My wife and I have a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Grissholm (fav charactor on CSI) and as of late he’s been doing Odd things.
Ridgebacks are well known because they were originally used to fend off lions. They are strong, very courageous and fiercly loyal animals. Because my wife and I are usually very active people we needed a dog that was highly trainable with little maintenance once trained. And that is what we got. The dog listens to us, and rarely if ever deviates from his training. Here’s where it get’s weird
During family picnics he walks around the parameter of the yard, along the tree line and in front of the house. He never goes near the food, and rarely socialized with the kids. He will if confronted but he scans the woods from with-in our yard. Not venturing in just watching and scanning. Occasionally, a mountain biker will ride by and you can hear a low grumble coming from him…Never a bark.
Why is that weird you ask. Well for starter’s we didn’t train him to do that. If I whistle or call he comes right away. If I say “stay with me” he heels. If I say stay he’ll not move. But I have never trained him to case our yard. He just all of a sudden started one day. He’s a little shy of a year old and I think has made remarkable progress. But this casing of the yard and protecting of the fam is something I only read about untill a few months ago.
Does anyone elses dog do this?
Its kinda cool to watch! The other day a friend of mine came over to work on the tree house, both he and his Lab (Blix) and he commented on this behaviour. When we both sat and watched Griss would walk around the yard at every opportunity, while Blix would sleep under the tree. Occasionally, Griss would walk up to blix, no wag of the tail just a look. Blix would wag his tail excitedly and try and entice Griss to chase him or SOMETHING BESIDES JUST WATCHING HIM. It was fairly amusing.
Perhaps it’s the breeding? I have heard of Australian Shepards trying to herd children and such even though they had no prior training.
My mini-doxies are constantly wedging into tight places looking for chipmunks and are constantly on the hunt for bugs, which they snap up and gobble down, but your Rhody is much cooler. Who could possibly be afraid of, or intimidated by, a little bug eating dog?
Have you posted in recent pictures of your treehouse?
Perhaps it’s the breeding? I have heard of Australian Shepards trying to herd children and such even though they had no prior training.
My mini-doxies are constantly wedging into tight places looking for chipmunks and are constantly on the prowl for bugs, which they snap up and gobble down, but your Rhody is much cooler. Who could possibly be afraid of, or intimidated by, a little bug eating dog?
Have you posted in recent pictures of your treehouse?
Our dog does morning and evening yard patrol. When we go outside for cookouts and to just play she pees 55 times does a perimeter check and then commences to be a total goofball. We never trained her either. She just knows her territory and likes to keep it well monitored. She does bark though.
Can I borrow a bug eating doggie Lyllyan? I have 4 cats and a dog and none of them ever eat any of the bugs. They just watch them or halfheartedly chase them
I’ve heard lots of good things about that breed of dog, Phlosphr. (I find it really really hard not to type Philosopher!!!) We just have a mutt thats a shepherd something.
Tree house will be on a website soon. But I followed this design. I have a bunch of hard copy photo’s that I am giving to a friend to put on his site . I met him a few years ago and he is who originally got me into it.
This is the house I got the plans for, scroll around the interior. I modeled off of it. The only differences are that mine is more angular. The circular design is hard to do and much more money.
As for the Dog. Bruce - the dog is rather bad ass, he’s not afraid of anything. Literally. We had a large coyote a few weeks ago run into the yard after something, and Griss stood up, put his head down and growled very loudly. But a bark never left his mouth. I think in nature a growl is universally accepted as, “I know something you don’t know, don’t even think about coming an inch further,”
And he didn’t. The yote turned and left. We feel safe sufficed to say!
Wow. My best friend’s terrier once fought off a pit bull who had been left on a street corner by his irresponsible owner, after the pit bull had started to attack his mom, who was walking the terrier.
Another yard patroller here. Mine is black lab/german short haired mix. She does a dandy job of goofing around, but will instantly stop and snap to attention when something bearing watching occurs (person walking, cat, other dogs, etc). It’s kind of fun to watch.
I have an aussie who herds (but has never been trained to) - once introduced to sheep, she knew what she had to do.
It’s amazing to watch young Newfoundlander puppies near the water - even at 9 weeks of age, if they see someone splashing in the water, they’ll go in, grab the person under the arm, and try to swim back to shore.
You can’t train a dog to do that, really - it’s pure instinct… not only that, but in tests and trials, we’ve seen two newfs go out, rescue someone, and each taking a side (arm) to bring them back!
Many times, you’ll hear Newf owners tell stories about how their young puppy (9 months, maybe?) jumped into the family pool to rescue a drowning pet, kid, or person… no one taught them how, but they sure know what to do…
It’s REALLY cool when you think about it.
I have also heard of other “flock guardian” dogs who just sit there and stand watch when people are out and about in the yard… it’s like they know that’s supposed to be their job…
Yes I must say we really enjoy watching it. It’s only an extra added bonus that he doesn’t bark. And when we are inside he usually stays downstairs or up in the study where he can watch TV. He never goes in the Kitchen, not allowed. trying to squirt gun train the cat out of the kitchen but it’s not working.
your dog sounds badass. How is his temperment around children? I dont’ know much about that breed. Post a pic if you’ve got one.
Out of curiosity, now that you see this behavior do you encourage it? My family dog would sometimes do the right thing completely by accident but we’d toss her a pup-peroni treat to encourage it. Man, I want a dog of my own again.
