Ranger

Monday 15th October.

I took a chance this morning and took all of the dogs together on their walk, it was a delight watching them all interact. Ranger is very unfit and cannot keep up with my dogs, he is clumsy when running through the woods and cannot negotiate obstacles very well such as a broken tree in the path. I am confident he will be whipped into shape in no time.

He slept with me again last night as he started to whine when left with the other dogs, at this stage I have no problem with this as he is having to adjust to a lot of new things all at once. Later I am taking him to my friend Julian who has a Ridgeback called Simm, more playing and running, he is going to be exhausted.

I have lived with big dogs most of my life and Ridgebacks for 21 years and I cannot emphasise enough the importance of exercise. Free running everyday, not just when It suits the owner is essential for physical and psychological welfare of any dog. Ridgebacks are hounds and they need to be allowed to follow their natural instincts which is to use their nose and sight and to run free. The size of the garden is irrelevant. I have 20 acres but my dogs do not venture far from the door. They wait for me to take them out.

I need to work with Ranger on recall, so far, he has shown little enthusiasm for coming to me when called, hopefully he will take his cue from the the other dogs.