INTERESTING STORIES

Amazing Berlon Rhodesian Ridgebacks
- Send in by Nelius van Tonder -

We live on a 130ha farm close to Bronkhorstspruit where our four Ridgebacks have more or less free range. On our northern side we are surrounded by numerous smallholdings, an informal settlement, and just beyond that - a wild blue gum forest with all sorts of nice stuff for our Ridgies to sniff and chase about. To see them hunt as a pack at breathtakingly fast pace, covering vast distances is quite awesome. The oldest female "Avalon" instinctively does the flanking work while the male "Excaliber", finishes off the quarry as soon as it turns inside, with the 2 younger dogs Gotham (their daughter from a previous litter) and Rouge a rescued case both approximately 9 months old, bringing up the rear. When Gotham was younger the two older dogs would go out regularly hunting and bring back a partially eaten rabbit for her to feed on, their natural parenting and hunting instincts obviously very much alive.

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Mother instinct
- Send in by Adoree Louw -

Ch. Entle Sipho of Danntrig and Nyla of Danntrig had a lovely litter of 8 pups on 18 December 2006. Nyla is a very good mother and did not allow any other dog near her babies for the first 2 weeks. Another of the bitches, Demundeville Timone of Danntrig, was due to whelp on 25 December but this turned out to be a phantom pregnancy(she had milk and was constantly nesting, but no pups).Timone was very interested in and motherly towards Nyla's pups from the start but was not allowed close. At 3 weeks Nyla allowed the other dogs to get near the pups and Timone's mother instinct took over! She settled herself amongst the pups and within a few minutes the pups were sucking and drinking very contently! Nyla accepted the surrogate mother and all tasks are now shared - cleaning, feeding, protecting and all seem to be happy and content! On the photo you can see Timone in front with half the pups and Nyla at the back with the other 4 pups!