The Rip Van Wrinkler, XX, Issue 3, August 2016
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Training Conversation
Enduring quote: Lotte Hotaling, "I don't know about Basenjis being difficult to train, but it is not at all difficult for them to train their humans."
Scroll down for:
Agility not so much for basenjis in the heat.
Lure coursing CAT test photos, because they are kewl!
Joe Stewart's Turkey Vulture photos
AKC Invitational Basenjis and Lifetime Top 25 lists.
Occhi & Natlie in 2002
Susan Marsicano
Fern is sitting behind me on my swivel office chair, having settled the matter of the business of doing agility when it is H O T. She isn't the first of my dogs to tell me about how they don't do this. I remember M at Sugar Bush not being able to do even one jump, or how M et al hated the trial at H.I.T in Saugerties when the shiny sand reflected the beating sun back at them, so they were sandwiched between underfoot and overhead.
I took Fernie to Skyline's horse barn (lovely grounds, wonderful judge, what I thought very doable courses) and outside, very early today it was almost 95. Inside the barn, Fern walked around the 2 courses. Overtime. Indeedles. Yesterday it was 85ish, and Fern "ran" clean, mostly a slow lope. Not agility speed, but faster than today. I get it. She's so patient to indulge me and come along. Fern EVEN drank water after the second "run". I told her she can skip tomorrow, as the temps will be the same, and there is also an ozone warning, so better for all of us to stay at home.
Susan Marsicano
She used to just rest her chin on the first bar, and give me looks, or walk quietly around the first jump in the heat. There was the time, outside at FDR park when it got hot, I thought she could certainly do FAST, and she balked, and I told her she could jump. and she DID jump one jump. Then she jumped the ring barrier and went down the hill towards my van in the shade. When I got there she was in Carol Mount's arms.
Susan Marsicano
Oh, and Cindy Griswold will remember how we dumped the dogs in the pool at AOC. M LOVED that.
Kim McNeill
Ha! that reminds me of a trial years ago. it was USDAA out on a mesa in NM and i was running Digital. it was hotter than the gates of hades and not a tree in sight. when Diggie's run came up, he humoured me and did a couple of obstacles until we got to the Aframe. He went around the upside and parked himself under the frame. I tried to get him to do the frame. Nope. Okay, skip that. Jump? Nope on that too. Tried to get him to do a tunnel, because those are fun. Nope, not gonna do it. He just laid there and watched me until I started towards the exit. Then he decided he'd better come with me. I laughed and laughed because it was quite evident who was the smarter dog that day.
Natalie Culver
Kunjo if he could see you would think "that Fern, she's a smart one". smile emoticon
Memories of Kunjo who, if it was a hot agility day, would run into the shade of a tunnel & peak out at me on the course from the shady tunnel, and then once I coaxed him out of tunnel, then would run under shade of scorers table.... & patiently wait & wait... for me to come to my senses & pick up his leash to leave the ring.
Susan Marsicano
Natalie - I was just remembering Kunjo under the scorers' table. I think Occhi lay down under the Aframe once. Or was it Sandy.
Susan Marsicano
Oh my. I DID pour some water from a dish over Fern before Standard. She pretended she didn't notice.
Natalie Culver
Probably Occhi, hanging out under a frame. Sandy usually felt calmer outside the ring... I doubt she would have stood still inside under equipment.
Susan Marsicano
There was the time I told Sandy "go tunnel" & she left the ring and took a tunnel out there.
Carol Mount
Isn't it strange basenji don't drink water like you should think? Did they get into bad water habits 'cause the original basenjis only drank water after dark.
Susan Marsicano Is right. I was just telling someone yesterday that they usually drink water before we go to bed. Their favorite water dish is in the bedroom.
Carol Mount
Another hot basenji story. Was showing Strider in obedience and it was hot. Judge says heel and I start off. Strider just sits and then goes and sits under steward table while I do the entire pattern by myself.
Susan Marsicano
Of course I once did an entire heeling pattern at a trial, and Blush had left the ring at the start of heel free. And it wasn't hot.
Susan Marsicano
I had Fern in Rally Advanced & it was July & 1:30 & no shade & hot. She came along & never sat. Passive aggression. smile emoticon she left when faced with one more sit request at a 180 where there was a lone little terrier in an xpen out there, just wailing away at her. Fern left.
Nancy Chando
They're too smart! They just want to stay in and stay cool!
Susan Marsicano
Actually they will sun bathe. Don't like the AC in the house. Ask to go on the porch.
Tamara Allen
Batsy D Basenji would sunbathe on the back of the couch until he would get so hot he would kind of fall/roll off in a panting heap on the cushions. He was not a dog who reveled in moderation.
Margaret Howes
Smart dogs that are self protective. At the trial today some people with smooth coated dogs were saying how their dogs didn't want to work in the heat. My heavy coated Shelties don't seem affected by heat. Until Angel was older and sick with Cushings, she would run in anything, despite the thick black fur-I always remember M fondly. My very first run in agility was following M's run.
The Hudson River Hound Association had a weekend of CAT tests in May.
Photographer Nancy Nosiglia was there, and got these great shots of the dogs running in the dandelions.
Fiddle flying through the sea of dandelions that are almost as tall as she is. She did have an encounter with a bee.
Fernie
Liner
Fiddle extended.
To see MORE
Joe Stewart, while photographing a lure trial, caught an unexpected prey, or was it preying?
(In Hilliard, Ohio)
AKC INVITATIONAL BASENJIS
