Thai ridgeback dog - Thaidog - Thailand ridgeback - Mah Thai Lang Aha

Appearance

Thai Ridgeback will certainly attract by its imposing and oriental appearance although many people do not know about the breed yet. Anyway, whoever meets this dog will not overlook it. It is a middle-size dog whose athletic body may be described as consisting of very compact, well-balanced body parts. Length of the body is slightly bigger than height at withers (the proportion being 11 to 10). The difference between a dog and a bitch is relatively great. A dog is of 56 - 61 cm of height and 19 - 27 kg of weight while a considerably more slender bitch is 51 - 58 cm tall at withers and 17 - 23 kg heavy. Although Thai Ridgeback has numerous colour varieties, there are only four officially acknowledged colour types: various shades of chestnut, black, blue, and silver. The colour must be pure with an according pigment colour. Its hair is very short, thick and it sometimes feels velvet-like. The high held head draws the most of attention right after the imposing body and charming curves. Its typical features are numerous forehead wrinkles giving its face the oriental and mysterious expression supported by amber coloured eyes of blue and silver variety dogs. The colour of eyes of the remaining colour varieties dogs is dark brown. Another typical feature are big, raised ears turned forward. Thanks to the shape of its head and the mimicking of the face Thai Ridgeback seems to be thinking over something all the time. Another specific feature is the tongue which can be all pink, although the tongue with a varying number of dark spots is preferred. The relatively tall tail is held upwards, or it may be turned sideways in a sickle shape. An important mark of the breed is the ridge at the back formed of the hair growing against the orientation of the rest of hair. The ridge starts right behind the withers and leads to the hip joints. Although other breeds may have this ridge, only Thai and Rhodesian Ridgeback breeds have the ridge prescribed by the standard. While the narrow ridge of Rhodesian Ridgegack must form a fold enclosing two symmetric whirls, the Thai Ridgeback whirls have eight different shape varieties (see picture). However, both whirl types must be symmetric and well-defined.

Basic forms ridge of Thai ridgeback

Venice vom Tor zum Rheingau

Vilou vom Tor zum Rheingau

A contrast between male and female in 6 weeks

Thai Ridgeback is an utterly sporting dog. It loves running, is capable of enormous jump and climb skills evident since puppish age. Its graceful movement shows beauty, speed, power, vitality and perseverance, the absolute balance of which reminds of a horse trot. However calm and lazy dog it may seem at home, it is lively outside, showing great pleasure in exercise. Motion is very important for the dog, although it is equipped with hunters instincts making not only education but also free movement complicated. Long ago the dog was used for independent hunting; when a game appears, the dog naturally follows it. Therefore it is vital to partially suppress the hunters instincts at least in the tender age if we do not intend to keep the dog at the lead or locked in the garden.