# Why Is My Dog Racist??



## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

Let me try to write this while trying to be politicly correct...

Tucker grew up in a small town of white people... 

9 months ago, we moved to Toronto, then in May, we moved to an actual neighbourhood where we have to deal with people.

Now, those who have met Tucker, knows he LOVES people... but he absolutely hates our nextdoor neighbour, who is a black woman.

He charges the fence and growls and barks at her.

And just now on our walk, there was a young black lady walking behind us like 20 feet.

Tucker stopped to pooped so she caught up and as I was trying to pick up his poop, Tucker suddenly lunges at this poor girl barking and growling, I had to lean back to hold onto him!

I had to yell at the lady to go around us, forcing her to walk onto the street.

I just don't get it... :uhoh:


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I think dogs sometimes just get nervous around unfamiliar things...including people who don't look like the people they are used to seeing or dogs that look different than what they're used to. I don't think it has anything to do with race, but more to do with them looking different than what Tucker is used to. Jack was thoroughly confused once when he saw a Skye Terrier (dog with fur totally covering its eyes) but is always fine around goldens, keeshonds (his handler shows a keeshond), GSPs and labs. Same idea. Once I was holding a friend's puppy at a show and an older man was walking up to us very slowly, but with an obvious injury/orthopedic issue that impacted his gait. My friend's puppy watched him closely, like she couldn't figure out what the man was. I nicely asked the man if he would mind petting the puppy and speaking nicely to her so she would have a good experience. It worked and she was fine with him the rest of the weekend.  I wonder if your neighbor would work with you (assuming Tucker is not actually aggressive but just barking) to get a good experience with her into Tucker's head.


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## AlanK (Jun 28, 2008)

Dogs may be like many people and "different" causes being cautious. My beloved poodle had the same issue regardless of our attempts to correct this behavior. Dogs do not have the faintest idea of racist.....mho


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I'm not sure why but my Beau barked like crazy at a woman of color walking down our street one morning. I thought it was perhaps he had not been visually exposed to various human colorings and it shocked him. He was very young at the time. 

Barkley and Toby don't bark like that, perhaps because we live closer to the city core in a more ethnically balanced neighborhood now so they get the exposure to all variations of human coloring and have received loving pets and attention from people of all races. They saw/see different variations every day so it's nothing unfamiliar to them.

Toby; however, barks at every black dog he sees--so I guess you could say he is a breedist.


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

Lucy DOES NOT like hispanics - at all. Some of that may go along with her chihuahua fear. Some Hispanic people let their chihuahuas attack her at the park when she was a little puppy.


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

LOL @ breedist.

Its just really embarassing!! Because honestly he wants everyone to pet him all the time. He doesn't bark at East Indians at all... just the really dark skinned, I guess!

This kind of frightens me because we have to move again soon and may end up in an apartment building with lots of ethnicities and I'm afraid of what he'll do if we're like in an elevator or something.

I don't want people to be afraid of him  I'm not sure if there's any way to correct this.


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## WLR (May 11, 2008)

Both my canines, Piper & Paco totally freak out on balloons.
So I guess they're (ready for this?) Baloonists ?


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> I think dogs sometimes just get nervous around unfamiliar things...including people who don't look like the people they are used to seeing or dogs that look different than what they're used to. I don't think it has anything to do with race, but more to do with them looking different than what Tucker is used to. Jack was thoroughly confused once when he saw a Skye Terrier (dog with fur totally covering its eyes) but is always fine around goldens, keeshonds (his handler shows a keeshond), GSPs and labs. Same idea. Once I was holding a friend's puppy at a show and an older man was walking up to us very slowly, but with an obvious injury/orthopedic issue that impacted his gait. My friend's puppy watched him closely, like she couldn't figure out what the man was. I nicely asked the man if he would mind petting the puppy and speaking nicely to her so she would have a good experience. It worked and she was fine with him the rest of the weekend.  I wonder if your neighbor would work with you (assuming Tucker is not actually aggressive but just barking) to get a good experience with her into Tucker's head.


My Beau went crazy barking during obedience class when he first saw a Dalmation! He finally calmed down but just stared at those gorgeous black spots on the dog--learned nothing that session and we made sure to stay out of sight for future ones. It's one of my fondest memories of him as a puppy. 

My suggestion is to give your neighbor some treats and ask her to throw one over the fence whenever they encounter one another--food rules!


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## Angelina (Aug 11, 2011)

Does he act this way around strange people period? How about people just passing your property? (territorial). What do you do with him now in greeting strangers? Do you work on having him be calm, sit down or sit stay when a stranger comes over?

My suggestion to you is to work on this now before it gets out of control. Throw the 'seeing color' away, think more of meeting strangers. My Angelina gets very territorial in front of the house. No way would I ask someone to move into the street to go around us. Instead I would block her, but her in a sit down, talk to the person and be very friendly and before you know it I have a stranger over petting the dog. If your dog is treat oriented then you can also distract him by going into a training mode, sit down and give treats etc. At least that is what I would do.


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## Aireal (Sep 15, 2011)

My suggestion is talk to a trainer see what you can do about correcting the behavior. But as for why, as someone said before its most likly simply something he's unfamiliar with, people of color would be completely foreign to him if not exposed young. They have darker skin there smell would be diffrently simply by hair products maybe the location there using, and maybe he reacting defensively because it is just ” the unknown”. 

