Breed Health

The Club attaches the greatest importance to producing Rhodesian Ridgebacks with good temperaments.

The Club strongly supports the KC / BVA hip dysplasia scheme and urges all it's members to ensure at least one and preferably both parents of a litter are hip scored before they are bred.

The Club has long held the belief that possible health problems should be acknowledged and confronted. As far back as 1968 the Club funded a research programme at Bristol University into the incidence of Dermoid Sinus. All Club members are made aware of the condition and the importance of checking for
it's presence in newly-born puppies. In 1997 the club initiated the Dermoid Sinus Project with the ultimate objective of establishing a DNA test for the condition which could, eventually, lead to it's elimination from the breed.

The club helps fund research in Sweden into Dermoid Sinus. Dr Nicolette Hilbertz of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences published a paper back in 2008 with her interim findings but with our and others funding has continued her research with amazing and unexpected results - she will shortly be publishing more of her finding and as soon as the report becomes available we will publish it on our site and hopefully she will be able to produce a long awaited genetic test for dermoid sinus. This research is cutting edge genetic research and we are proud to be a part of it, as technology becomes more available so does the likelyhood of understanding how and why  a small percentage of our breed (and other ridged and non ridged breeds) are susceptible to dermoid sinus.