I’m probably crazy but I’m thinking about a basenji. Does anyone have them? Know them? Know anything about them??
What do you think you would like about a Basenji?
What are you looking for in a dog?
I have 2 aussies now, but I don’t think my boy is long for this world. Maybe another year, but probably the end of summer. He had a very tough time this winter.
I like the B’s quirkiness 
Their independant cat-like nature, the lack of barking but full vocal range that they “speak” in. Their smaller size (than the aussie).
Do you have cats or small animals? Would the Basenji be a house or combination house/farm dog?
Do you want a dog that is obedient and wants to do things with you and for you?
Since you have 2 Aust. Shep. you must like that breed, what about the Aussies attracted you to them?
My parents had Basenjis while I was growing up. They are different dogs, for sure. It’s quite difficult to explain their ‘yodel’ to someone who hasn’t heard it!
Sadly the one I remember most had an awful temperament. He had a very short temper, and if something upset him he would trash things (plants, doors, furniture…), and he also bit two people horribly. The second incident caused us to have him PTS - it was my brother’s young friend who was helping me get up after I had fallen off my bike. Yes - he was ‘protecting’ me, so it was an awful thing to do, but he was too unpredictable and too much of a liability to have with young kids around.
I do remember my parents saying that the one basenji we had was in fact very sweet and that they had her at the wrong time, as we were young kids then and they had limited time for the dog.
On the whole I’d say they’re very ‘quirky’, but not always in a great way. If you’re still interested in them you should read the book ‘Call of the Marsh’ by Jill Wylie.
I rescued a dog from a Georgia gassing shelter to foster and rehome, it was told to me he was a rat terrier and he kind of looked like one in the picture. When he arrived I was totally baffled, he was blue and white, not black and white! Brilliant dog, bit someone in front of our house, but became a family, boy’s dog after he settled in. I think he was living semi feral in Georgia. I would have another in a heartbeat. If you watch this, you probably will too. It is a tear jerker.
http://www.amazon.com/Good-bye-Lady-VHS-Walter-Brennan/dp/6302816599
I do love the aussies, and I would never get rid of them but I am having a hard time with allergies and their hair.
I would like a dog that is a little more independent than the aussies. I like that they want to be with me but they are vacuum sealed to my hip all the time. My girl has a great personality, but my boy not so much. I love him, and I knew what I was getting when I got him (he was 4) but he is a lot of work.
I hope for a dog that will travel well, and be OK with being home for a few hours alone every day (5 or 6). I go for 1+ hour walks every day, in nice weather twice a day. I can take my girl to the farm, but not my boy so if the dog wasn’t a barn dog that wouldn’t bother me in the least. I want a house dog.
I know of two breeders of basenjis that eventually went to another breed to have competition dogs, kept their basenjis strictly for conformation shows.
Basenjis are not very amenable to work with people and get along like most other dogs.
Independent doesn’t even come close, they are just not into people much.
I have always wanted one, but everyone, including breeders, discouraged me, if I wanted a dog to do things with.
Now, a dog just to have around for entertainment and that will learn the basics, so you can live with it, that they are fine.
Most of them just are not that good to work with people.
I had a basenji for some days, found him on the highway and he was wonderful and I was going to keep him, but someone called AC, where I had him reported as found and it was his dog after all, sadly.
When he was picking him up, he had two others at home also, said that he had a 7’ solid wood, tall fence, but he still got out, he was an escape artist.
Basenjis are sure very eye appealing.
Basenji’s are tough, tough dogs. They aren’t going to be a little independent, basically you will not exist to a Basenji unless they want something from you 
They are also escape artists, not obedient, territorial, can be aggressive to other dogs as well as people and make their own rules.
Picture a cat in a dog suit. You know how cats will jump up on the counters, tables, back of the sofa, etc.? A Basenji will do the exact same thing! If you have food, napkins, mail, the remote control, etc. on the table/counter the cat will sniff it and keep going, the Basenji will grab it, play with it and ‘kill’ it.
They are primitive hounds and have been bred to be independent, resourceful and efficient hunters. They kill small animals quickly and efficiently. They can never be allowed off lead, they will bolt out open doors and gates at every opportunity.
