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To: Ditter

When I mentioned prey drive, I didn't mean towards humans. !! LOL I meant towards cats, squirrels, rabbits, etc. If they see a fast-running-little-furry-thing and you don't have 100% reliable recall on them, they are highly likely to chase the prey... and they will ignore the fact that they are running out into the middle of a street where they can potentially be hit by a car, etc. All I meant was that Ridgeback owners have to be especially diligent regarding the safety of their dogs... they're not like Labs or Shepherds.

Ridgebacks are naturally protective of their home territory, that's one of the things they were bred to do. And due to their size, they can obviously put a little fear in people. But sometimes this protective instinct doesn't kick in until 2 years of age or so. I've known puppy people who have wondered when their dog would start barking when the doorbell rang... and then when the dog turns 18 months or 2 years they write back and say "Ok, now he does it!" It doesn't need to be trained, it just happens when the individual dog matures and recognizes it as their job to protect the pack.


219 posted on 04/02/2007 2:19:59 PM PDT by BagCamAddict
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To: BagCamAddict
My RB’s didn't’t pay any attention to prey animals, just humans, but they were protective of us rather an vicious toward other people.

I understand prey drive, in the years since the RBs died we have had 8 Jack Russell terriers. That’s a lot of prey drive right there. In fact there is a rabbit hunt going on in the back yard right now.

222 posted on 04/02/2007 3:22:57 PM PDT by Ditter
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