Ridgebacks are smart, loyal, and protective. They’re aloof with strangers, until approved by their people. They love to cuddle, and often think of themselves as lap dogs, despite their size! Whether you’ll share your chair with them is up to you. Because of their intelligence, they’re fun to be around. When running, they’re amazing, especially in a group. They’re athletic dogs, and once mature, are great for running, hiking, and usually accompanying horses on trails. When they’re not zooming around, they’re couch dogs.

They’re often good with children, but can be very boisterous and could easily knock a small child over unintentionally. It’s important to always be cautious about how children and any dog interact, and to also be sure the child understands when the dog is uncomfortable or trying to set boundaries.

There are many good explanations of ethical or responsible breeding, here’s one from the ASPCA.
ASPCA Responsible Breeding
The Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States (our national breed organization) also requires members to adhere to their code of ethics.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States Code of Ethics

Here’s a summary of what we do:

• Our dogs are pets. They live in our house, sleep on the couch, and on the bed. They get attention, human interaction, and cuddles every day – all of them.

• Before breeding a dog, we make sure all applicable health tests are conducted.

• Choice of the sire is based on complementary traits, and ensure that puppies are not inbred. Because our dogs are champions, we know that they have correct structure, and meet the breed standard, we’re also able to carefully choose the sire.

• Puppies are all handled daily, and are correctly socialized.

• As part of the RRCUS code of ethics, any dog we breed always has a home with us, and no dog we ever breed will end up in rescue. We want you to be successful with your dog, and we provide support for puppy owners to help you work best with your dog. We will support you for the life of your dog.

No, all ridgebacks are expected to have correct structure. While some breeds, including some hounds, have different expectations for the look of a show dog and the look and aptitude of a field or working dog, any ridgeback should be functional.

A show seems like a somewhat silly, archaic environment, with people dressed in suits running in circles with a dog. You just want a pet, why does this help you? The first thing the show world does for you is act as an extended test of temperament. In the show ring, a dog interacts with a stranger, who will touch them all over, and inspect them. A dog with aggression towards people is quickly eliminated. Being large dogs, we can’t carry a ridgeback into the ring, and they have to be stable around lots of other dogs. To be a good show dog, a dog first needs to just be a good dog, and puppies very much inherit temperament.

When a dog is successful in the ring, this means that they’re a correct representation of the breed. An accomplished dog has a much better choice of potential mates – we choose pairings very carefully, not just that we happened to obtain a couple of papered puppies.