I've had it occur once or twice where an unleashed dog has come up to me and my dogs I had on a leash. And, started a bunch of sh_t. I chewed out this one person who was standing in front of her house watching her dog wreak havoc and didn't do a damn thing about it. If my ridgebacks would have attacked and kill that dog, then I would have no problem with it because the owner did zippo and let it go on for a few minutes while I tried to get out of there (imagine playing tug of war with two strong ridgebacks). The dog in that situation was a big breed lab or equivalent. In another situation, I had once of these poodle-type dogs off leash approach my ridgebacks and one of my ridgebacks totally took a bite and shake opportunity. But, the little dog was unhurt. In that situation, there were boys who owned the dog realized they messed up and tried to get their dog but it was too late before the confrontation. I've also been at the doggie ER and seen small dog victims being brought in (and died) having been attacked by bigger dogs That said...I used to find opportunities where I would let my ridgebacks loose because they loved to run and chase squirrels. However, I always made sure I did so in an area where I could see someone coming and retrieve them to leash them before a confrontation could occur. Or, I just picked areas where there really was little to no traffic. I can think of one time when I was caught off guard by a jogger where my dogs ran by him wagging their tails and he said "put those dogs on a leash". In my view, there is a responsible way to let your dogs off the leash to have some fun. You just need to be responsible about the process by choosing the right location and timing. I wouldn't do it if I were just walking them on a well-traveled trail or something...because then it would be an issue. But, those dogs are long dead now (six years). They loved being off leash, though. Good times.
That's a great breed. One of my pointers has given a large ass whoopin to a lab trying to play rough house. I'd be absolutely terrified if my pointer got tangled up with a Ridgeback. Aren't they bred to hunt lions LOL?
Not just hunters, they are used to hunt lions! I actually fostered a ridgeback who wandered down my mom's street in Friendswood about 10 years ago. Somehow, this giant bear of a dog had made it all the way from Lake Jackson ON FOOT down a random street in Friendswood - and after several months we found the owner. It was the nicest dog ever - although he had crazy-severe separation anxiety. He was fine as long as we were home, but literally tore the entire house up as soon as we left. After he made my GSD's kennel look like it was made of out pipe cleaner I went to PetSmart and was like "I need the biggest and strongest kennel you have!" They give me this huge kennel, with 1/4" bars and when I asked - "how strong is this, I have the world's strongest dog I'm trying to contain?" And they assured me that it could withstand any dog. Well... that damn kennel didn't last thirty minutes. Went to the store and came back, and the big goof had literally broken the steel bar where the lock was, in two and had ripped up the couch, and the carpet - FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM. Craziest thing ever. Needless to say PetSmart immediately gave me a full refund - they had never seen anything like it. Luckily we found his owner eventually, and he went on to live happily ever after on about 50 acres - but holy hell was that dog huge, and strong. I'm 6'-0" tall, and at the time was pushing about 250lbs, and he came up to my navel on all fours, and would "lean" on me for affection and knock me right the hell over.
Hahahahaha. That's insane what he did to that Kennel. It is too funny and a great memory going forward. The worst dogs I ever had were my favorite. Funny how that works.
Freaking dog would lay at my feet for hours on end without a peep, like the big dumb Yellow Dog in Funny Farm... but as soon as I left, dude went full METTA WORLD PEACE. Somehow he bent a 1/4" steel round bar about 35 degrees before it snapped off at the weld... and for me to push that beam back in place took all of my body weight, and jumping on it. Meanwhile he did it without a scratch. Obviously he had to have done it with his mouth - but there was no sign of damage to be found on him. To this day, if you told me I was on a hidden camera show instead of that dog doing it, I'd probably believe it. When he tore up the floor and the couch, he flipped a full size sleeper sofa upside down as he did it. Ridgebacks are like the Kevin Willis of dog breeds. So damn strong!
There is obviously variance in any breed. My ridgebacks were females. They never got over a hundred pounds if I recall correctly. They were strong and muscular. I have zero experience with the males. I imagine that's a whole other ballgame. I'd be guessing but I assume when they were hunting lions with ridgebacks...they were using males only. I couldn't imagine my female ridgebacks trying to coral a lion. They could barely coral a squirrel and most of the time were outsmarted. Instinctually, though, you just don't know how these dogs will behave in these situations. Introduce a lion...and they may go into attack mode. Who knows?
Our rescue was definitely on the larger end - almost great dane is height and pushing nearly 100 lbs (while thin), which is very large for the breed. Most ridgebacks weigh less than GSDs, and the males are usually only about 7-8 pounds and 1-2 inches bigger than females. We had thought he was a mix with a great dane because of his size, but he ended up being a full breed AKC registered which was astounding. He was basically the size of a female great dane with a broader build. And you're right about the muscular, they are a "ripped" breed who look like they could bark, "do you even lift, bro?"
