About Us......
About Us......
We are David & Helen Veless and have 3 daughters and we live in a seaside town on the Mornington Peninsula in the State of Victoria , Australia. Afrikenji Basenjis is a small kennel where our Basenjis are part of our family receiving individual loving attention & are house dogs not just dogs out in the kennels. Our puppies are lovingly raised and socialised in our home where they become accustom to all the hustle and bustle of a normal household.
We take our breeding program seriously and we firmly believe that we are responsible for the puppies that we breed which means that we make ourselves available for advice, information & ongoing support for the lifetime of the dog. We feel that we can only achieve this level of commitment if we do not breed too frequently.
We endeavour to breed "true to type", Basenjis exemplifying both form and function combining elegance, athleticism & correct, sound movement & stable temperaments.
Since we are serious about breeding healthy dogs we naturally have all of our dogs screened for good health, including Hip scores, Eye screening, Thyroid testing & Fanconi testing.
Though only breeding occasionally we consider ourselves very privleged to have bred Australian Champions, Champions abroad & BEST EXHIBIT IN SHOW winners in 3 different countries!
View of the area that we live in
~ Our Story ~
My (Helen) love affair with dogs began when I was given a Border Collie puppy as a gift from my Uncle at the age of two. After growing up surrounded by and breeding a variety of animals and owning several different breeds of dogs my interest in Basenjis began after reading some fascinating newspaper articles about the peculiarities of the barkless African 'Basenji'. I was also raised to have an appreciation for the Australian primitive dog the "Dingo" which are similar in some ways to the Basenji. David grew up in a 'dogless' family but aquired his first dog a "Keeshond" when a teenager, & he had also read some very intriguing articles about the African 'Basenji'. When David & I met we discovered that we shared a common interest in Basenjis. After getting married we chose a Keeshond to join our family & she was a fantastic family dog but was very labour intensive to groom because of her beautiful double coat.
"Dusty"
After Dusty passed away & we felt that the girls were old enough we decided it was time to get a Basenji. So in 1995 we joined the Basenji Club Of Victoria and booked our puppies and then we had to wait what seemed like forever until the Breeding season the following year to get our puppies; a male; "Zurii" from Mick Lindsay of Tengku Basenjis and a female; "Mali" from Denise Doyle of Helios Basenjis. We have found Basenjis to be an entertaining, captivating, beautiful, unusual & sometimes challenging breed and we cannot imagine ourselves without at least a couple of Basenjis in our lives.
Local beach at sunset. One of the dogs favorites !
We are constantly learning about this wonderful breed and greatly appreciate the guidance we have had from several longtime breeders over the years.
Our aim is to breed Basenjis that conform to the written Basenji Standard as closely as possible. Of course the perfect dog has never been bred but its fun trying! Our Basenjis are exhibited and evaluated by licensed judges which helps to validate our dogs' physical construction and movement. Each breed of dog exists for a job or particular purpose and judges should consider this function when evaluating the dogs in their ring. Beauty does play a part in dog shows, but there is more to it than a Basenji just looking "beautiful." For example; Basenjis are still used to hunt in Africa so it only follows that a well constructed Basenji is going to be more efficient & capable at getting the job done in the African heat & terrain; so a judge will be looking for a Basenji who is able to move correctly and soundly and have enough breed points to look like a Basenji. A poorly constructed Basenji will tire easily and sustain more injuries making it difficult to be able to hunt efficiently for food in turn enabling their survival & at the same time making them easy prey for predators. While life in Australia is certainly much less stressful & easier than life in Africa, having a well constructed Basenji will result in a dog who will have more stamina to play, enjoy walks & runs with his family, and will be less likely to develop injuries & arthritis from normal doggy activities. Of course if you are interested in doing 'agility' or 'tracking' with your Basenji then it is of utmost importance that they be well constructed to withstand the physical pressures of these activities.
We hope to breed happy Basenjis who will live a long healthy life therefore all of our Basenjis have their health checked at various stages of their lives so that we have as much health information as possible for our breeding program. We also aim to use only similarly health tested stud dogs for matings. Thanks to Denise Doyle of Helios Basenjis and Doreen Duffin of Makuba Basenjis health testing their own dogs which are behind the foundation of our pedigrees we have many years of testing behind our blood lines.
We also have our dogs eyes evaluated by a qualified animal Ophthalmologist at regular intervals. We test Thyroid function including Tgaa status & our dogs are Hip X-rayed after maturity (about 2 years old) for an accurate assessment of their hip status. We strip test our dogs at regular monthly intervals for Fanconi Syndrome & now that the Fanconi DNA marker test is available in the U.S.A (since July 2007) will be testing our Basenjis for this disorder before breeding from them. Only animals that have been tested and with good results are considered in our breeding program and we openly share these test results. On each of our dogs pages we have recorded all health test results and we also have a page which lists all of our dogs results over the years "in a nutshell" which is accessible from the home page.
We feel strongly that it is important to preserve the excellent Health status of our beloved breed in this country and to protect future generations from any possible health problems that may creep into the breed. You know what they say: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure!"
When deciding to breed a litter of puppies, much consideration and research is involved in choosing a stud for one of our girls. Once our puppies are born, they get as much human contact and stimulation as we can give them , in other words we socialise them as much as possible and observe their temperaments and personalities. Even at 8 weeks of age, an experienced breeder can get a good idea of a puppy's temperament which is taken into consideration when deciding which type of family environment each individual puppy will be best suited for. We strongly encourage new owners to continue on with the pups socialization, by enrolling the puppies in a Puppy Preschool or Puppy Kinder and taking their new puppy with them to as many different places and to meet as many different types of people & children as possible in the first two months and hopefully to keep it going during adulthood.
Our Achievements In The Showring
We are Members of :
Victorian Canine Association (VCA)
Basenji Club of Victoria (BCOV)
Basenji Club of NSW (BCNSW)
Finnish Basenji Club
Hound Club of Victoria
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Website design by Helen Veless of ® Afrikenji Basenjis
Background made from a photo of BIS/MBISS Gr Ch Afrikenji Hot Sumaknight