new life, new season

beautiful Beau and her 11 perfect pups

so! my first blog! i had the idea to start this blog/diary as a way to capture life with our first dog (dogblog) and also to muse about life in general, Oliver and i have recently gained residency in Canada (although i think of it more gaining residency in beautiful B.C. as the province is like a country to me in itself being 3 x bigger than England, plus i don't really have a desire to go anywhere else in Canada at the moment!) and i really feel like right now we're approaching a time of change in our lives, a time that i feel would be good to document.

i've ALWAYS wanted a dog, i believe right since i was born, but it's never happened.. as a kid there was no-one around at home enough, i got a guinea pig, then a cat, then another cat (all of which i tried to make act as dogs by dragging them round on leashes), THEN i got a horse which was very awesome and definitely as good as a dog but i guess it's still not the same as having a buddy like a great dog. I've been around dogs a lot - i used to learn all the breeds off by heart, take neighbors dogs for walks and even pretend to be a dog a lot in my childhood (don't laugh).

so finally we've reached a time in our life when things are in place to make it work, i think also as we're both getting to a certain age when one starts to think 'what the heck - let's just do it' we decided to make the life altering comitment and sacrifice to get a pup. we decided this probably about 6 months ago now and it was actually whilst we'd been out camping and hiking about in the woods of squamish we really felt there was something missing.. something that would really enhance our experience (and possibly also protect us from bears). that next week Oliver came to me and said that he thought we should get a pup and with me being more of the 'go for it' character and him being the 'careful consideration' character i didn't take much/any persuading.. although, in saying that and wanting to jump right in, i did want definitely make sure we do this thing right.

doing it right meant researching a breed first of all.. i'd liked weimeraners and vizlas for a while but had started to go off them a bit as they seemed too flighty and daft, Oliver was looking at hairy breeds which just don't do it for me.. we'd also both kinda liked the clever little parsons jack russell for a while as it seemed like a great hiking dog. but i wanted a 'proper dog' (which i think means a bigger one) and i still just couldn't help going for that hound type. i remembered some friends of friends back in england having rhodesian ridgebacks and i had fallen in love with them but never had ran into any more since. the rhodesian ridgeback is a beautiful handsome looking dog and it also originates from south africa so we thought this could be a sign! we did a lot of research about the breed over a few months and found out they were not regular dogs in character and temprament.. which attracted us to them even more..

"Ridgebacks are not Labradors or Golden Retrievers in short coats. They are hunting dogs and have a high prey drive. Translation: They are quite independent -- they don’t fawn over your every word, they can be oblivious to being called and require a lot of positive motivation to train them in traditional obedience. Many people just aren't prepared for the willful disobedience and hard-headedness in this breed." exerpt from www.ridgebackrescue.org/breedinfo/RRCUS_right_dog_for_your_family

other points that we became aware of are that they are often described as 'aloof' with strangers, they really need to be part of the family i.e. you can not just stick them outide in the yard all day and they need a lot of exercise and stimulation - so! more of a challenge but these qualities just made us like the sound of them more. we also discovered they are known for being super loyal to their 'pack leaders' (us), amazing family dogs/great with kids, very hungry all the time, like stealing the sofa and bed and hate being told off. i looked up some breeders in B.C. and decided to contact a couple of them to go visit and experience the real live ridgeback! In return we got sent the 'puppy questionnaire'.. a few pages of probing questions regarding the ridgeback nature and character, our lifestyles, what we intended feeding the dog etc etc it was very much an interview - you can't just randomly go buy a real rhodesian ridgeback from a real breeder, they actually really care about their dogs and the breed so they're definitely not willing to sell to just anyone!

in the meantime i bought a book to get me started generally, 'the art of raising a puppy' this was a really great starting point and covers behaviour as well as care and handling. i've since got a rhodesian ridgeback specific book which is very good and have a few more books on order covering raw feeding and dog behaviour and handling. i know a lot about horse behaviour and handling having owned and worked with horses for many years and i'm really noticing how much i love understanding the way animals work and how we can communicate to them in 'their' language. on another note, we had been slightly concerned that our landlord might not agree to us having a dog but after us providing evidence of our insurance covering up to $2500 worth of damage caused by pets they said yes and luckily the lady used to have dogs and secretly is pleased i know it!

so, passing the initial questionnaire test for one breeder, in april we visited the tamaridge kennel on vancouver island, Tammy and Mark were lovely and it was a great experience (apart from the expensive ferry ride which i got in trouble about eek) we met their dogs, two of which were 4 months old, they were all so chilled and lazy in the house, and yes they were kind of aloof with us, but not in a nasty way, they just weren't all gushy over us. a bit later we took them outside and suddenly they were full of life, ready for action, perfect! we got lots of great advice from them (including how to make beer chicken) and were put on their puppy waitlist for the next litter which is planned for early 2010. i think after this visit Oliver was also completely sold, i know he's after a clever, non-gushy/whiney dog and the rhodesian ridgeback seems to fit the bill.. apparently they never bark without a really good reason (probably like someone breaking into your house). We'll see.. i'm defintely prepared for some whining at least when it's a pup!!

back at home, even more loving the breed after spending time with them in person we really wanted to find some pups that were coming earlier than next year so we contacted another breeding kennel called beau bijou located in surrey nearish the u.s. border. we filled out a questionnaire and were invited to go and meet Avril, Paul and their ridgebacks, wow they were all beauties! again we learnt a lot from our visit and we met both the sire (Bandit) and the dam (Beau) of the litter that was due early june. Bandit had been bred by Avril and was a very sweet boy with lovely head, Beau was also very beautiful (as her name suggests) and obviously had a very sweet nature. so we asked to be put on the waitlist for the litter and were accepted hooraay!

Avril really loves her dogs and is so helpful, she began sending out info about raw feeding, injections/vaccinations, and recommending books, websites and forums to join so i'm pretty obsessed with all that right now. i'm also super interested in the breeding lines too and there's a pretty awesome website that traces back all the ridgeback lines (most with pictures) to the first 2 recorded ridgebacks called Lion and Como.

now the exciting news! the pups were born super early in the morning of monday june 8! 11 of them! 6 girls and 5 boys. i didn't expect that many and was pretty glad i guess because it gives us more of a chance of actually getting one! the really good specimens, with perfect ridges etc are often kept by the breeder or bought by another breeder so the good characteristics can be duplicated by breeding from these dogs thus keeping the breed correct. we're down for a black nosed male but we'll see when we meet them what their characters are like too. we have to wait until they are at least 4 weeks before we can go and see them as Beau will be very protective right now and also they are very susceptible to outside germs etc. in the meantime we have photos! and time to prepare for our new family member (this could be him below!)..

gorgeous snoozy 'Cool Hand Luke' - 11 days old
born June 8, 2009