It does not bark, instead it emits a sound resembling a yodel. Furthermore it cleans itself like a cat and trots like a thorough bred horse. A peculiarity in the dog's larynx is believed to be responsible for the dogs lack of bark. Yet the Basenji is far from mute. It expresses itself with a variety of noises, including its characteristic "chortle" that is half way between a joyous laugh and a Tyrolean yodel. Versatility as a hunting dog it can point, retrieve, drive game and pick up a scent 75m away assured its respect amoung the tribes of central Africa, its land of Origin.
Europeans knew nothing of the Basenji until the 1970's, when English explorers discovered the dogs in an area of Africa still relatively unknown, between the Congo river and Sudan. The dogs has been carefully bred and served as bush trackers and watch dogs.
The breeding if the Basenjis outside Africa proved difficult, with foundation stock regularly dying of such diseases as distemper. It was not until 1936 that an imported brace produced a healthy litter. These puppies were shown at the world renound Crufts show in 1937. They generated such excitement that guards had to be called in to control the enthusiastic crowds.
The Basenji has a happy temperament and punctuates its peculiar conversation with gay tail wagging. At the slightest incident, it is on the alert with its ears pricked and the skin on its skull wrinkled to produce that irresistible look of surprise that is so characteristic of the dog.
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