We will assume that you before you start to communicate with the breeder have studied the breed well, done exhaustive research, met some Ridgebacks and their owners and asked them everything what interest you and that you know approximately what awaits you in your future life with your Ridgeback.

​Once you have prepared yourself and are ready for the challenges of this wonderful breed, you can start thinking about whether you want a female or a male.
We are experienced breeders and we will suggest you is it for you better choice a male or female for you depending on a puppy temperament as well.

 Males can be more dominant, territorial, and easily distracted than female dogs.
They are bigger and stronger and more muscular than females.
But, also tend to be more demanding of attention, affectionate and focused on human beings than female dogs.  Females are generally are more independent and inconsistent in their focus on their human companions, but not in every case.

Females can be every bit as loving but after gaining their owners affections awhile, they may prefer to go off on their own. They have thein own business to do.
This doesn’t mean that females aren’t affectionate, but they seem to be more “choosey” with their moments of cuddles and kisses and might be more reserved, similar how the cats act.

Just imagine how it is in the nature.
​Females are the ones that go to hunt and bring the food, and males are just resting, going around and protect the pack when they have to. This tells a lot about male and female attitudes.
​
Males are "simple", comparing to females which are bit complicated especially when they are in the heat.
This occurs twice a year for two to three weeks when the ​dominance and territorial behaviour can also be seen in females.
Because of the heat you will have periods when you will have to be careful when walking your bitch.
It is better to walk her in areas where there are not many dogs. 
Males are going to smell the bitch and they will try to hop on your girl, especially when the heat is in its zenith. Any unneutered male dog will be boisterous and persistent, at best, and accidental mating is always a possibility. 

Nothing can stop hungry or the horny one.
These are two main instincts of animals. It is all about to eat and mate. And yes..."the heat" periods are much more hard for male owners. If you have a bitch, you just go away from other dogs and are a bit more careful, but male owners will have males that sing, do not eat and are pretty crazy if they smell the lady with perfume somewhere around.

If your male dog is not neutered, you need to make sure he has an area to exercise in that he can’t escape from – especially if there are female dogs on heat nearby.

Bitches also have often false pregnancies after heats and this is why we wrote that you will have hormon storms from time to time. Males leave more urin marks around, when they walk than females, but in the heat, bitch is marking with urine much more. She is leaving the invitation cards everywhere so the pretty guys may find her easier. It is her instinct, she wants to be mated.

When it comes to trainability, there are mixed opinions.
Some say that females are easier to train because they mature earlier, are smarter, and don’t get as easily distracted as males.
On the other hand, males desire to please their owners significantly more than females, which sets them up to learn and obey commands more willingly especially when they know they will get a treat.
They are more dependent on their owners, will require more guidance, direction, and are more attentive to their owners in general life.
An example of this difference could be a female’s ability to remain completely focused on herself and what she’s doing throughout the day. In contrast, a male will typically be right by your side, perhaps even following you around, wanting to know what you are doing. ​

Males are "attention whores" :)
They have a tendency to remain like goofy, playful kids their whole lives.

On dogshows, males dominate more because they are more attractive. They show off more, they cooperate better with handlers, they are easier to be stacked, and mostly they win over females for the BOB titles (Best of breed) title because they are more attractive. 

Although personalities can vary, it’s nearly always the males that grow to be bigger,
stronger, and more powerful and are significantly larger than females..
This is certainly an important factor to consider when choosing which sex
will be appropriate for you and your family.

The average range for MALE ridgebacks:
Height:  (65-69 cm)
Weight: (40-47 kg)
​
The average range for FEMALE ridgebacks:
Height: (60-66 cm)
Weight: (31-39 kg)

​Males will usually continue to pack on muscle until around 2,5 years old, with most females stopping by around 18 months.

So both male and female have pros and cons.
These pros and cons are not general  because every dog is an individual, has own perosnality and spirit, and on the end the most important thing is to purchase the dog from responsible breeder.

Responsible breeder will never combine & mate agressive or unstable, unsecure dogs, so this character will not end up in progeny and in your home!So ih you have a stabile dog, it will be easy to juggle with these differencies no matter you will end with male or female on your sofa! 

Lot of details we see already in puppy age, and we always suggest owners which puppy is best for them depending on an experience and their lifestlye.
For us the most important is the "perfect match"
​with the owner no matter if is it male or female Ridgeback.

"He loooves to play with his sister Gala, and even they are adults, they still fight for the toy like they are still puppies. This is usualy the biggest attraction in the park :)
​But, at home his favourite place is a "sofa"....actually he is a sofa :), because he constantly sleeps on my shoulder like a parrot :)" - Ema explained and thank God we see that on the photos. :)

 Ax is a lifght of her life and she cannot even imagine how it would be without him. There is so much love and positive energy he gives, and no one can bring in so much happines in Ema's life. Everything can be changed except that the Ax is a favourite "sofa" of all.
​The home without a dog is just a house.

So even if Ax is a serious instagrammer and even he has so many followers, we think he should leave his mark also in the ring...He is in the best age now. Powerful, matured and absolutely gorgeous male, so we hope that Ema will give us a hand and that we will go to some dogshow together, because this beautiful boy has to present himself to the wider audience!!!!! <3

​Apart from the fact that they are short coated larger dogs with a cool feature running down their back (note: approximately 5% of RRs are ridgeless), how much do you really know about the breed?

​Please take your time and LEARN about the breed (beyond its physical attributes)
​BEFORE you decide you want an RR.

​Did you know that RRs were bred to work (in a pack) independently of man?  
Working independently of man has resulted in a breed that is an independent thinker that is programmed to achieve its goals, not yours. 

