Dear Leo,
Here is what Faith, your sire and dam's mommy, has to say about your sire, one of your brothers and your 16 week old photos:

"He is beautiful.........He is like Scooby, he will make heads turn when people see him.
A few more months and he will outweigh you!!
I have a picture of one of his littermates that was sent to me yesterday, you can compare, they are the same size and look almost identical.
But I think Leo has a more majestic look to him."

Here are pics of your brother, Woodrow. His mommy has this to say about him: "Here are the latest pics of Woodrow. He went to the vet this week and has gained 11 lb after these were taken. He is 44 lb now."

You're about 10lbs lighter than your brother, but that's ok. Everybody that has compared the two of you likes your look and appearance better, and you do spend alot of time being active, wrestling with your sister, Kansas, and taking 45 minute walks each day with her and mommy.

Faith also says " Leo is just beautiful. I was telling my husband what a pretty boy he is. I love being able to see him growing up. He looks like he might be just a little spoiled. I use to carry Scooby everywhere when he was little. He would go to the post office and go in and as he got bigger I couldn't take him in and he would bark at me for not taking him and then when I got back in the car he would ignore me. "

Gee, more hereditary behavior you seem to have inherited.

Here's the real kicker, Leo:

"Scooby flunked out of obedience school 4 1/2 years ago. It is harder to teach a male ridgeback than a female. They have there own thoughts about everything. Scooby wanted to socialize when he wasn't suppose to in class. Then the teacher thought that she was going to make him mind, he butted her with his nose so hard (kind of like a seal with a ball does) I could see tears in her eyes when he hit her. So I decided then that we would do our training at home. It took him growing up (2 yrs) not to be so distracted. They are to smart for their own good sometimes.

That's interesting that Leo wants to open the door. Scooby goes around the house and closes the doors to the closets if they are not shut. He tries to open the shower door by hitting it so that the magnetic catch releases. This morning he got in the shower and looked up at the shower head. I couldn't resist. I cut the water on for a second and he came flying out of the shower. He shook all over Dalton. He only had about 3 drops on water on him, but the way he acted, you would have thought that he had been drenched. If you close the bedroom doors and he is not in there with you he will bark. They are such remarkable dogs, I just couldn't have anything else."

That was in reference to the time I caught you standing on your hind legs at the back door, with your mouth around the doorknob- trying to let yourself in, mad at me because I woudn't let you in no matter how much you barked. You were barely 11 weeks old then!

I'll post my thoughts on that issue another time.