We’re excited to announce our August 2025 litter plans!
Thank you for your interest in our breeding program! We are expecting our only 2025 litter in August, and we’re accepting applications and holding fees now. We take our job of finding the right homes for our puppies serious, and do not settle on just any applicant, so please read through our website before inquiring to be sure you’re on board with our policies and philosophies. If you are looking for a quality puppy quickly, then we are not the breeder for you. Folks usually wait for our pups months in advance. Read below for more info!
We paired our bitch Piper with Tali, a stunning stud from several states away. Piper was bred via artificial insemination 6/13/25. Both Piper and Tali come from long lines of multi-national champions and grand champions, with extensive health testing to ensure our future puppies have the best chance at long, healthy lives. This will be Piper’s first litter, and we couldn’t be more thrilled!
Our dogs and puppies are family. The adult dogs are health tested (no corners cut) and cleared for breed-specific genetic diseases and orthopedic faults (details on “The Dogs” page), as well as fed a partial raw diet. Puppies are socialized in our pack and with strangers, cats, chickens, ducks, rabbits and whatever other critters we may have running around the farm. We perform early neurological stimulation (ENS) on our puppies, and support some aspects of Puppy Culture as a part of our puppy husbandry. Our puppies are weaned onto a raw diet before going to their homes and allowed to play outdoors to encourage strong immune systems. We follow the Jean Dodds vaccination protocol (delayed administration/far apart between series) and care for the whole pack as holistically as possible in order to promote long, healthy lives in both our adult dogs and puppies. Puppies are dewormed, microchipped and thoroughly examined by their veterinarian before going to their new homes. Deliveries within the southeast are usually available for a fee. We rarely ship, but can arrange to fly puppies with a personal puppy nanny in some cases.
For this litter:
Discounts/priority for past owners
Discounts for working/performance homes
Applying early means you can follow along on your puppy’s adventures of being born–from the mating and the whelping (birth), its first solid food experience and outdoor play time, to your puppy’s first veterinarian visit. We post the process on all our social media pages and send private update emails to everyone on the reservation list. There are other perks to applying early that you may discover in the application process.
We require a NON-REFUNDABLE holding fee to reserve a puppy, which insures us that you are serious and committed about waiting in line for when the puppy is ready. If for some reason we are unable to provide you a puppy, the holding fee will be returned. As always, keep a watch our social media pages for the most recent news.
Contact
PLEASE NOTE! I live in an area devastated by hurricane Helene; our cell towers were decimated and haven’t come back online. I DO NOT GET GOOD CELL SERVICE, so I cannot call you. Texts usually come through, however. I rely upon Starlink for internet, but I still can’t make reliable calls unless I go to town. Email communication is my best and only way of reliably communicating with you. If this doesn’t work for you, then please find another breeder.
How To Apply
If you are interested in a puppy from the upcoming litter, then you must email me (ChicoraRidgebacks@gmail.com) to start the dialogue. If you are not willing to complete a lengthy questionnaire and answer follow-up questions; read, agree to and sign contracts; return these documents to me via mail; as well as place the holding fee if approved, then I am not the breeder for you. A Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy is a serious, involved commitment, and paperwork is just part of the process.
PRICING: My puppies are well bred, and therefore not cheap. I do not haggle on prices; I do not compromise my ethics to compete with the economy. Please do not begin the application process if you’re looking for a cheap dog quickly–I do not want to waste your time or mine.
Tire kickers need not apply! I spend a great deal of time and effort communicating and running the administrative side of things, so respectfully, I ask that you not apply if you don’t have an intention of following through if approved.
About Us
Chicora Ridgebacks is an ethical, responsible and occasional Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder located in rural western North Carolina.
I have owned dogs for decades and bred, trained and shown horses and other animals as well. I’m not a full time breeder; this is a hobby for me. I will not proclaim to be an “expert” because I am NOT an expert. There are plenty of other breeders who have much more experience and knowledge than I do; however, I work closely with my vets and mentors in this continual learning process and spend an enormous amount of time doing my own research, networking and educating myself. I go about this as responsibly and ethically as possible. Although there is a significant amount of science behind it, breeding is FAR from an exact science–it’s impossible to get everything right all the time. It takes a lot of work, planning, time and money to responsibly breed. When I do make plans for a litter I am selective, serious and cautious in my preparation. I’m dedicated to ridgebacks and in being a tiny piece in the bigger picture of helping to advance ridgebacks in ways that are ethical and conscientious of the breed’s standards.
My dogs’ health and well-being are my top priority. They are fed a partial raw diet (much of which we raise on the farm) and they enjoy being the official farm dog mascots on my hobby farmstead. Over the years we have shown in conformation, participated in Nosework and competed in lure coursing competitions as time and finances permit.
HEALTH and/or GENETIC TESTING: I health test my personal dogs for some or most of the following as soon as they are eligible. Some are considered tested through parentage, and I may decide to retest in future generations.
- OFA hip dysplasia
- OFA elbow dysplasia
- OFA patella
- OFA eye
- OFA cardiac
- OFA thyroiditis
- OCS (Osteochondritis)
- Degenerative myelopathy (DM)
- Hemophilia B (Rhodesian Ridgeback type)
- Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
- Ridge gene
- Hyperuricosuria (HUU)
- The D Locus (dilute) coat color test
- Canine brucellosis, Brucella canis (B. canis)
- Exercise-Induced Collapse (EIC)
- Early Onset Adult Deafness (EOAD)
I do NOT promote or recommend NuVet Labs. This is a multi-level marketing scheme. Dogs don’t need to be on these supplements.
The Goal
My goal and priority in breeding and raising RRs is to responsibly and ethically produce sound and healthy dogs that represent the breed’s standards. I want to provide the right people and families with healthy, quality companions that meet or exceed breed standards. I have strong, healthy and uniquely pedigreed dogs; I believe they can add great genetic diversity to other well bred lines, so I am also cautiously open to sharing my pedigrees with a very limited number of reputable and responsible breeders. While I’m happy to share the breed, and I enjoy seeing it get a bit of notoriety in recent years, I’m also very protective of it. I don’t want this dog to become as popular as some other breeds became over the past few decades, which were bred so much and with little regard for genetic testing that they still haven’t recovered.
Epidemic of Puppy Millers in the Carolinas
The Carolinas are unfortunately known in the ridgeback world for many puppy millers and dishonest breeders, with whom I refuse to be associated. These breeder always have litters on the ground, breed a multitude of other dog breeds, do not health test, or they only test hips or elbows and sometimes DM, but advertise their puppies as “health tested.” Such breeders have been known to continually produce litters from stock with known genetic issues, along with many other shady practices.
I don’t lower my standards in order to compete with the flooded market and people breeding cheap and poorly bred ridgebacks. While my expenses have increased drastically, I will continue breeding ethically and with pride in the health of my dogs and continued health testing of future dogs. Raising pups in an ethical manner takes an enormous amount of time, tears, money and emotional and physical energy. I threaten every year to quit breeding because making sure it’s done right is incredibly time consuming, expensive and stressful. I continue to do it because I sincerely love the breed, love (most of) the challenges, love raising puppies, enjoy the biological sciences involved, and love watching my puppies and dogs change the lives of their new families.
I require all of my future puppy owners to touch base now and then and be receptive of me occasionally checking in. I need to know how the puppies mature, about their health and temperaments, etc. This all helps me better plan for future generations of dogs/pups.
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”
–Proverbs 12:10