Tiggy is quite the spunky basenji, and he’s also very loving.  As my first basenji, I had done quite a bit of research into the breed before jumping head first into a breed I had never owned, and growing up with large dogs he is also my first small dog.  He does have some of the normal basenji traits, but then there are others that I held my breath and waited for the worst when I got him but he’s never developed.  One thing that Tiggy definitely is not is SHY, he may be a little cautious for a few seconds, but after that he is all about the loving on you.  He really adores people and enjoys meeting new ones; at dog shows he will readily invite himself into any open lap that he sees available.

I do have a cat, and Tiggy came to us a little bit older then most pups do to their new homes, he was just at 12 weeks and never been around cats.  Well those worries are no longer, the two of them pester each other to no end, and the cat often instigates play and gets Tiggy to chase her.  I think the intro helped very much that our cat is very dog savvy and will not take any trouble from any dog and stands up for herself.  She doesn’t use her claws unless she feels she really needs to, but can deliver a very hard swat.  I have witnessed her bite Tiggy before though if he gets out of line, he does seem to listen more to that then being smacked with a paw.

As with all basenjis he does seem to have the love of paper and tissue.  It is not as bad as most that I have read or seen about.  Thankfully he doesn’t steal the toilet paper or tissues from the tissue box.  However, living in German we recycle so he have a box that we put all our paper to recycle and he at least every other day steals a box or something out of that and goes and starts to shred it.  So what to we learn with this?  Basenjis double as paper shredders to help aid in the goal of recycling. 

I have read HORROR stories about basenji destruction, and I must say that I have gotten quite lucky with my basenji, he has not really destroyed anything.  He has chewed on a few things but not to the point of destroying them.  He does find my husbands shoes rather tasty when we are sleeping, so this just taught Dave to put his shoes out of the bedroom at night.  There is one bad habit that he does have, and thats chewing on under-garments, he has ruined a handful of these; but more because Dave and I left them on the floor and not in the laundry bin.

Tiggy’s best buddy is my other dog Reggie a white boxer.  The two of them are like peas in a pod, and they compliment each other very well.  I think having Reggie help with integrating a wild child basenji into the house, Reggie helps with Tiggy’s training and Tiggy has learned quite a bit from his big “brother”.  A good friend of mine calls Reggie, Tiggy’s “Big White Knight”.  The play and wrestle and rearrange the furniture on a daily basis; in the boxer and basenji world they call the spurts of energy basenji or boxer 500, well in my house I get the Double-B 500.  Sometimes it can be dangerous if you are walking, yikes, they can topple you over - I have been knocked over by racing Double-Bs before (and hard wood floors hurt when you fall on your bum).