The Basenji breed club describes the breed as follows:
having an “active and inquisitive mind that is easily bored, they are into everything. The Basenji is a breed that isn’t good at home alone with nothing to do, they are extremely active, is a breed that has a strong sense of what he thinks is wrong and right, he can be stubborn and conveniently ‘hard of hearing’. Requires extra socialization to avoid aggression, the Basenji may or may not like your friends, howls and SCREAMS very loudly when unhappy or lonely.”
This is all taken from the Basenji Club of America website.
Below are two contacts for Basenji’s in Ontario, contact them and pick their brain about the breed.
Lynn Arrand
Canada - Ontario
mankia@mnsi.net
(519) 735-2568
Carol McGrogan
Canada - Ontario
dalji@golden.net
(519) 472-3644
Have you been to the Basenji Club website https://basenji.org/joomla/ ? They actually have an entire section titled “Basenji U” to educate people about the breed.
Here is a great article on the breed: http://www.basenjirescue.org/BRAT_Info/DogWorld.htm
They are truly not a breed that most people who love dogs enjoy.
You want my mini aussie. She has a great personality, not a thick coat and she is not a velcro dog. However she does like to do things with me. She is ok at the barn on a tie out at my trailer while I ride-sleeps under the trailer. She is good in her kennel and other than having a thing for getting things out of the recycling bin she is a good girl. She also has a thing for my horse’s ear pompoms. She loves to get them out of the trailer and carry them around. She loves to ride in the car and has been on a riding weekend to the beach and is going to the mountains with me and the horse in June. I personally want a dog that wants to be with me, not so independant that it could give a rip. I thnk Basenjis are nice looking dogs, but they certainly wouldn’t fit in my life from the description.
PLEASE contact ZinniaZ on UDBB. She is a great breeder of Basenjis and would be a good resource for you!
[QUOTE=Rhyadawn;6225590]
I do love the aussies, and I would never get rid of them but I am having a hard time with allergies and their hair.
I would like a dog that is a little more independent than the aussies. I like that they want to be with me but they are vacuum sealed to my hip all the time. My girl has a great personality, but my boy not so much. I love him, and I knew what I was getting when I got him (he was 4) but he is a lot of work.
I hope for a dog that will travel well, and be OK with being home for a few hours alone every day (5 or 6). I go for 1+ hour walks every day, in nice weather twice a day. I can take my girl to the farm, but not my boy so if the dog wasn’t a barn dog that wouldn’t bother me in the least. I want a house dog.[/QUOTE]
If you are having problems with allergies, basenjis may not be for you, as they lick themselves all the time and so add the allergens in dog saliva to their coat and on in the environment, adding to the oils in dogs that also carry the allergens that those of us allergic to dogs react to.
That also was a reason they discouraged me from basenjis, they were hard to keep clean enough, as we can other breeds.
Aussies are some of the dogs that tend to cause the most allergies, I had a terrible time with mine, just riding in the pickup with me and I was sneezing and my eyes were swelling and I kept her as clean as I could.
When allergies are a problem, then you have to be even more selective about the dog you get, if you want to breathe.
A solution for me has been a dog I can keep wiped down with a damp towel or commercial wet cloths like “Wet Ones” for baby bottoms, look for some you are not allergic to.
You may be able to live with a very clean dog of breeds you react to less.
The worst for me are GSD, ACD, corgy, sprinter spaniels and aussies.
Then, I got a dobie puppy once I was so allergic to, in ten days of having her, I ended up at the Drs with an asthma attack.
The other dobies I was barely allergic to them.
So, it is not just the breed, but the individual dog.
Good luck with whatever you find.:yes:
How about a Standard Poodle? They have a lot of hair, but with the need to clip them regularly it might not bother you as much.
