Can't visit friend as her dog is racist

[CaliforniaCookie]

I was making plans to visit one of my best friends.
She is white and I'm mixed race.

She told me she was concerned as her new dog who i haven't met, is racist.

Anytime he sees a person who is not white he goes mental.

This is honestly not a fake post.

Not sure how to respond. Advice welcome.

My dog is Postmanist. He doesn’t care what colour they are, or even if they are Post women. He just hates them.

If a dog was actually racist, wouldn't its prejudices be directed towards different breeds? Like a British Bulldog hating on a German Shepherd because of WWII. Or a Jack Russell grumbling about black Labs, saying 'They all look the bloody same!'.

Yep- loads of dogs bark at my wheelchair. They just don’t get it and it freaks them out.

Loads of dogs also hate men or women or children, or people in hats or glasses. I can easily believe some are frightened by people with certain skin tones.

They are creatures with memories and emotions- it isn’t surprising that they develop preferences or fears based on their experiences, both good and bad.

What a load of rubbish

Right- so the dog is scared of a black/mixed race/darker skinned people.

one of the people he is scared of goes round his gaff- he is scared and reacts with aggression…

and the person confirms to the dog that he is right to be scared of them by doing something horrible and scary to him.

And you think this will stop the dog from being scared?

Is this you?!

There will be very good training guides on how to desensitise dogs to specific triggers. Sometimes it's a negative association, I remember reading about a dog that would go crazy at people in hi-viz vests. He'd been run over by a bin lorry and obviously associated the worker that helped with the pain he'd felt.

Sometimes these things make sense and sometimes they don't. My dog lost his absolute shit barking at a terror out the window which turned out to be a small bucket being blown around the neighbours paddling pool.

He also went insane barking at a snowman at the park, barking and bouncing towards it. Then peed on it and walked off like nothing happened 😂

It does make sense…a lot of dogs don’t like black dogs for the same reason.

I’ve got one who loves everyone and one who hates high viz, mobility scooters, border collies, French bulldogs, cats. He was six months old when I got him and he’d missed his socialising window.

This is the first thing I thought of 😂

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.

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.

Seemed pertinent:

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

My daughters dog is the same. So strange

My chihuahua is also a racist! Its bloody embarrassing 🙈

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

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.

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

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.)

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 anyone with glasses 🤷