillment of a Basenji dog friendship. But it is clear that Basenjis love to have a companion. Basenjis are dogs to live in the middle of action or to be in a pack .They should not have to be alone for several hours at home.
How does a Basenji dog friendship come about?
The new one
In the case of dogs of an unequal age, the older dog will not under any circumstances accept the younger one happily or right away. There can be many reasons for this. 1. Old household privileges which cause jealousy. 2. The older dog is no longer accustomed to living in a pack. Man has become the exclusive pack-partner which is, in fact, an unnatural situation for the dog. Other reasons are not as serious and can be learned by each dog owner after studying the behavior of his dogs. For a time the two-year-old behaved like a puppy and I therefore also treated him like one. The dogs played together, but there was always an underlying need in their games to determine dominance between the two.
They played the Game as Help for survival
The dominant Basenji shows the survival strategy
At the end of the fight starts the begin of a Basenji Dog Friendship, this is a good way for a successful friendship. The deciding day came when the elder one adopted the younger, learned his father role and lead the pack. At play, the younger learned the behavior, necessary for survival. He learned subordination, which also included providing grooming service to the elder dog. I made it into a fun game. I would say: clean his eyes! And a devoted cleaning process of the eyes would begin.
My first dog friendship lasted throughout the dogs lives. My dogs died aged 14 ½ and 13 ½ . They suffered from cancer. When the cancer treatment didn’t work I had to make my decision. I had promised the dogs they wouldn’t have to suffer. I missed them very much for a long time. Saying "Goodbye" Author Sally Wallis
My old Basenjis Enzio and Fucino d' Casa Regina
The new Ones
1995 my husband and I decided to buy a new Basenji pack to continue our hobby. We bought two males Mokoondi’s Azande and Angori, littermates, from the breeder, Mrs. Dagmar Wagner.
We found out that littermates were very good companions from the beginning of their life . The two had a wonderful playtime and Basenji training together with their dog parents. The breeder trained them well to live in a family. Since 02. 1996 these beautiful littermates belong to me, Mokoondi’s Azande a wonderful tricolour Basenji male and Mokoondi’s Angori a wonderful red and white male.
The little dogs share any nonsense and they have a lot of silly ideas.
It's hard work to train two puppies of the same age, much more than a younger and older one. The overriding rule, which I have discovered, is that both dogs must be handled simultaneously. They must be fed bowl to bowl next to each other, petted one on the left, one on the right, and with some skill both taken simultaneously up on the lap for play, little Monsters they are. They were given a big basket to share but each one owned several small baskets.
Little monsters became good friends
Invitation to play with basenjis as guests
It's a lot of fun to watch them play.
