Can't visit friend as her dog is racist

I have two dogs and I live in a very diverse part of London.

Neither of my dogs react any different towards black people but I've had two dogs in the past who did - my childhood dog and my first rescue dog 30 years ago.

I was always baffled.

My sister’s dog would bark at black people. It isn’t dog racism, it’s barking at the fear of the unfamiliar (although our old dog was pugist, hated them after he, a 50kg dood, was attacked by an untrained small, snuffling thing on a string).

Our remaining dog is very much not ‘racist’ and adores our black vet from South Africa (he is a frequent flyer with regular blood tests as he has medicated hypothyroidism). His vet says taking his blood is 2 seconds to do the actual blood test, then 5 minutes for cuddles lol.

Ted’s a big, fluffy, gentle bear of a dog who attracts lots of children for stroke and hugs of all creeds and colours.

However, chimneys give him the bloomin’ willies.

The dog isn’t rascist! Dogs can’t compute that concept. It will just be he hasn’t seen or been around people not like his owner and is fearful therefore. She needs to do some behavioural training/ socialise the dog .- I would suggest this your friend. In the meantime, can she lock the dog in a separate room when you come round?

Dogs see in black/white/grey it's not that the dog is racist but the dog can't make out facial features as well on darker skin so they can't tell if you are actually friendly as easily. Most people won't interact with a barking dog so the problem persists.

My dog used to growl at black people too. I was so mortified. But I trained her out of it and she's no longer racist. Ironic thing is, she's black herself 😂

So your dog is a paedophile 😂

My sisters dog is a racist too! Does not like black or Asian people and barks and growls at them! No idea why as the dog is a black dog himself 😂

My dog is white and I can tell you this seems to be a thing.
My own dog is terrible with people in wheelchairs but only if they’re moving.
Dogs are weird..

My dog hates anyone with glasses 🤷

I bet if he had been brought up by a black person the dog would go crazy at the sight of a white person. It's what the animal is used to.

My dog hates all dogs except for golden retrievers. My DH thinks it’s because I’m blonde. (The dog sees me as her pet.)

Our dog is also racist. Also prejuduced against women wearing black leggings, people exercising in the park, and shopping trolleys Basically anything outside of his tiny mind's experience, so just like human bigots.
On the plus side, though, he is easily swayed by biscuits, so that may work

I can beat all of these... My fat yellow lab was very waggy and friendly so everyone wanted to pet him. Unfortunately he would try to hump small children if I didn't get to him first. Mortifying.

I have a pom she is def racist. My oldest ds is whites and so am I and she doesn’t bark or bite us but my dh and youngest ds are mixed race. She will attack them and my fil. I’ve tried everything to stop this aggression and she came into my family 3 years ago and I have been married 25yrs and my youngest ds is 23. It’s so bad that my husband and son are now scared to move

My chihuahua is also a racist! Its bloody embarrassing 🙈

My daughters dog is the same. So strange

My dog hates white dogs. And she fucking hates pugs, as they don't have proper faces.

My dog was run into quite hard by an elderly Chinese man on a cycle. He had a lifetime fear/hatred of elderly Chinese people - and anybody whizzing by him on a bicycle or skateboard.

I've got millions of freckles, so we should get on fine, then.

We have two dogs and one reacts badly to dark skinned people. It is a thing. I have been told variously that dogs have poor black and white eyesight so that could cause it. Also if something happened during their development maybe.

He’s not racist. That’s not the definition of racist- he is poorly socialised and likely doesn’t see many black people and so reacts with fear or uncertainty. A friend had a dog like this - anyone with glasses he would go mad and make a huge scene.

Seemed pertinent:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OBT3MUxEum0

If I hadn’t experienced dog racism, I would have never believed this post. We have a pure black dog and the amount of dog owners that will cross the street to avoid us while shouting ‘my dog doesn’t like black dogs, sorry’ it’s apparently more difficult for dogs to differentiate features if an animal or person is darker due to their vision.

I thought I'd done a pretty good job of socialising my terriers until one went ballistic at the sight a "3 legged human". He had never seen a person who had lost a leg walking with crutches.

I was chatting to him and apparently my dog was not unusual.

This is the first thing I thought of 😂