Dogs barking at black people

[PrincessWellington]

We are not black. Had a black child in my house. Dogs used to visitors and are fine but we don't have black visitors usually due to area we live. They barked at him - a lot. A coincidence or is it they are registering he looks different?

Dogs apparently learn to identify familiar shapes as well as smells, so if they haven't experienced something as a pup they might find it strange. Mine don't like people wearing glasses, people with crutches, people who smoke, people in big hats, reflective jackets….

Yup my dog is racist. One of my colleagues came over from Kenya to our office and the dog went mental at her. I put her mind at ease by pointing out the dog also hates people who wear suits and hats.

With another dog I had when I lived in Africa was quite happy with all our colleague - both black and white. If a strange white person came up she couldn't give two hoots however if it was a strange black person she'd go nutso. Clearly a racist mutt even though she was African herself.

My previous dog was hattist. Absolute nightmare. I had to walk her past a wedding party once. I'm still not over the trauma.

owllady I think you misunderstood me- I was just trying to say there could be any number of reasons why the dog barked at the child, and that if the child had been white, the OP wouldn't have assumed it was because of his appearance.

How well do dogs see, by the way?

Cats always seem to hold eye contact much longer than other animals....

My dog has a gay-dar ,he does excited weeing when we have male gay visitors ,he doesn't do it when straight men or ladies visit . He is however not racist ,he loves my black friends but he does dislike golden retrievers .Dogs are just peculiar.

DD had a group of around a dozen school-friends round recently, one of whom is black. Dog was excitedly greeting everyone until this girl arrived, when he started fussing and growling at her. He never growls, ever.
She laughed about it, and tried to make friends with him, but he wasn't happy.
Frankly, it was embarrassing, but what was I meant to say?

Dogs are just peculiar

like people!

Lots of dogs bark at anyone or anything that looks different from what they are used to. What's so strange about that?! Hair, hats beards, coats etc. I think if someone has different colour skin and the dog has never seen that before its quite reasonable...

quirrel absolutely but fortunately I don't pee myself in the hallway when a gay man appears !

Oh God. My dog does this too . It's MORTIFYING. She also barks at black coats, hoods and wobbly elderly people or those with disabilities. It's horrific. I actually want to disappear into the ground. The people she's 'discriminating' against don't know she's discriminating, Thank Goodness, they just think she's crackers but I know, because she's perfectly sweet most of the time. And in case anyone is wondering, she's been socialized and trained to the back of beyond...I should probably go back to do some counter-conditioning with her. Grrrr....

hahaha yes we are elevated creatures at least

I'm happy to report my dog loves everybody.

must be nice to be perfect coffee

Dog is.
I make up for it by being perfectly horrid.

good system!

Reminds me of a thread where the OP blushed every time she met a lesbian
Did the OP say how she knew she was meeting a lesbian?

I had dogs like this.

There are many Asian families in this area, mainly of Pakistani origin. I don't know why but generally speaking the young girls are afraid of dogs. So upon seeing a dog will react in a way that the dog will thinking they are playing with them ie running away, squealing, flapping their hands etc.

This becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, the girls see the dog and react in a certain way, the dog reacts to the girls, the girls become convinced that all dogs will bark at them, the dogs bark everytime they see Asian girls, and so on. It is learned behaviour on both sides.

My neighbour's dog barks manically at red-haired people, including my DD (which must be a tad tedious since said DD calls every morning to walk to school with neighbour's DD), the son of another neighbour and the daughters of two sets of the neighbours' friends. Am going to send my red-haired DNephew round next time he is over to double-check!!

My dog was Disablist.

He hated white sticks and wheelchairs.

I tried to train him out of it by making him carry my copy of The Guardian home from the newsagents each day but it only made him worse.

Dogs can be anything-ist which is why early socialisation is so important.

Most people don't do anywhere near enough.

Mignonette

My dog loves everybody... until they go to fuss him, then he swiftly diverts with his nose in the air milliseconds from the point of contact, which I find quite embarrassing.

I have also had an 'oldist' dog in the past!

When we got our dog years ago she had a few issues, so we got a behaviouralist (sp?!) in.

This was one of the problems we had been experiencing too, and it was/is so embarrassing.

We live in quite a multi cultural area and the behaviouralist said it all came down to body language. A lot of the people who were black, in muslim dress, middle eastern etc were from countries and cultures where dogs are seen as dangerous and taught to be wary of them. We may be unaware of the body language but what the dogs see is eye contact and body stiffening from the human and general bad vibes which the dogs translate as aggressive. Which they then react to as a threat.

The problem is then that the dogs then see ALL people of the same ethnicity as being the same threat, even the poor ones who love dogs and just want a stroke!

Of course that could all be bollocks but thought I'd throw in a professional opinion I was told!

(P.s. although my dog has improved, we never managed to train it out of her completely)