Our 'Slickback' (born ridgeless) Rhodesian Ridgeback rescuee, Kim, (the bigger and lazier of the two) meets his long-lost sister and littermate after 5 months of separation, during which time she's continued to be neglected and abused. We are planning to take her in just as we took her brother in when he escaped his abusive home and arrived on our doorstep 5 months ago. But as she is now nearly ten months old and has never received any training or socialising, we are going to have our work cut out. Luckily for us, we live across the road from a 20 Km long beach in a remote area, so there shouldn't be too many casualties! Despite ruthless culling (killing) of all ridgeless pups as enshrined in the Rhodesian Ridgeback breed standard, 1 in 20 Rhodesian Ridgebacks is born without a ridge. Anyone wondering about, or objecting to, the lack of a ridge on what must still be called 'Slickback' Rhodesian Ridgebacks will have to accept the ungainly nomenclature until breeders come to their senses and either admit the ridge for what it is — a medical deformity, iea mild form of Spina Bifida which puts the young pups at a 10% risk of a potentially lethal and medically expensive complication called Dermoid Sinus (an opening leading from the spinal cord to a hole in the skin on the ridge, forming a potential entry passage for bacteria etc. into the spinal cord or brain) — and either breed this dangerous, purely cosmetic deformity out altogether leaving all 'Ridgebacks' free from Spina ...
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