I’ve kept saying that Rhodesian Ridgebacks are a handful to manage, which is quite true, but here’s why exactly. Some of their issues stem from their innate behavior, while some are more related to their health and dietary needs which can sometimes be hard to keep up with: 1. The Temperament The biggest issue you’re going to have to deal with is this stubborn doggo’s temperament. He has a natural prey drive which is extremely high given his background as a hunting dog that was often used in capturing lions. This gave him this extremely prideful and headstrong nature, one that’s extremely hard to tackle aside from the side of the hardiest dog owners. He likes to think of himself as the alpha and the protector, but you’ll need to show him that he’s only second to you. You need to ingrain this into him from an extremely early age, usually done when he reaches 2 months of age. The concept of tough love usually works best in this case, you’ll need to be stern, but fair in your training, one that’ll punish stepping heavily out of line and reward good behavior. Providing him with proper socialization around other dogs and kids will help teach him how to properly behave around them, how to temper his approach and consider them as equals. They’re not the most aggressive, but their default nature may end up having them overstep and scare other dogs or humans even if that wasn’t your dog’s initial intent. If you can manage to curb his temperament however, you’ll have one of the greatest and most loyal family protectors on hand. 2. The Diet While not the pickiest of eaters, a Rhodesian Ridgeback will require a ton of food in his first 14-18 months of life. He’ll start off relatively small, but his rapid growth needs to be sustained by nutrients and energy which he gets through food. Making sure said food has plenty of vitamins, minerals, particularly DHA for healthy development of cognitive functions, and calcium and phosphorus for strong bones and cartilage, will be crucial alongside meeting his daily calorie requirements. It’s worse when you have to deal with allergies, but that’s just par for the course for any dog breed and not exclusive to the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Once you find the right kibble, things should progress relatively smoothly, though your monetary budget will need to keep up. After the first year, however, it eases back up. 3. The Health Issues Being a large dog breed, Rhodesian Ridgebacks suffer from a number of health problems, ones that I’ve already mentioned prior. The main problems will often be related to hip and elbow dysplasia and problems relating to his thyroid gland or his eyesight most of all. These are hard to avoid and will eventually happen with age, cataracts in particular in regard to eyesight. While frequent check-ups with the doctor can help, the builds of large dog breeds do make the issues with the joints a recurring issue, but can be mitigated through proper nutrition, at least to a degree. A few others exist, but are rarer in nature. The thing that makes this difficult mostly relates to your emotional state, and partly to your finances as visits to the vet aren’t cheap. Though, if fed and exercised correctly, Rhodesian Ridgebacks are usually healthy for most of their adult lives and only start seeing these problems in their senior years.