We’re a brave breed known to stand up to the most ferocious animals – even lions! We earned the nickname African Lion Hounds in our old stomping grounds of Rhodesia, now modern-day Zimbabwe. We accompanied big game hunters on their excursions and always had their backs! Humans tell tales of us winning fights against lions, but that’s not completely true. We would, however, tease lions until they were disoriented enough to leave our humans alone. We also fended off baboons and herded oxen!

Our dog breed comes from the South African country of Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. We were bred by Boer farmers to be versatile, fearless hunting dogs, with the ability to stand up to big, scary, wild animals! Breeders started by mixing dogs like Greyhounds, Mastiffs, Great Danes, and Bloodhounds with a half-wild dog known as Khoikhoi. Khoikhois had a ridge going down their backs and pups born with the ridge ended up being great hunting dogs! As big game hunting became more popular in South Africa, we started tagging along with hunters to help them! They discovered we were really good at distracting and teasing predators, like lions, to keep them in place so hunters could get a good shot. When we weren’t working as hunting dogs, Ridgies were known for being loyal companions and family dogs. The Ridgeback breed started to fade out early in the 1900s as big game hunting started declining in popularity. In the late 19th century, a pretty famous big-game hunter named Cornelius Van Rooy