The Basenji Club

The Basenji came to the western world from Africa, mainly from the Congo (Zaire) and the Sudan but there are accounts of them in most of the other African areas; although nowadays there are very few pockets of pure bred dogs remaining. In Sierra Leone the Basenji is known as the talking dog because they yodel instead of barking, they are also known as the witch’s dog or familiars; the more powerful the witch doctor the more dogs he owns. Tanzanian natives removed the tails from dogs which were used to hunt. This made it harder for an ape to seize the dog and kill it.

The Basenji’s senses of sight and smell are amazing. It is marvellous to see one jump up and down in five feet high elephant grass, he almost seems to hover in the air at the top of his jump whilst he has a quick look around and scents the air. Hence, one of the African names M’bwa M’kube M’bwawamwitu, the jumping up and down dog.

Mostly the Basenji is used as a hunting dog, rounding up the game and circling it thus keeping it penned until the hunter arrives to despatch it. Because of their silence when hunting the dogs very often wear bells around their neck or loin. In England and America they have been used with some success as gun dogs, pointing and flushing game; as they are very fast and agile they can catch and kill hares with ease. With patience they can be taught to retrieve. Some puppies do this naturally, others will have no idea what is required. The greatest problem in training them for the gun is to get them to hunt within range instead of disappearing to circle a wide radius in their natural style. They have a strong tendency to look up into the branches whilst hunting, perhaps from the prevalence of monkeys in their jungle home and this makes them excellent bird dogs.