We started with "Liz"

From new African Stock

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Movement
See examples

Eldorado Puppies

   We started out with two exceptional quality bitches and originally used the African imports because we were interested in the brindle color. After we tried a few breedings with the new Foundation Stock, we decided to continue developing our American-African crosses because we were getting not only the brindle color, but we were also happy with a number of other particularly nice characteristics which appeared:

     STRUCTURE: The African dogs gave us really good fronts and strong rears which we considered a good addition to our breeding program. The strong toplines our girls had helped compensate for the somewhat rolling toplines of many of the Africans. We are still trying to develop a shorter-backed, square body with more length of leg on a consistent basis.

    MOVEMENT: Once we had good fronts and rears that were balanced, good movement with level toplines followed. Click here to see some photos of our dogs on the move.

     HEALTH: Adding the diversity of the new gene pool should help us with some health issues found in the breed. We at Eldorado have used all the foundation stock that was bred from so we have a very diverse selection of genetic material to work with. Of course, we also have a very diverse group of dogs as a result.

     HEAD & TYPE: The heads and overall type in our pups has been as diverse as the gene pool we have been accumulating. As we continue the work to have the structure we prefer genetically imbedded in our stock, we have begun looking for better heads and a square, leggier body type.

     ATTITUDE: The African dogs are very soft in temperament and are easily shaken. Generally they are not as “showy” in attitude as we would prefer. We hope to improve on this attribute by selection as we continue to reach our goal.

     GOAL: Our challenge will be to maintain our gains while continuing to improve and consolidate the best features from each year's litters. We would like to maintain 50/50 ratio of American and African genes to produce a Happy, Healthy and Functional Basenji.

     In 2003 we decided to expand our basic gene pool with the addition of breeding from European and Australian stock. We took another step in 2005 in this direction by importing a puppy male from Finland. We look forward to the qualities these dogs can bring us in the next generations. Click on the names below to learn more about the individual dogs.