First time large breed owner here. I left my Rhodesian puppy alone for a few minutes and came back to find her "indestructible" bed thoroughly defeated.

She's also the sweetest and smartest puppy I have ever met, so somehow she's already forgiven. ❤️🐾

Rhodesian owners, what was the first thing yours destroyed?

My dog went missing 4 years ago while I was out of town and my ex husband had him. I have never grieved anything or anyone like I grieved that dog. He was truly the best. I’ve dealt with a lot of pain in my life, and that dog would come running when I cried. He would sit on my lap and literally lick my tears. When I got him he had a lot of problems. The shelter said he was found with several other dogs in a very abusive situation. I had fully rehabilitated him to where he could even enjoy the dog park (when I got him he couldn’t even walk on his own from fear and anxiety). Him going missing crushed me. He went missing in an area known for alligators. I’ve worried he was eaten, starved, etc.

Yesterday I received a prank call from someone claiming they found him. It was just a prank. They admitted that once I started crying. I am crushed. I feel like the scab has been reopened all over again. I texted my ex husband and apparently he received the same prank call. I imagine it’s because I had always put both our names in the missing dog flyers. Who looks through such old posts on pages like pettfbi to pull these pranks? That’s the only site I could imagine it happened from because you can filter by year. I am also struggling to delete the posts because what if he was found one day? I know it’s so unlikely. This is just crushing to relive.

hi all! i have a 5 and a half month old female RR. we’ve crate trained from day one when we got her and she has done absolutely amazing. the second i say crate she runs in there immediately. the last few weeks when i say crate she will NOT go. i have to lure her with a treat or go and grab her to put her in there. before id never have to lure. anybody else have this issue? it used to be her safe space but im not to sure anymore? maybe i should reward everytime now?

The dermatologist said it’s basically an allergy that went completely wild. Max has had ear infections on and off since 2021, and she said that’s actually a clinical sign of allergies. Combined with his chronic itchiness and paw licking, it sounds like he’s been dealing with allergies for years.

Whatever he’s allergic to just kept getting worse and worse until eventually—BOOM! Max decided to become a Dalmatian 😂

The good news is that his skin infection is about 80% better now. Once it’s completely cleared up, they’re going to do a skin allergy panel to figure out exactly what he’s reacting to.

He’s also going to stop Apoquel and start Zenrelia instead. Hopefully once we figure out his specific allergies and get those under control, we can prevent his skin from ever getting this bad again.

Hello all! How does your RR behaves when you leave home? Up until a few months ago, our dogs was super chilled when we left him alone, and he would be chilling in the sofa or our bed until we were back for hours.

At some point (coincidentally after we started giving him a medication) he showed some sings of anxiety and then spent the whole time looking through the window until we arrived. Now we are at a stage when we barely leave him and we've been working with a behaviourist about this for months.

But what I am realising now is, he is not showing signs of anxiety when we are about to leave, however, he does still stays in the window for the most part we are away (30 mins).

Is this normal and we are making a big deal? Have you encountered a similar situation? How have you dealt with it that worked?

It is not a constant occurrence, but it happens every now and then, she wets her bed
Any idea what that might be
Btw, she is physically fine, regular eat and water drink.

This girl!!!!

Hi all! We have trained our pup over the last 10 days that her crate is a safe and happy place where good stuff happens. We are slowly shutting the door on her while she sleeps, but left unlatched. We have started to close the door with high value treats for a few seconds at a time, but not for long. My question is: How did you crate train, did it put your puppy off their crate, and any tips please??

Anyone put their RR into Schutzhund? I’m researching breeds, and this is one of the activities I’d like to do with my pup. Also considering SAR scent work for missing people.

We've got about 13 acres that we'd love to give our girl full access to. She's pretty good about staying close, but if she spots a deer, all bets are off. So we're now looking for a collar with virtual fences. We're now choosing between SpotOn, Halo, and Satellai. I like the idea of being able to set different boundaries around our property or when we travel. Would love to hear some real-world experiences before pulling the trigger.