And I second what Pcostx said, because I worked with a man who had a bunch of Basenjis he showed, and eventually he switched breeds. He liked to teach obedience classes (free through the local kennel club) and Basenjis laugh at obedience training. Plus, because of the small population they used to have lots of health issues, and I don’t know if importing more breeding stock helped with this or not. Of course, my acquaintance had Basenjis before the breeding influx, and I don’t know if changing to Pappilions (sorry if I misspelled that) was an improvement. My friend and his wife always had five or so of their own dogs, but they were very involved in fosters for rescue so their house looked like a total zoo sometimes. Every breed has it’s pros and cons, but you have to find the ones that are the best fit for you and the dog. ANd don’t forget all of the dogs are individuals, even from the same breeding. My two Min. Schauzers were different temperaments, and got along great with each other, but because they were at very different ages they were almost like different breeds. When the right dog comes along you’ll know it.
aussies are so far away removed from the basenji personality that I don’t think you would like them. It sounds like you want a poodle. Non-allergenic, very trainable, but not as “clingy” as an aussie.
I am a long time volunteer with Basenji Rescue and Transport (BRAT - www.basenjirescue.org ) and own three of my own and have a foster in the house most of the time, too. There are excellent resources on both the Basenji Club of America and the BRAT websites about the pluses and minuses of the breed. They are certainly not the dog for everyone. I would suggest visiting someone who owns Basenjis or a Basenji breeder listed on the Basenji Club of America website and interacting with the dogs yourself.
The import of new breeding stock from Africa in the late 1980s/early 1990s has contributed greatly to the improvement numerous health and temperament issues in the breed. My eldest Basenji, 16 year old Ellie, is the granddaughter of one of those imports.
While Basenjis can be aloof, my pack is very affectionate and strongly bonded to me. With strangers, Ellie is polite but not outgoing, but my boys (9 year old Taj, who I raised from a pup, and 11 year old Tag, who I adopted from BRAT last year) are fairly sociable. They all sleep with me in bed at night and keep pretty close track of where I am when I’m home without being excessively needy (unless it’s close to dinner or snack time, LOL, then they do everything they can think of to inspire me to go to the kitchen and serve them).
There is a lot of individual variation in Basenjis’ personalities, of course, but of the ten or so Basenjis I’ve fostered over the past several years, only one did not form a affectionate bond with me, and she had come from a very bad puppy mill situation. I’ve pulled Basenjis from area shelters on BRAT’s behalf numerous times, and many of wind up riding in my lap for much of the drive home.
I could go on about Basenjis all day (LOL!), so feel free to PM me if you have further questions.
I am SO glad to hear someone with actual experience talking about their basenjis. My limited experience with them is NOTHING like what people have said. But my experience was too limited to really say what the dogs are really like.
My one and only interaction with a Basenji who was a mix, was that he was incredibly intelligent and very affectionate. Not needy but a steady and loyal friend. That is what I liked about him. Also, the first time we took him out to a park with my other dogs (and he was very good with them from the beginning, not easy dogs either with a male JRT and an alpha female Lab), he ran off. He had gone into the rest room with me at the park on a leash, but I decided to give him off leash time and he took off like a bolt. I thought I lost him, we jumped in the truck to look for him and circled back to the parking lot, he was coming out of the restroom when we came back and came right back and jumped in the truck. Like I said, I would have another in an instant.
I think they are beautiful, and I like catlike self-sufficient independence. I don’t want a dog snuffling in my hair and legs all of the time. When I checked back with the adopters to make sure that he was working out, he was already a well loved member and liked to go fishing in the boat with the man of the house.
I’ll echo chancellor that zinniaz is a great resource.
I’ve been around a very limited number of basenjis. My mother has one from zinniaz’s breeding and he is a stellar little man. Very gregarious and sweet and constantly asking for love (and warmth) from the humans around him. Definitely into trouble at times, but not standoffish at all. I think it really depends on how the dog is bred and how it is raised. Things have not always been smooth, but with proper instruction and help when needed, he’s been a good boy.
She is beyond thrilled with her dog, but then our last dog was a husky. Also a breed known for independence… 
rfath and I had an experience with two basenjis a couple weeks ago. I wouldn’t call them standoffish at ALL! Would you?
hahah! no, two puppies barreling at total strangers?!
(of course, they WERE following the ferocious pit bull greeting…)
