Is your dog a racist? Do tell!

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
141

None of the animals that I have owned, or was raised with had a racial preference or fear.

Dog breeds included:

(Parent’s dogs)
Peek-a-poo- Died 15 yrs of age. No issues.
Miniature poodle:- Died 14 yrs of age: No racial issues, disliked people in hats or masks.
American eskimo dog: 15 yrs of age currently- No racial issues, dislikes very tall or loud men.
Peek-a-poo: 6 years of age currently:- No racial issues. Dislikes small, aggressive children.

My dogs:
German Shepherd x Sharpei: Age 6: No issues.
Pitbull x Boxer: Age 2: No issues.

142

I agree with BobKitty. If you ever watched Cesar’s show on dogs you know we all give off signals that dogs pick up on. My dog had never seen this man before or one of his race and he was scared. Like Cesar says fear comes out as aggression in dogs. Boston Terriers are not barkers. They will bark once when someone is at the door or if they want to initiate play other then that they are quiet sweet dogs by nature. It may have been the turban or something the man was giving off?

He also loves most other dogs except ankle biters because of their inherent Napoleon complex. Bostons are small dogs that act like big dogs. He loves to play with big dogs that are playful like Labs and Shepherds. Very cute kind of like watching Shaggy and Scooby Doo.

Also it’s a no brainer that dogs that have been abused never forget. I wish I was that way. I don’t seem to pick up on danger signals as well as dogs do. If they are confronted by a person that reminds them of their abuser they will become fearful and also aggressive.

I hope this does not make my dog a racist, just smart, knowing when a human is a threat to him.

143

How easy is it to break an abused dog of that habit (being fearful around people who have abused them)? Cesar Milan’s always saying that dogs live in the moment and we shouldn’t anthropomorphize them by acting as though they have the same hang ups…but a lot of people have problems with what Cesar says, of course.

144

Forgive my prying, but do I correctly deduce from the above that your grandmother, you and your other blood relations are African-American?

145

When I was young, my grandmother (“Nana”) had what was supposed to be a toy poodle, “Herman.” Herman was not a toy poodle. He was definitely a white poodle, but was so fat that he must have been at least 30" around. Nana would have him groomed regularly, and they’d do the typical French Poodle 'do – cuffs, poofy tail, pouf on the head, etc. But with this HUGE shaved body. Anyway, I digress. This was in a Los Angeles suburb called Lynwood, which at one time was known as “lily white Lynwood.” It’s changed. Back in the early 70’s it was a hotbed of racial issues, with neighbors accusing neighbors of “letting” black families move in. My uncle taught Herman to bark at anyone black. Herman barked more and more as time went by. He would actually snarl out the window just because a person of color walked by. Eventually nearly anyone in the neighborhood, with the exception of Nana, was black.

Both Herman and Nana are long gone. Herman could be a very sweet dog, but he was quite the racist. Lynwood is now majority hispanic. I wonder how Herman would react?

146

No, but my family has only owned Golden Retrievers, a breed that divides the world into “people who can pet them again” and “people who haven’t had the opportunity to pet them yet” and ignores things like race, gender, age, size, etc.

One of them hated other dogs, though.

147

My friend has a dog Shermie that dislikes black people and runs up to be petted by any Asian.

  1. I’ve discussed this with her. A lot of times the dogs pick the vibe from their owner, eg scared or nervous feelings around blacks, passes on the vibe (dog see, dog do).

  2. Another, however, is that some dogs simply may not have seen many–or any–blacks in their lifetime until that point. People that “look” different–people who act like them, smell like them, but just don’t look like what people in its entire experience look like, are frightening to many dogs. My friend and her dog grew up in a lily-white suburb of Minneapolis, and we suspect that that is her (the dog’s) take on it. (That is another reason that many dogs go crazy barking at skateboarders: they don’t quite look like normal people, who have feet.)

As a similar example, when I and my therapy dog were going through classes to be certified, the instructor unexpectedly came into the room wearing a clown suit. Some dogs freaked (and were kicked out of the running).

  1. Related to that point is a “racist” amusing corollary about simply associating non-fear toward the familiar. This same dog–according to the owner–thinks all Asians look alike.

The dog’s owner’s closest friend growing up in Minneapolis was a Japanese woman. It seems that Shermie, using the same kind of doggie facial recognition, in the most general sense, got it through its head that not only do they all look alike, any Asian woman was her. I’ve seen him barrel into a crowd of complete strangers and purposely stop dead at the lone Asian waiting to be petted.

Hope this helps. It’s not just the vibe thing. That almost always puts the owner on the defensive when she herself is presumed to be the prime mover of the “racist” thought.

Best,

Leo

148

A friend of mine’s German Shepherd once went berserk when he sighted a black couple. He literally jumped onto the black male and started tugging at his shirt, barking wildly.

