Basenji breed guide

The Basenji is a unique and beguiling pet best for owners who can meet its exercise needs and the challenge of training a catlike canine. It is energetic, inquisitive and very active.

The Basenji does not bark, but it makes its feelings known with an odd sound and the wrinkled forehead and expressive almond eyes convey subtle, humanlike emotions.

Basenjis live 13 to 14 years. Breeders screen for hypothyroidism, a type of inflammatory bowel disease called IPSID and canine hip dysplasia.

Gene tests identify carriers of Fanconi syndrome, a kidney disorder and of progressive retinal atrophy, so breeders can plan matings that avoid producing those diseases.

Fastidious creatures, Basenjis need only a quick weekly once-over with a soft-bristle brush, a rubber grooming mitt or a hound glove, which also spreads skin oils.

They need lots of regular exercise to avoid boredom and destructive behavior: long play sessions in a well-fenced yard or securely on a lead. A Basenji should never run loose, because its instinct to hunt is very strong.

Basenjis were already well established when they were brought up the Nile from interior Africa as gifts for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. They appear in ancient Egyptian artifacts and traces of the breed show in Babylonian and Mesopotamian art.

Those civilizations collapsed millennia ago, but the Basenji endured as a semi-wild dog living at the headwaters of the Nile and Congo rivers.