I know this is common knowledge on facebook, but we got a dog a month ago. His name is Ben and he’s a 4.5 year old Basenji. We adopted him from a local homeschool family who needed to find him a good home. I cannot even begin to express how much we adore this dog and how blessed we feel to call him ours. He’s an amazing dog!
He has folded into our family like he has always been ours. The kids love to take him for walks, especially Cole, and they have been enjoying spoiling him with treats and new toys.
Ben has been playing musical bedrooms with all of us, but he seems to find his way into Cole’s room the most. Lonnie and I often peek in on our way to bed and find Ben curled up at Cole’s feet. I guess there really *is* something about a boy and his dog. He also has no qualms about finding his own space within the family. He commandeered Zoey’s pillow during a recent family movie night. 
We’ve been enjoying taking him to the local dog park a couple times a week (at night only, since it’s so hot during the day). It’s nice to meet other dogs and dog owners for social time. We have definitely felt there was a dog-size hole in our family since Max passed away a few years ago. It gives me such joy to smell behind Ben’s ears every day when I give him kisses. (Dog people will know what I am talking about here, I hope.)
Ben is SUPER smart and has been wonderful to train. He is learning lots of new commands (some he knew, but didn’t always obey, like “sit”), and others I assume are new to him. As of today, he is following the “sit” and “down” (lay down) commands, and after a few days of work, he is finally starting to “leave it.” That will be helpful when we are on walks and he wants to chase every cat in sight. LOL! Up next is “stay” and then we will see what we can do about starting clicker training and some more complicated commands. I even wonder if he would enjoy lure coursing. Many Basenji’s do.
In any case, there may be occasional blogs about the exploits of Ben, the newest member of the Johnson family! <3
Who can resist this face??
Sam Nollan
/ July 31, 2010Becky,
It is so wonderful that your family has a new member. He’s really adorable, and bright eyed! You can tell by the photos that he is smart. He just looks smart, ya know?
Becky
/ July 31, 2010He *does* look smart, doesn’t he? He’s just so adorable!!! Most loved dog evah!
Laurie
/ January 12, 2013Ben is a gorgeous Basenji!
Could I email you a poem I wrote about Basenjis?
Thanks!
Laurie in Canada
Becky
/ January 12, 2013Sure!
Rebekah L Johnson @ gmail . com (no spaces)