Sasserfras is a pound puppy. She is about 2 1/2 yrs. I didn’t realize exactly how big she would get when I got her. She now weighs 90 lbs (the vet mentions diet frequently so she is on one). Everyone agrees she is Rhodesian Ridgeback cross. It is the cross that is debatable. I have had some tell me the cross is pit, but others who say no way she has any pit in her. She looks alot like your dog.
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When on a walk, if someone of questionable character comes close to me, Sasser will get right next to me. If the person continues to approach me, she will emit a low growl that is very effective. This happens if she is off leash as well as on leash. On leash she usually likes to be ahead a few feet but when I am confronted she will heel just like the training class taught her.
I cannot tell if Sasser would be a “patrol dog” because she is an indoors dog.
My late, much-loved part-Ridgie Queen Samantha would do something like that-- prowl around the yard, watch things carefully, do the low-growl bit when something annoyed her. She was a pretty playful dog, though. She could be easily distracted by a tennis ball.
The great dane I used to own, was like that,only with children. The day I got him, we were in the front yard with the lady I got him from, and the kids were playing in the yard. Every time someone came down the street he would go out near the street and keep himself in between the kids and the stranger. that dog had the deepest bark I ever heard. You would feel the bark in your chest when he barked. Scared the shit out of me the first time I heard it. I miss that dog so much.
I think I’ve met you in another Rhody thread, Phlosphr. Leo is Rhody-Rottweiler-something else. He is about 1.5 years old now. When we first got him, he didn’t show any sort of home-protective behaviors. Around about a year old, though, he definitely developed them without any prompting from us. He patrols the yard and barks at strange noises and yard invaders. Yes, he does bark, after giving that same low growl. Aside from the vocalizations, however, this development of behavior sounds very similar to Griss.
Leo has also chased off coyotes (more likely actually coy-dogs, given that we’re both in CT). One was at the tree-line at the back of our yard in broad daylight, the other was out in the street while walking around dusk.
That’s really neat, Phlsophr. Dogs are so amazing sometimes. I still remember when I was in high school and my mom’s boss came out for the day with her four-month-old Old English sheepdog, Ralph – who realized quickly that there was a horse pasture behind our house, and spent a happy afternoon herding the horses from one end of the pasture to the other and back and forth and back and forth and…it was clearly pure instinct, and great fun to watch.
My SIL trains guard dogs, and years ago was living in Guam and had a large female Rottweiler, Eva, who was gentle as a lamb except when someone came in her yard. There were some Korean construction workers next door who apparently kept eyeing her as a potential free dinner, and one day she came home to find them suddently giving her yard a WIDE berth while Eva had a large chunk of slightly bloody blue jeans from the seat of someone’s pants in her mouth. Didn’t do him any major harm, fortunately, but they figured out she wasn’t such an easy free dinner after all, maybe.
[hijack]So when are you going to post more photos of the Cutest Kitten in the Whole Wide World??[/hijack]
Ridgebacks are great with children (or at least should be). Sasser absolutely loves children and will follow them around whether the child wants to be followed or not. Plus it is kisses all around for all children.
I had a visitor to my home bring a very young wolf mix dog. Sasser immediately adopted this pup while it was at our home. She took it to her food dish and allowed the little one to eat. She brought it toys (her favorite ones).
When my mom’s dog was a puppy, Sasser was so good when playing with him. She would just hold a toy at one end while Jauque would tug as hard as he could.
From what I read Ridgebacks need to be introduced to new cats cautiously. Sasser is ok with my cat and on walks she ignore cats outside, but she will try to chase a cat if it crosses her path. I have never allowed her to chase said cats and her punishment is being forced to sit down while the cat removes her/hisself from the area we are in. BUT one thing I did for my cat is put a cat door from the hallway into my bedroom so that the cat can get away from the dogs if she wants. Not that Sasser tries to hurt the cat, just the cat gets irritated after awhile of having her private parts nosed.
Sigh. My dogs don’t perform yard patrols, but they do enjoy lookout; they’re happy staring out the front window or at the gate for hours, and they’ve become quite a fixture on the block.
When I first got Bailey, my PWD, I was greeted at the door of the breeder’s house by several adult Porties, all of which bought me toys, chewies, and so on. I was told that was a PWD trait, and that most of them will eventually start beinging gifts to visitors or returning masters. Sure enough, after about a year, whenever I came home from work, or whenever someone came by to visit, Bailey would first run off, get a toy, and then bring it over as part of her greeting ritual. When I was first introduced to Guinness, the rescue PWD that would join our small pack, he bought me a little stuffed animal.
Another strange PWD trait is the ability to reverse retrieve. I never taught reverse retrieval to Bailey or Guinness; they just knew. You do a sit-stay, take an object, hide it somewhere in the house, and then release. The dogs don’t return to me without the object I hid.
One job that Porties performed was the retrieval of fishing nets from the ocean. One time, Guinness greeted me with his newest gift; a large blanket. He now carries his security blanket everywhere around the house, as if he was Linus. Other Portie people have told me that he probably thinks he’s dragging a fishing net around, and that it’s also a common behavioral trait of the breed.
Paperback - yes we did meet in that other Ridgey thread. And I am in CT as well, though I think you already know that. The coyote looked awefully like a coytoe to me, but they are all mixed in with coy dogs around these parts. The training for our dog was done by a very patient husband and wife team…Mr. and Mrs. Phlosphr.
I worked with dolphins whilst in college, we trained using a target training very similar to obedience training. Essentially classic conditon…and don’t forget “Repetitio est mater studiorum” repetition is the mother of study…
It’s all repetition and patience.
For the dope who wanted a pic of my dog, reference the OP…
