Dog Breed Guide

Rhodesian Ridgeback

Profile

Size

Large

Country of origin

Zimbabwe (Southern Africa)

Origin

19th century

Bred for

Hunting, Watchdog

Height

male 63 - 69cm (25 - 27in), female 61 - 66cm (24 - 26in)

Weight

male about 37kg (82lb), female about 32kg (71lb)

Life span

10 - 12 years

The breed's defining feature is the ridge on its back, a stripe of hair that grows in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. The ridge runs from just behind the shoulders toward the hips and starts with two identical whorls called crowns. It has a lean, muscular body and a short, glossy coat in shades from light wheaten to red wheaten.

Calm and dignified, the Ridgeback is affectionate with its family and reserved with strangers, which makes it a good watchdog. It is intelligent but independent and can be stubborn, so training takes patience.

It copes well with heat and dry conditions and has superb stamina, enough to follow a hunt all day. It needs plenty of exercise every day. A skin condition called dermoid sinus can occur along the ridge from birth, so check for it when choosing a puppy.

Good to know

Its other name is the African Lion Dog. In 19th-century southern Africa, the hunter Cornelius van Rooyen is said to have bred two ridged dogs he got from a missionary with his own hounds, and the offspring proved remarkably good at lion hunting.

That does not mean they killed lions. Their job was to surround the lion in a small pack, darting in and out and barking to hold it at bay until the hunter caught up. The work called for courage, but also the agility and wits to dodge a lion's swipe.

The ridge is believed to have been inherited from the dogs of the Khoikhoi, who had long lived in the region. The breed standard was drawn up in 1922 in Bulawayo, in what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and the breed was later given the name Rhodesian Ridgeback.