Can't visit friend as her dog is racist

a friends dog was like this, she consulted a behavioural specialist and they attributed to black peoples teeth being more obvious and dogs seeing them as aggressive for this reason. Her dog was also on the defensive towards wheels chairs and prams. I suspect all of this is about exposing dogs and training them.

Our vet back home had a one eyed border collie. He used to lie on his bed quite happily behind the reception desk.
Apparently he hated black Labradors and Rottweilers (maybe they looked the same to him, with his limited sight?) but he would come out from behind the desk if a collie bitch came in to the surgery. We had one, and he always came out to say hello to her.

Our collie bitch didn't like small children. When she was about six months old, my brother in law came to our house with their toddler, who had just started walking. Toddler was used to dogs, they had two of their own. The family we got the collie bitch from had older children who were very used to, and gentle with dogs.

But when the little one toddled in, our bitch froze. Just froze on the spot. Her hackles even went up. Our other dog, who was as daft as a brush, and loved kids, was all over the little un, and vice versa, but our bitch was actually growling at her.
She was otherwise a very gentle dog. But she'd never seen a child that small before, and we think she just couldn't comprehend what this small human like creature walking into her territory actually was. It absolutely freaked her out, and that never changed in the 12 years we had her. With all small children.
Older/bigger ones, she was fine, she'd seen them as a tiny puppy.

I think that with dogs, it's something that either triggers a bad memory in them, or they just can't comprehend what they're seeing, that it's something completely outside their understanding. We've all seen people of all ethnicities and skin tones, but if a dog's only ever seen a light skinned person, it might confuse and scare them to see anyone with a darker complexion. Or vice versa!
Of course it's not racist. But unfortunately, you can't explain it to them, either.

I've come across a racist dog before. He barked at his mistress's personal trainer on the laptop during lockdown and also went mad at her son's lifelong best friend who was a person of colour.

This made my day. Thank you! LOL

Your dog had good sense.

Probably the dog collar rather than the priest him/herself

My friend's dog is a rescue and terrified of men with beards. Goes absolutely mental. The rescue centre said they think he was abused by someone with a beard hence the fear. They've been trying to work with him on it but it's very challenging. He also hates Arab men in particular. Dogs can definitely be 'racist'.

All our household pets have had anti racism training and we have taught them about unconscious bias- something for your friend to consider.
Until then she could leave the dog at home/lock it in the garden when you meet up.

I had a dog who barked at anyone who was smoking cannabis

My cats hate blokes. One of them glowers at any man that visits

My old rescue dog detested children (wouldn’t be aggressive to them but would give them a very wide berth and bark if they came too close (so he was always kept on lead when out!)). I assume he was mistreated by children in his previous home.

However, he obviously couldn’t tell the difference between a child and a short adult - several friends just couldn’t work out why he didn’t seem to like them 😆

My dog hated priests.

Dogs can struggle to read black faces, canine or human, but your friend needs to get out with her dog and meet a variety of people.

I’m mixed race.

I had to sit through a work tea break listening to a racist colleague declare his delight at Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs trained by the “white” farmer owners to attack “natives” in Southern Africa.

😂😂😂😂

This dog story reminds me of an ex’s mother and her dog. The animal went ballistic when I first went over to their home and she had the AUDACITY to tell me that the dog disliked “colored” people, as he was owned by a black family before he was adopted 😂 I’m not kidding…

When I lived in South Africa years ago, people used to say all the time that they kept dogs to keep black people off their property, and many people there said it was a well known that dogs just disliked black people. And many black South Africans were absolutely terrified of dogs as they did get attacked by them frequently. I’m pretty sure not due to being racist, but a scientific fact of dogs seeing certain colours differently.

Bloody hilarious 😂 😂

She needs to expose her dogs to more diverse range of people.

I think people of different races can have different scents too (eg apparently Chinese people think that white people smell like milk) so this might be what the dog is picking up on too as being 'unusual'

My family is white and when we were kids my sister was good friends with a black girl who often visited and whose family dog was expecting puppies, one of which we'd been promised. So eventually we got a black puppy who soon settled in to his new home.

One day the friend's brother, who had never been to our house before, came with a message for his sister and our dog just went mad!!! It was much more than an over enthusiastic greeting, he bolted across and almost licked him to death!!! I remember my own brother laughing and saying, "It must be because you're both black."

Apparently, our puppy was the runt of the litter and the friend's brother was carrying him away in a newspaper when he noticed he moved and so he dashed back. Seems our dog never forgot who saved his life either. :)

That's cos cats are cool.

My pug is like this. She will walk passed white people no problem. But if anyone has very dark skin she goes mad at them.

It's very embarrassing

We had a dog who went mad at anyone not white, anyone wearing a hoodie or any postman/woman. No idea why, it was a nightmare.

Just don't go there then.Now how on earth can a dog be racist.

It's more likely it just hadn't seen such a person in that 12 weeks. Could just as easily had the same reaction to someone in a hi-viz coat or a big hat.