The breeder did her temperament evaluations, and I'm down to two choices.

1) Independant/Aloof - calmer, explores on his own, is indifferent to strangers after he investigates them, more of a "one person dog". When I visited them at 5 weeks, this puppy wasn't playing with the other puppies, he was off on his own. Is that unusual? The breeder thinks this dog will need me to be a very strong pack leader (which is fine by me).

2) Energetic/Social - will need much more exercise, warms up to strangers quickly, a little goofier. At 5 weeks, when I tried calling the puppies to me, this one was distracted by a toy but when he noticed the other puppy sitting in front of me, he came bolting towards me, sat down and pawed at me to get my attention.

I'm going to visit again on Sunday, and the pups will be 7 and a half weeks. I'll check them out for myself, but I'm trying to think about what will be better for me in advance.

I'm doing tracking with the pup, as well as obedience and conformation on the side.

What do you guys think?


PS. I know that if I want to get really serious about tracking that I should go with another breed, but I'm set on a ridgeback - it's a dog for myself primarily, a sport dog second. There's another ridgeback at the tracking club I go to, so I'll have someone with breed-specific experience.

PPS. Here's the indepedent/aloof puppy, who fell in love with my boyfriend...'s crotch.

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t183/heawill/ridgebackpuppies/?action=view&current=sleeper.jpg

I love Ridgebacks, but can't help you pick one out. I just wanted to mention you can also do lure coursing and straight racing with him. It's a blast, most dogs love it, and there's minimal training involved - just exercise.

 Quote: Elaine Matthys

I love Ridgebacks, but can't help you pick one out. I just wanted to mention you can also do lure coursing and straight racing with him. It's a blast, most dogs love it, and there's minimal training involved - just exercise.

Unfortunately, I'm in Canada and they aren't considered a sighthound and thus excluded from lure coursing. I could always take a trip to New York or Michigan, though!

Definitely choice two... I had a female malinois that was like your choice 1 to a "T" While she was a one-person dog, she ended up being unhealthily anti-social, was VERY hard to work with (since she didn't give a rat's butt if she pleased you or not) and I'm just glad she was only 40lbs and not ridgeback-size.

All in all puppy 2 sounds like a better balanced dog, and just know that ANY ridgeback will be a one-person dog to some degree as he matures, even if he isn't as a baby. A puppy of any breed at this age should be interested in human interaction. The breed is a hunting breed to begin with, you don't want to go out of your way to handicap yourself further with an ANTISOCIAL individual. JMO.

Best of luck and enjoy!

Hi Heather:

i'm sure you've done your research on Ridgebacks. We purchased a male Rhodesian from a texas breeder and he is now 5 months old. He was the 2nd largest male in the group and, according to the breeder, the goofiest of all the males. Having said that, we are socializing the heck out of him daily and he meets at least 10 new dogs a week and at least 20 new people per week and we're finding that his interest in them is decreasing on a weekly basis. The reason i bring this up is that every Ridgeback I've ever met has been fairly indifferent to strangers once they get to sniff them. I'd say go with the second puppy. he may be social now but as he gets older, that will naturally decrease. One that is that aloof and disinterested at a puppy age could become more disinterested as they get older. I

We also have a female GSD that is very friendly and more lab like (to my surprise and somewhat displeasure)with strangers and new dogs and at the male's age, we can already see a huge difference in their reactions to strange people and dogs.

Steve you are so right when you say that a puppy that is aloof can be a social dog later.We have a female GSD in our clulb when her handler went to pick her out of the litter I was there and this pup was so aloof , didn't care to come out and socialize with us, she kind of observed us.TODAY, she is THE social Butterfly of the group.We always talk about that everytime she comes out on the field.She takes nothing serious, she wants to play and lick you to death all the time.Very interesting behavior considering the way she as as a pup..