Do you know why you should care about this trivia? 
You should care because it affects how you train your dog and should mitigate your expectations and understanding about the breed. If you put dog breed personality on a circular scale, if you think of where you would put breeds like Golden Retrievers or German Shepherd dogs (or any other breed that was designed to work closely with man), find the point on the opposite side of the scale (diametrically opposed) and that it where the RR would be found. 

​When you are working with/training RRs there has to be something “in it” for them or they will simply shut down ... this is one of the reasons that punishment /negative training does not work well for this breed.

​RRs are master manipulators (it goes back to the concept of them pleasing themselves), be it about food (more on that below), getting on the furniture, getting their toenails done (oh the drama) or simply walking nicely on lead. 

Put the time in and work with your dog .... there is no shortcut with this breed.
This is NOT a breed that you bring home and forget ... they are NOT a short haired Golden retriever that you can bring home, do very little and still end up with a nice social family pet.

This breed requires LIFELONG work and socialization.
Ignore your RR at your own peril as you may come home one day to a house that is destroyed or (even worse), a dog that has become fearful and phobic of things it does not know - this includes having their toenails done!!!!!!!

​Sadly in ~ 25 years of ridgeback rescue, I have seen too many ridgebacks that were inadequately trained and socialized that became fear biters.
Here is the deal with fear biters, once a RR has figured out that it can stop whatever it doesnt like or make the person/animal that it doesnt like go away by putting its mouth on someone or something, it WILL do it again. 
​Trust me when I tell you that there are few things scarier than a fear aggressive ridgeback wanting to stop something it doesnt like ... remember my comment about the breed wanting to please itself, not you.

​RRs are a very physical breed and are nasty little vampires as baby puppies that will bite any and everything that comes close to their mouths ... while most puppies (any breed) will do some biting, RR puppies are biters on steroids. This is the #1 complaint of all new puppy owners.

They WILL bite you and your children ... they will also body slam you and your family - especially young children who run and scream around the puppy. 
This is why many RR experienced owners and breeders will caution against getting a puppy when you have toddlers and younger children in the home.
​With time and consistent training, this too will pass .....
​BUT .... you have to live through /survive the first few months of a RR puppy life.

​RRs (most) are prey driven hounds. 
Apart from being an interesting fact, do you know why you should care? 
First ... while there are going to be people who tell you that they have dogs in an unfenced backyard or use e-fencing and that they take their dogs on wonderful off leash walks, the reality is that they are the exception, not the rule.

The vast majority of RRs will not respect an unfenced yard and/or an e-fence and will chase any and everything that runs. The thrill of the chase applies equally to off leash walks - most RRs should NOT be trusted off leash in an area that is not completely secure.

​This is also not a breed that should be walked by children .... while I occasionally see pictures of children on the end of a leash of a RR, the breed is too strong and the prey drive is too high in most dogs to make this safe ... I dont care how well leash trained your dog is.

​Food ... the master manipulator can go one of two ways: you have have a “I am starving” RR that will eat until it explodes or the I dont want that food, give me something else picky eater.

RRs are supposed to be lean athletic hounds - they are not supposed to have the outline of a lab.  There are waaaaaay too many people that have obese RRs that are in denial.

​Hopefully these musings will help set your expectations about the breed ... there is one thing that I didnt mention, to lovers of the breed, RRs are like potato chips or peanuts, one is never enough!!!
​
By Carole Bradley-Kennedy (as posted for RRCUS)

Rhodesian ridgeback standard clearly says:
Colour: Light wheaten to red wheaten
Wheaten is derived from the noun that describes grains that have that specific color
that is in the written standard of the breed, but if you ask us, this is also the colour of Africa.
​Savannah and desert shine in the same shades :).
Denise Flaim, the breed specialist judge and journalist from the US described it really good:
"Wheaten, which literally means the color of wheat, isn’t one flat, monochromatic color. If you look close up at a single Ridgeback hair, you will find that it’s actually banded, with light and dark shades ranging from a gold to a red. This variegation in the coat is what gives it “life.”
Look at these beautuful wheaten landscapes...this is excatly the colour that our breed has.

GCH VYRTUOUS CAMEO PERFORMANCE SC (USA)
​The most beautiful light-wheaten Ridgeback we have evers seen

We are so happy that we will add to our wheaten spectre one beautiful light wheaten girl from the last Komainu litter and then we will have a nice range of wheaten colours in our kennel.
Another light wheaten girl we have will also end up in breeding in other part of the Europe as she goes to the kennel, so we hope that the number of light wheaten dogs will start to rise and that the breed will be back on the track with its colours.

What is interesting about our Komainu litter is that we have a huge spectrum of wheaten shades :) from light wheaten to the red wheaten ones.

If you are not deep enough into the breed, you would probably say:
" Wooooo wo woooo...wait a minute!
In a previous text you wrote that Ridgebacks should not be too dark!
What about that dark puppy on the left side of a photo?".

Ridgeback puppies change coat colour while they grow. They start to change to a different color within a few short weeks after it's first day of birth. Although most of the change in color occurs within a few weeks, Ridgeback puppies will continue to change color all the way through puppy hood and adolescence, although to a much lesser, almost imperceptible degree. They eventually will settle into a their permanent coat color by the time they are about 6 to 7 months old.
So if you love some special wheaten shade, while choosing a puppy, look at the colour of puppy's forehead or legs below elbows. The wheaten shade on these parts of body will be the shade that your dog will have as an adult! Good to know, ha?! :)

So, it is important to understand that Ridgebacks should not be very dark.
It should not be mahogany or chocolate.
​These colours are not in Ridgeback standard.
Ridgebacks are "wheaten" in all shades from light-wheaten over 
(mid)-wheaten to the red-wheaten colour and we love them all.
​​