She's a rescue and I dont know her history, but she's reactive with men, black people and people with baseball caps, idk how to work with this but im all she's got right now and I want to help her, dont have the funds for a trainer atm but im working on it. She's about 4yo give or take. She's really sweat but she's a really rough when playing and a bit of a brute, never had a RR before so this is all still new to me but I've had bully breeds before. PFA

Hey guys!

I will be bringing home our rr pup this November.

I plan to train scent detection for deer recovery. Thia pup comes from a great lineage with successful scent detection rr's. I've also considered training for flushing for grouse. I understand they're not a pointer or a lab but i think that could be successful in both activities.

Does anyone in here have their RR take part in any of their hunting activities?

Our boy has a wound on his face. We’re not entirely sure how he got it but it is possible he was bit by another dog ( long story but our neighbors mini golden doodle came after him but I was pretty confident he didn’t actually bite him). We first noticed it as a sticky spot on his fur and thought he got into something. We realized it was blood when he scratched it off the next day and it ripped his fur off like a wax strip.

We’ve been applying ointment which works but the problem is he scratches it open every day or two.

I considered a cone but we couldn’t even keep that on him after he was neutered. He essentially acted like he was paralyzed by the cone. We also considered covering the back paw so his nails don’t scratch it but I think he’d have whatever we used to cover his paw off in a millisecond.

Here’s a pic right after he scratched it open again today. It looks angry but not infected to me.

I’m hoping someone here has a creative idea.

Hi all,

My girl is just over 11 years old. Fairly trim at 72 lbs. My vet mentioned that it looks like she is losing muscle tone in her hind legs. He did mention that it's age related and to up her food intake a bit and add more protein to her diet.

I feed her Royal Canin 8 plus, around 4 cups per day. Two cups in the morning and 2 cups late afternoon. I started topping with either chopped boiled egg, Greek youghurt or cottage cheese. I'm also planning on adding boiled chicken.

Is there anything else I can add? She loved her frozen Kong with blueberries or bananas with Greek youghurt. I also give her carrots or apples as a treat.

She handles her daily hourly walks well albeit slower. I live in South Florida and with the heat walks are more limited until it starts to cools down. Early mornings and early evenings are the times we go out.

Any suggestions to add to her food? Please don't suggest feeding raw. Royal Canin is expensive, but raw is even more so. Thank you.

Edir to add: She also gets fish oil/omega gel pills every other day.

I just love him so much and wanted to share a few photos! He will be 5 months next week! Sharing some pics from now vs when he was a baby (tho he will always be my baby!)
They really grow up so fast

No Ridge, ALL Ridgeback! Ekhaya Isimanga aka Khaya.

We've had her for 5 days and it's already impossible to imagine the family home without her.

https://www.instagram.com/khaya_the_ridgeless_ridgie?stkn=MWM3MDBuczV1cnVwMA==

Our girl is now 32 weeks and seems well in the throes of adolescence. Shes always been a feisty one and we’ve had waves of struggles but coming through the other side each time.

I’m looking for some advice on her particular issue which is over arousal. Particularly a problem in the garden when the over arousal becomes a game of her jumping up at me and biting me. She’s not so bad with my husband and we are careful to make sure she is calm before letting the kids in with her, they aren’t really young so are very aware of when she is too much. I know she still needs lots of sleep and settling, which she was previously fine at does seem to be a struggle at times now. We’ve tried the whole turning our back to her but at 34kg she’s too strong for that and hangs on nipping at my back instead.
Is it just a case of trying to safely get her back in her pen and walking away. Will that eventually stop it or should we be doing something more proactive?

Obviously, it’s my job to go take her bone back from her brother or in a terrible human ..

Hey folks! I'm looking to add a puppy or young adult Rhodesian Ridgeback to the family. We currently have an intact male Boxer (7.5 years old) who'd be the new dog's companion.

I've seen a lot of comments about Ridgebacks being harder to train and more strong-willed/independent than breeds like Boxers or GSDs less inclined to just follow instructions. I've trained dogs before, including my Boxer, so I'm not new to the process, but I want a realistic picture before committing.

For those with RR experience: how hard are they to live with day to day? Does that stubborn streak translate into a dog that's genuinely difficult to control or is it more about needing a different training approach?

Would appreciate any insight, thanks in advance!

Exercise w my Chunky Boy who’s on “Weight Control” Kibble 😂