149

There is a thought among some Jews, particularly of the older generation, that German Shepards specifically are to be avoided and feared, so much so that it is thought that this breed is somehow anti-Semitic. To me it is clear it is not because of the word “German,” but because within living memory for some, indelible cultural history for others, German Shepards were the dogs of choice to harass the Jews into the gas chambers.

Similarly, many blacks are afraid or hate German Shepards because of how they were used to harass Civil Rights demonstrators in the Bull Connor age.

150

Brilliant comment re Goldens, who are sometimes referred to as “Velcro dogs,” which fits to a T what my Golden is like as are the vast majority of others I’ve met.

Goldens that show aggression of any kind are almost always the result of bad breeding, although I suppose a sufficiently vicious owner can mess up any dog.

151

Probably doesn’t count, but my high school girlfriend’s mom had a Yorkie that freaked out on hat wearers. This was true even if it was somebody known to the dog that put the hat on while the dog was watching. The bigger the hat the bigger the freakout, so a sombrero would cause a total meltdown.

152

My ex had the sweetest most well trained Rotty I have ever met. But for some reason he hated obese people. He never once bit or growled at anyone else. But if you were fat, you could get both!

153

I swear I read the whole thread so I’m sorry if I missed this, but I just wanted to draw attention to the (I assume) schlock movie “White Dog” (1982) starring Kristie McNichol about a dog that is specifically trained to attack (and kill!) black people. White Dog (1982) - IMDb

For the record I have cats. They disdain everyone, obviously.

154

Year ago, our beagle Dolly used to bark much more violently at Black people vs. white if she didn’t know them. She’d bark a few times at a white stranger, then calm down, but never seemed to calm down at all if the stranger were Black.

Can’t really say why – there weren’t a lot of Blacks in our town.

155

Dogs operate with a set of senses that humans have ignored for so long they fail to bristle when common sense dictates. Everybody knows you do not run from a dog. If you do the natural instinct of that dog will give chase and bring you down by attacking the Achilles Tendon, next is the throat. Pack animals. Dogs are smart. If your dog goes on alert at the sight/smell of a black, cop or anybody else it would be prudent to exercise the common sense your protector of the pack is trying to bring to the light of day…Did I mention dogs are smart…

156

My dog is racist.

He will happily bark at white people approaching the house, but holds off when minorities approach lest he be accused of racial profiling. I tried to explain to him that his behavior is racist because he’s not treating all people equally regardless of race, but he’s very socially sensitive and progressive in his beliefs and doesn’t listen. Breed? He’s a left wing springer spaniel.

Seriously. This a bad idea for a column. It’s been asked and answered many times.

They can be racist just like humans. They can pick it up on their own (neighborhood dog gets teased by black kids associates it with all black people.)

Of all of the animals on the entire planet, dogs are unique in that they have adapted to become astounding students of human behavior. They pick up our nonverbal cues better than we do with each other. They can’t communicate verbally but they fully understand our intention movements and “phrasing (what our posture and movements communicate.”) If one is nervous around certain people one’s dog will pick up on it. If one feels threatened by certain people, one’s dog will pick up on it. They will cue off their owner’s fears and prejudices.

Like humans, they will associate freely based on easily recognizable characteristics: Dogs tend to bark at mailmen because mailmen invade and leave without defining dominance. If a mailman has a distinguishing characteristic; skin color, beard, etc. The dog may think all people with that characteristic are invaders and treat them aggressively until they leave.
But racist dogs abound. Dogs have been trained to attack all manner of minorities, Indians, black people, whatever.

Most famous are the South African Boerboels which were specifically bred and trained for generations to guard white people’s property and attack and scare off black people. I haven’t personally seen it, but apparently breeder trainers would make it a big selling point that a white person could walk by unmolested, but the dog would go nuts if a black person approached.

This article:
http://www.amren.com/news/news04/01/30/racistdog.html

talks about resorts in Jamaica with dogs trained to run black people off the beach (personally I think the resort would be more popular if they trained the dogs to steal bikini tops.)

It also references a cool movie about a racist dog “White Dog.”

So, I’m really not sure what there is for Cecil to cover that isn’t already well known and defined.

157

There’s that “Dog” bounty hunter guy who’s a racist.

Not to mention this:

158

Yesterday my girlfriend was walking through the house with a blanket around her shoulders. One of our Yorkies went batshit crazy at her. She even spoke to him and let him sniff her so that he could recognize her but the blanket was more than he could handle. :rolleyes:

159

Hispanic. My family is from Mexico.

-XT

160

Consider yourself lucky, a woman I worked with had a black lab that she could not take to the dog park.

He would run up to the first man she saw and pee on his leg :eek: