One of my college housemates in the 60s had a big black dog named “Nigger.” The dog managed to get outside, and the girl was too embarrassed to go out yelling the dog’s name. She never saw it again.
Makes sense. I’ll go with that. But if we were talking about a black person that did look chimpish are ape-ish, would that allow that the caricature would not necessarily be racist.
I think most people would still perceive it as racist. The person making the caricature might not mean it to be racist, but given the context and the strong association of black people charactatured as monkeys with racism in this country, most people are going to think its a racist attack. The point of communication is what other people think you mean after all, not what deep down inside you really mean.
ETA: By the same token, I think the OP was right to warn off his co-worker. Coming from China, she might not realize the context her dogs name is going to be taken in, but thats not going to stop people from taking it in that context.
Probably less than calling Obama a black dog.
Bravo!
You could name it “Mr Obama” and that would tone it down a lot. Remember how on the Dick Van Dyke Show, Sally had a cat named, “Mr Henderson.”
Pfft. She should have said he was named after a war hero.
I don’t think naming a black dog Obama (or a yellow cat Tse-tung, or a white cat Pik) is necessarily offensive. But what do I know?
I wanted to name a pair of black kittens ‘Sambo’ &, iirc, ‘Negro’ as litter names once. My mother overruled me & called them Bruno & Martin. Well, they were her cat’s kittens, so not so much overruled as refused to take my stupid suggestions.
You must really get around, because I heard that story from a friend of my brother’s, except he spoke of a man who did this.
I think that, if anyone questions her on it, all she need say is that her father named the dog, not she. Was it racist of the father to name the dog that? Likely. Was it a particularly bad or dangerous instance of racism? Probably not. Does it reflect on her what her father named a dog? No.
So, a Dalmatian named Obama would be ok? 
Well, to me at least, he does look like a chimp and he does exhibit stupidity and cluelessness. Why should it be racist to call Obama a chimp if calling Bush the same name is NOT racist?
Unless you’re her older brother, I’d say let her deal with that.
Well, that person was being an idiot. I don’t know if we can save our friends from comments made by idiots.
For the same reason that calling Obama a “Porch Monkey” is racist, while calling Bush the same would just get you curious looks, but you knew that already.
In the OMG must share category, I just saw a Chia Obama on TV.
It’s the workplace. Pet pics serve no business function. It might be offensive to some, and that’s enough. She should take it down.
Hey Obama gonna make you move
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove
(Sorry, that was the first thing that popped into my head)
Unless it is a Kenyan Water Dog, it is racist.
Was her last name, by any chance, de la Poer? 
No, I don’t know that already so please explain. I’m not American so I’m not all that familiar with the subtext. My position right now is “what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander” unless I’m missing something. (I’m not feigning ignorance here)
Except that what the goose got here is centuries of slavery, legally-enforced discrimination, and a festering racism that persists to this day. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to just pretend that all that never happened. Hopefully someday we’ll be far enough past that that it’ll be acceptable to compare politicians of any race to monkeys, but we’re not there yet.