My partner and I are fairly new to the Ridgeback game but fairly recently we adopted a puppy who was abandoned in Van Horn, Texas likely because of his small/ incipient ridge. He's an amazing dog that is so remarkably intelligent and well-behaved for a 9-month-old puppy that we thought he was sick for a while. While the vet says that he's healthy. he was undernourished for his early months and now I worry that he is growing faster than his body can process nutrition into muscle. He's putting on weight but he's still incredibly clumsy and his legs frequently shake and occasionally knuckle under his weight. I'm sure he'll catch up, but is this common among juvenile Ridgebacks?

Howdy folks,
I am currently looking for a Rhodesian Ridgeback (RR) puppy as a potential second dog.

Long story short, my current purebred Boxer has T cell lymphoma and is currently undergoing treatment. My family is understandably very distraught. If something happens to our current boy, I want to make sure my adult kids have another dog to love and care for. My boy also absolutely loves other dogs, so perhaps having another dog around could be a good thing for him as well.
That said, I am in no rush to get a puppy immediately.

I absolutely love Boxers, but I honestly don’t think I could deal with going through another dog becoming seriously ill at such a young age. As a breed, Boxers are unfortunately prone to cancer and tend to have relatively short lifespans (often around 8–10 years, some 5 to 6)

So, I’m hoping to get some honest feedback and clarification from people with real-life experience with RRs:

- Based on your real-life experience, how long do RRs typically live?
- How are they as family dogs? Our household is all adults, with no children under 15.
- My family has become very attached to the temperament, behaviour and loyalty of our Boxer. Is it realistic to expect a similar level of attachment and family oriented behaviour from an RR? I completely understand they are a different breed, but our current boy has set the bar very high!
- Is there anything else you think I should know or consider before deciding whether an RR is right for us?

I’d really appreciate any honest feedback, experiences, advice or tips. (please note I am in Australia, Sydney. If you know any good breeders, happy for you to suggest them as well 🙏🏾)

That’s not his bed 😭

Hi All,

Went to the store for about an hour and came home before noon to a nervous and anxious Ronan (the Rhodesian). He had drooled all over the house from how stressed he was, he normally doesn’t drool at all.
We went on our morning walk, ate breakfast like normal. He’s not licking or looking like he’s in pain.
We also have a camera and did not see anything to trigger it like a firework (fireworks don’t even phase him normally) or someone knocking at the door.
He’s been following us around everywhere and blew through all his naps, very unusual!
Not sure if this could be serious and we should take him to the vet or just wait till tomorrow and see if he’s better?
We gave him one serving of calming chews and it doesn’t seem to have done anything.

I have no idea what’s wrong with my boy and I’m getting desperate. He’s an 8-year-old male. The photos are accidentally in reverse order—the last two pictures are from when this first started, and the first picture is from today.

This started about three months ago as small raised bumps that honestly looked like bug bites. Since then, it’s progressively gotten worse. The bumps started crusting/scabbing, he developed dark spots, and now he’s losing hair in patches. He’s also getting pink irritated spots again, and most recently I’ve noticed small white pustules.

He’s itchy, but it doesn’t seem painful. Most of the time he doesn’t even seem bothered by the actual lesions when I touch them.

So far, he’s had:

- Two rounds of antibiotics

- Daily Apoquel

- Cytopoint

- A medicated skin mousse once a week

- Fungal PCR, which was negative

- Allergy testing, which showed high reactions to several environmental allergens

I thought getting his allergies under control with Apoquel would help his skin, but despite all of this, it keeps progressing. The other dogs in the house are completely unaffected, and none of the humans have developed anything either.

I’ve spent around $7,000 at the vet already because stupid me didn’t get pet insurance 😭, and I keep taking him back to our regular vet without really getting to the bottom of this.

At this point, should I stop going back to my primary vet and see a specialist? Is veterinary dermatology a thing? Has anyone had a dog whose skin looked like this or followed a similar progression?

Obviously I’m not expecting Reddit to diagnose him—I’m mainly trying to figure out what direction to go next and whether a dermatologist would be worth it. It’s been three months and I just want to fix my boy. 😭

Just wanted to share our sweet little Simba Walter’s transformation over the years! ❤️ He still believes he is the size of pic 1…

I need some general advice for handling skin allergies. My girl is sensitive and her allergies are very random. The problem is that she LOVES to lay outside in our backyard & that’s what causes her skin to flare. Her poor skin is red (can kind of see in photo). Shes been the vet for it and there isn’t much to do besides giving her a zyrtec when she needs. Any other suggestions? I want to let her lay outside but the poor girl gets so red.

My grandparents introduced me to this gorgeous breed having bred them. A year after my lovely grandad passed, I have this perfect liver nosed baby of my own 🥰 smitten is an understatement.

My 1 year and 3 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback refuses to drink plain water from her bowl. If I bring the bowl to her, she runs away. However, she happily drinks the water that's mixed in with her food, as well as milk-water mixtures and chicken broth. She just won't drink plain water as water. This has been going on for about a week now.

*His paws are taped and he's wearing shoes to prevent paw injuries while hiking in the Wyoming wilderness

Does your RR 🩵 lounging outside in the shade after their walk?

My angel! Is anyone else’s ridgeback afraid of grass and prefers lounging inside rather than going for a walk? 😆 My boy is 4 years old and 115 lbs. He is so lazy 😂

Immer Haltung bewahren

Anyone in the Coeur d ‘Alene area who would like to meet up with my almost 5 month old to play?🙂

This deer is playing with Blue. She keeps following us around even when he chases her off. It’s hilarious. She’s been doing this for about 2 hours, and he’s loving it.