Since when have Ridgebacks been bred to be aggressive towards humans....I always thought their inherent nature was to hunt loins and hold them at bay, at no time were they bred to engage their prey

As far as I'm aware they were also used to hunt natives in Africa, though I wouldn't be able to find you proof of that. Sorry, was probably a bad example then.

Yes

That's exactly what I Asked

thank you

and now the picture is bigger you can see the alamy mark

That's true actually

my Greek friend was only telling me recently when he grew up.a.kid in rhodesia where his family owned factories it wad common for white farmers to breed and train ridges for attacking lions and blacks

One farmer didn't realise they. make good swimmers as well and found out the hard way his river didn't make a good border when his dogs killed all his cows in one night!!

Hi I am sorry to argue the point re Ridgebacks,or they will be getting a bad name and they are beautiful dogs,what the farmers have done is mixed the ridgeback with a mastiff type,to defend their farms and property. I lived with a lot of South Africans in MK and one of them used to be a policeman,and he used to go in raptures about this dog,I smiled sweetly and nodded my head,I will look up the article its name was an Africaan one.Gemini54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6cB52xQNV0

That just means two different people relating two different experiences they can both be correct .

Why would any if this tarnish the name of ridgebacks? In my story, at least, I'm talking history and another continent



I train a.ridgeback now its all separate in my mind and most people I know don't know anything much about them anyway and everyone loves him

Oh and I didn't say they were bred to be aggressive towards humans, I said they have a history of use against humans. In no way am I saying ridgebacks are anything else than lovely dogs! I'm just saying that if you want to bring in the notion of genetics, there are a lot of breeds who are known to have a lower bite threshold towards humans than pitbulls and staffies. Any guard dog for example, simply because that's their job, to guard their house from intruders. Naturally they are less trusting of strangers. Again, not saying those dogs aren't fantastic beeds and great with humans, just pointing out the fact that staffies and pits were never bred to fight humans, which is what everybody seems to be scared of..

PS - just watched your video, its about boerboels. that's a well known south African breed separate. to the ridgeback. the whites kept both breeds for similar reasons . Boerbeels have been in UK for a while popular with the usual status idiots

Surely big part of the problem is all these breeds that have been bred to be dog aggressive or rat catchers even when in a pet home with someone who has no idea how to control this or worse still decides to encourage it towards humans will find it easier to do so than with a dog that has not been bred to be aggressive.

Or am I misunderstanding it all ?

Watched that video and then googled Boerboels and looked them up on Wiki too. I can't see that they have anything to do with Ridgebacks?