Sports, therapy work, rescue, trainers. It seems to be a white female dominated field. You do occasionally see men, rarely see people of other races/ethnicities. Why is that? Money? Free time? What?
Is it common to have dogs as pets in other cultures? I know in some parts of Asia they eat dogs. (This is a question, not an answer. If I’m wrong and dogs are a very popular pet in, say, south America, please don’t jump down my throat. I’m just thinking that if having dogs as pets is primarily a white thing, that could be why the people who do that work are primarily white.)
I live in the south. I assure you pets are kept by all races. My vet is African American.
One thing though, My daughter had a boyfriend of Arab descent and he was really fascinated about my pets. He was afraid of my Siamese cats ( me too☺).
I know the pet owning population is diverse. I’m talking about people that are involved in showing, training, etc dogs. You don’t see many people of color at an agility course.
There are some elements of Muslim thought that discourage dog ownership (although interpretations vary widely). Not sure about other pets.
I took my dogs to training classes for years, and it absolutely was all white women taking their dogs to classes. Granted, I’m not in a very diverse area but I totally noticed the lack of men in our classes. There were a couple of dudes - one who came with his older rescue golden retriever after the dog had bit his son. And one guy who was there with his wife, if he came at all, and his little yorkie.
One thing I’ve noticed with guys and dogs (this is SOME guys and their dogs, definitely not all, and possibly women too I just don’t happen to know any) that there’s a type of guy who gets a dog and expects the dog to just listen to him because that’s what dogs do. Or that the dog will listen because it fears him. It never occurs to them that they need training in order to be a better dog owner. That’d be absurd! They usually think their kids listen to them too without any training, and never give thought to all the other people in their kids’ lives who are giving them discipline.
FWIW I do see a mix of genders at the dog park. I think everyone realizes the value in exercise for their dogs - the dogs let them know they need it!
Maybe women gravitate more towards the show dog world. Training and breeding of working dogs seems to skew male (or a family endeavor).
Here’s a PDF study. Argentina is one of the top pet/dog ownership places (6% have dogs). It also notes basically no gender differences in ownership.
Dogs are not nearly as popular in the Arab/Muslim world. Partially because of religious attitudes towards their cleanliness, but also not disassociated from culture. There are of course exceptions. Turkey is the lowest in the link, but 12% is not negligible.
And yeah, SE Asia is known for dog consumption. That does not mean that many people don’t own pets there. In some of those countries, it has a sort of similar connotation there similar to people in the US who regularly eat roadkill.
My wife took the dog to training classes because my wife was the one who was afraid the dog would jump up and knock her over, or yank the leash out of her hand and run off. Meanwhile I, who’s 6" taller and 60 pounds heavier, can use brute strength most of the time.
Siamese cats can be scary.
Cats are well looked upon in Islam. There is a story about Muhammad cutting the sleeve off his favorite robe because he didn’t want to disturb a cat sleeping on it. Even a cartoonishly twisted Muslim organization like Isis is known for taking pictures with kittens.
Here’s a short video about how well cats are treated in Istanbul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-FcAlDS7o
Here are cats playing in the Grand Mosque: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzDiH30GYs
Mosque kitties: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oSX3V3XeUg
Ok, I’m done.
As for why women and dogs: I suspect that in some cases, there is a bit of child or even boyfriend surrogacy going on.
White: On average, white women have better education and careers than non-white women which will result in greater independence, career focus and delayed marriage, hence the child/boyfriend surrogacy.
Women tend to consistently be more interested than men are in endeavors that involve working with living things, whether it’s choosing a career in biochemistry over inorganic chemistry to in this case working with dogs. It’s to be expected the field would be female dominated.
The race part is probably poverty related; non-whites are disproportionately poor, and so are less likely to take up things that require a lot of space or investment.
Yeah why aren’t straight men into these things? I got into flyball and agility and in both of these, there were some men involved, but they were not straight men. Yet walking around the neighborhood and greeting other dogs and owners also walking, the mix seems about equal, with slightly more men. Of course once you get into coonhounds and Brittany spaniels trained to hunt, there’s a lot more men doing that. Or mushing.
Once you get beyond puppy obedience and intro classes, the people into agility etc. are predominantly women and predominantly white and middle-aged. My theory is they are women who have aged out of taking their kids to gymnastics and soccer and ballet and are now working on making their dogs the best dogs they can be.
You do need a certain amount of money, mobility, and free time to do these things with your dog and if you aren’t really, really into it, it can get onerous, which is why I don’t do it any more. Also my dog is already the best dog.
The same thing goes for horse-lovers. I’m not talking about “cowboys” who use horses to do their jobs. There are so many little girls that are horse-crazy, I was one of them. I read every horse book I could get my hands on - fiction and non. When I go to county fairs and watch any of the horse events the majority of the riders are female. When I took riding lessons, it was all girls and women including the instructors. Also, a majority of the horses boarded at the stables were owned by females. Same goes for the employees of the stables - mostly young girls.
Dogs are considered “unclean” animals, but there are exceptions in Muslim law allowing human association with working dogs, such as watchdogs or hunting animals.
Here in the Philippines, everyone has a dog, and they are considered watch dogs, even if they only yap at everything that moves.
Dogs are very common in Latin America, where they are often neglected or abandoned and form into packs. But even as packs, they are reasonably well behaved, because the townspeople would not hesitate to kill any dog that didn’t behave itself. Municipalities often poison the packs of strays, posting advance warnings for locals to keep their valued pets indoors.
According to statistics, men & women seem to own dogs in about equal numbers. But from my sister, who did professional dog training/obedience classes, women are much more likely to come to a class with their dog. Seems like men are embarrassed to have others see that they need help to get their dog to obey. She did offer men-only classes; they were well-attended. Seems to be a cultural ‘macho’ thing.
She also said that most of the class work was actually training the owners. Most of them started out inconsistent in what they wanted the dog to do; unclear in the commands they gave; random in their response to the dogs’ obedience/disobedience; and variable in their attitude to the dog, depending on the owners mood at the time. Half her work was figuring out a tactful way to tell the owner that they were the one messing up this exercise. And both genders did so, though differently: most men got harsh & angry when the dig didn’t understand them; most women spoiled the dog one minute and got frustrated with them the next.
Anecdote: I have a friend, a black woman, who does dog rescue work.