Why do dogs bark at black people?

[Julius]

Any ideas? My labrador likes everyone and everything, even the postman and cats.

But if a black person happens by, it's fucking on.

[Julius]

No racist bashing please.

I'm looking at you Joe Thunder. Don't even start.

[Hardrock69]

One day back in the 80s, I had pulled up to a stop sign in my car, and was waiting for the traffic to get clear before driving on down the street.

Across the street, walking towards me on the sidewalk on the left side of the street, were 3 brothers.

They just barely got to the yard of the house on the corner, and this little yip-yip poodle jumped off the porch and began to run towards them barking like crazy.

I swear those 3 guys somehow jumped up in the air, moved 10 feet over to a parked car, and landed on top of the car without ever touching the ground.

Happened in a nano-second.

It was amazing to behold.

Too bad they could not have put that anti-gravity talent to good use and signed an NBA contract.....as fast and high as they flew that day, even being as short as they were they could outscore Shaq....

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
Across the street, walking towards me on the sidewalk on the left side of the street, were 3 brothers.

How do you know they were brothers ??

[Julius]

Originally posted by Hardrock69


They just barely got to the yard of the house on the corner, and this little yip-yip poodle jumped off the porch and began to run towards them barking like crazy.

I swear those 3 guys somehow jumped up in the air, moved 10 feet over to a parked car, and landed on top of the car without ever touching the ground.

Happened in a nano-second.

It was amazing to behold.

Where I live many cities and municipalities are banning pit bulls and bull terriers because they believe them to be hostile and dangerous.

I think they've got it wrong, poodles are the real danger. Those vicious little ankle-biting cocksuckers should be eliminated with extreme prejudice.

[col5150]

This is wierd. My neighbour lives above me in his flat (hes a black dude)and we have six in a block whenever i pass him in the block with my dog my dog does bark at him, although if he meets anyone else in the block he doesnt bother. If we are on the street and he sees the guy out on his bike same deal.

i am in no way being racist its just bizare

[Millermoos]

My dog doesn't like catholic priest. When I went on holiday in Rome, Italy every time a catholic priest came along he went for them like there was no tomorrow (yes they do dress all in black)!!!!
Millermoos

[jero]

Originally posted by col5150
This is wierd. My neighbour lives above me in his flat (hes a black dude)and we have six in a block whenever i pass him in the block with my dog my dog does bark at him, although if he meets anyone else in the block he doesnt bother. If we are on the street and he sees the guy out on his bike same deal.

i am in no way being racist its just bizare

maybe it's your bike?

[ELVIS]

Is it possible that your dog could be a racist?

Some scoff at the idea, but others say canines can learn prejudice against particular races.


By Mekeisha Madden Toby / The Detroit News




In the "Racist Dawg" episode of "King of the Hill," Hank Hill's dog senses Hank's resentment of having to turn over repairs in his home to a professional, voiced by Bernie Mac, and the dog's hostile reaction is mistaken for racism.


On the latest episode of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David and his wife, who are white, purchased a dog. All seemed well until their friend Wanda Sykes came over for a visit. Upon seeing her, the dog went insane, barking wildly at Sykes and trying to bite her.

Sykes, who is African American, said the dog is racist and leaves. Whether the dog is racist and what to do about it was a thread throughout the episode, which aired Sunday.

Just the phrase "racist dogs" sounds like a punch line. In fact, it has been on a few TV shows. In addition to "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central had a sketch based on the idea. It also was a humorous storyline on an episode of Fox's "King of the Hill."

But for some, the idea is no joke. Type "racist dogs" into Google and what pops up is a whole world of chat rooms arguing about the question: Can dogs be racist?

Of course, plenty of people scoff at the idea. But there are others, including both owners and people who study dogs, who say Rover can be racist.

Central among believers is Nicholas Dodman. He's a veterinarian and director of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.

"Certain dogs may be only aggressive with certain types of people," says Dodman, author of "Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-Z Guide to Understanding and Curing Behavioral Problems in Dogs" (Bantam, $14). "Some dogs don't like fat people, people with funny hats or men with beards.

"And some dogs don't like black people and are racist."

American culture often looks at racism only as a belief that a particular race is superior to others. But racism also is defined as treating people differently based on how they look. That simpler meaning is more key to the idea that dogs may be capable of racism.

Susie Essman, one of the stars of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" who appears in the racist dog episode, says her own pup prefers Asian people.

"I adopted my dog, who is from Japan, from a rescue shelter," says Essman, who is white.

Her dog Sumo is a 5-year-old Shih-Tzu. "The people at the shelter said he was cuddly but not a licker. And they were right. He cuddled me all the time. And then I brought my boyfriend's daughters over, and they're half Asian, and he practically licked their faces off."

Melissa Laiserin, a PetSmart dog trainer and program development manager for pet training, said clients often ask if their dog is racist. Her answer is always "no."

"Dogs don't work that way," says Laiserin, adding that dogs can be prejudiced against an individual but not a race.

Jeanette Robbins of St. Clair Shores still isn't sure whether dogs can be racist or are just individually biased. Robbins, who is white, had a dog who despised his veterinarian, who was Sikh.

"He took one look at his turban and tried to attack," says Robbins, who eventually gave the dog away. "We had to muzzle him so the doctor could treat him."

But Dodman, the Tufts University veterinarian, doesn't question whether dogs can be racist. He says explaining why dogs might be racist is the same as trying to clarify human racism.

One reason, he says, is a lack of exposure. Dogs should be exposed to all different types of people in the first three to 14 weeks of their lives.

"Whatever a dog is exposed to in that early period is expected and processed as the norm," says Dodman, who has studied animal behavior for 15 years. "That's the period where trust is also built. After about six months, a dog can develop neophobia, or a fear of anything new. What or whoever that new thing or person is can be viewed with mistrust."

But neophobia wouldn't necessarily dismiss all seeming prejudice on a dog's part. Sometimes dogs specifically treat people of an unfamiliar race differently based on negative encounters and associations, Dodman says.

"If a man with a beard abuses a dog as a pup, that pup will grow up to dislike men with beards," Dodman says. "The dog figures that this man was bad, so all men who look like this are bad.

"That association can and does happen with race."

That doesn't mean dogs treating some people differently can't be due to their owner's intent. Dodman says dogs can be taught to hate certain people.

Annette Dukes agrees.

"Dogs don't think white people are good and black people are bad unless someone teaches them that," says Dukes, a property manager who lives in Detroit.

Her own experience with the idea of a racist dog isn't exactly conclusive. A little girl at a home Dukes was visiting told her the household dog, a Great Dane named Cujo, "eats blacks."

Dukes, who is African American, didn't wait around to find out if Cujo was racist. She left.

"I wish I could thank that little girl. She saved my life," Dukes says, only half jokingly. "I'm 5 (foot), 2 (inches tall) and that dog came up to my breasts. I wasn't taking any chances."

Of course you might ask -- couldn't it just be that the little girl was racist or just didn't like Dukes personally? Sure. But Dukes says she took the cautious route based on what she says is historical context for the idea that dogs can be racist.

"Look at the Civil Rights movement and the dogs that were used against (black people)," she says.

The German shepherds who attacked African Americans during civil rights marches is one of the historical incidences some say give credence to the idea of prejudiced dogs, along with the Dobermans sicced on Jewish people during the Holocaust and hounds sent after African Americans who tried to escape during slavery.

Counterarguments place the blame back on humans, not dogs. Dogs were certainly trained by people to attack in those incidents.

And verbal cues aren't required for a human to motivate a dog's actions. Dodman says dogs pick up on the feelings of their owners.

Dr. Grace Chang at Southfield Veterinary Hospital agrees. "Dogs can sense the fear of their owners. So if a person fears people of a certain race, dogs can pick up on that." But, she adds, "Dogs can also attack or growl because they are territorial and protective."

Chang, who has been a dog doc for more than 20 years, doesn't believe dogs can be racist. But she does refute the common belief that dogs are color blind.

"Studies now show dogs can see some color," Chang says. "They can also see black and white and tell the difference between the two.

"I've never had a dog turn on me because of my race. But I'm Chinese, so I don't know how dogs process that."

[The_KiD]

Curb your Enthusiasm (Larry David) on HBO did an episode about this. He bought this really nice Boxer who was just great and nice to everyone. He named him Sherriff. Larry's friend who was black came over and the dog turned went nuts.

Then it happened again when some black workman came to the house. He was convinced the dog was a racist. Anyway, funny as shit episode..

KiD

[ELVIS]

If you knew how to read, you would find that information already in the post proceeding your ramblings...

[Cathedral]

Dogs are color blind so they don't see anything but in shades of black and white.
It isn't a racist animal because of this, it is that for one, they sense fear in people and just like white folks fear dogs owned by blacks, the reverse is true with white dog owners.

There is a social stereotype where we typically think that people who are biased towards a certain race of people will train their dogs to reflect that, but in most cases it simply isn't true.

However, they do sense the agression level of their owners towards other people and then it all becomes a reaction by association with anyone else who shares a particular trait.

Owners who are generally shitty to everyone have dogs that don't like anyone but its master.
And any dog will attack if you are on their property, just pray the owner is around to keep it from killing you if it is a good sized dog.

Ever hear someone tell you not to smile at their dog?
We were at a friends garage helping him prep his race car for paint with his pit bull running around loose as it always did, it basically ignored everyone and was very obedient to his master.
Anyway, the only rule was to never smile at the dog and one day another friend was horsing around with it, playing with a rag and the dude got in its face and all jokingly smiled at it and the dog instantly attached himself to the guys neck busting his main artery, and he wouldn't let go at first. the blood running down its throat almost choked it and it released.

Well, that dude ended up with over 150 stitches and lots of blood loss, he almost died for sure.

We all learned that day that in a dogs world the showing of teeth is an instinctive display of agression. By smiling at a dog you are intimidating it in what it percieves as a threatening manner and then it reacts.

Two rules of thumb when dealing with dogs, no matter what your skin color is...Don't show fear, don't even let yourself feel it or the dog senses it.
And never smile at a dog, especially if it is an animal big enough to overcome you.
Little dogs can be booted across the room, bigger dogs will eat you.

[Hardrock69]

1. Elvis, they were black, mmkay?

2. Dogs are NOT colorblind. That is a myth. They are "color-limited".

Here is an explanation:

http://www.puplife.com/dogcaretips/howdogsseecolors.html

[jhale667]

I agree with the 'owner aggression level' statement. If you don't hang out with people of different races---and especially if you're HOSTILE towards other races, the dog will key on that (my ex-girlfriend does animal rescue work, w/pit bulls specifically, she could tell ya stories). As for the poodle thing, my sister had one when we were kids, but we hung out with EVERYBODY, so he only hated mailmen....

[bueno bob]

I don't know, my dog just hates everybody except me...