It is kinda how many dog are in fact ” breedist” if they have a bad experance with one subject of the particular breed or have not been exposed to that breed.

Its truly amazing how vast of a subject socialization is, we may think we've done a fabulous job a socializing our pet when we in fact missed that one thing which will be the dogs trigger down the road.
Good luck with your pup and don't worry it in no way your fault simply may be the way he wired.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

I would work on the "look" command. Shortcut way, hold a treat up between your eyes and as soon as he looks at the treat, say "look" and mark the behavior (either clicker or verbal) then hand him the treat. Repeat as many times as necessary. Then don't use the treat up there, just touch yourself between the eyes and say "look", mark the behavior and treat. It will get to the point where all you have to do is say the word "look" and he'll break his focus on whatever he's focusing on and turn to look at you. Mark and reward. 

I used this with Jasper and his fear of skateboards (and other rolling objects) at the park. It worked beautifully and now he's not terrified of all things that roll. If I see him tensing up, I just tell him "look" and he glances back at me and relaxes.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Oh, and I want to add that my Jasmine doesn't like people wearing hats. It makes her so anxious that when we are up at the lake and I want to take them along on my bike ride, she refuses to come because I am wearing a helmet. With strangers she will bark aggressively at them if they are wearing a hat.

And the only other time I have seen her act aggressively towards anyone is when the next door neighbor up at the lake is outside. He is scared of dogs and I think she senses that. I don't know if that makes her fearful, too or what. But she does not like him one bit. If I know he's up there, I keep her leashed or confined to the deck.


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## Florabora22 (Nov 30, 2008)

Carmella was like this. She was the friendliest dog in the world except to black people. However, Carmella was actually a little wary around anything black - garbage bags, suitcases, etc. But I always felt kind of embarrassed when she would act up around a black person.


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

He's not territorial, he sees the other neighbours walking by all the time and does nothing.

Just as our walk started, in fact, we were standing in the front yard and two Indian kids walked by.

Back home at my moms house, the neighbours are always in their yard (white people) and he's fine with them.

And this recent incident happened on the other side of the block not even near our house. *shrug* 

Sure is embarrassing.

I took him to a Golden Retriever Forum Meet and there was TONS of strangers and he went up freely to each person and leaned into them to be pet and loved.


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## LifeOfRiley (Nov 2, 2007)

Are you on friendly terms with your neighbor? If you are (and if she's someone you trust) maybe you could ask her to help you. You don't have to explain the problem in all its detail, of course! You wouldn't want to risk hurting her feelings or offending her. You could just say that Tucker is a little wary of strangers and ask her to toss some treats over the fence when he sees her?
When you're out on a walk, I would start giving him treats and praise the minute he sees someone of color, before he reacts negatively. 
I would definitely start working on it before it becomes a full-blown, major issue.

Reminds me of something that happened with my GSD, Alomar. We had to have the gas company come to the house one day, and the repairman absolutely refused to come inside because, as he so matter-of-factly told me, "German Shepherds don't like black people." I couldn't help it - I cracked up! We ended up joking around about it and I assured him that my dog was not a racist; that I didn't raise him that way. :
I knew that GSDs had a reputation, but I didn't realize those myths were so widely accepted as truth. We had a good talk and I think he went away with a different opinion of GSDs.


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

Well, its nice to know I'm not exactly alone.

The neighbour is TERRIFIED of dogs, so she's no help. In fact, at first, thats why I thought he was doing it. That he just didn't like her energy because she'd freeze up at the sight of them.

And of course when Tucker starts, Reece has to join in. Its weird how dogs react to one another.

Reece is fine with all races of people on her own.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

I know that our puppy trainer specifically said to introduce them to as many different kinds of people, races, ages, etc as possible, and even to people in different kinds of clothes, hats, raincoats, dresses, etc. just to avoid this kind of issue. We had dress up funny night at one class for instance. She said if your neighborhood was not diverse to take a trip to one that was while the pup was still young.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

A lot of Black people ARE afraid of dogs so he may be sensing that fear. Some dogs who are good at being dogs, are more aware of differences in their world. They makes observations that keep them safe...a kind of hyper-vigilance.

Our horses freak if a gray (white) horse shows up at a show. And don't get them started on cows.

Penny is racist towards black dogs. Every other color is fine and when we're camping they all go by all day. But, let a black dog come into view and she's all guard dog.

They are funny creatures!


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## Zazoo (Jul 1, 2011)

Madison barks at black garbage bags that are out on the street every Friday morning.. I just role my eyes and tell her it's garbage silly.. lol


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

It just strikes me as odd because typically Tucker would rather be around strangers than strange dogs.

I hope the poor lady is okay, at least. I'm sure it scared her pretty good. Heck, I'd be scared if a big dog was running at me barking like that.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

I hate to sound politically incorrect as well, but could you find some Black children to meet him? He may desensitize if he can meet people more on his size level. Maybe you can take him to a playground near by or ask a co-worker to help, someone you feel will be comfortable taking about race and how to make your dog a better citizen of his new, bigger world


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

I remember when my kids were in pre-school and the class went to downtown Detroit to see a famous Christmas display on the 14th floor of a department store.

The teachers spent quite a lot of time preparing the children for meeting 'people who look different than you'. We lived in a totally white area and this was a totally white church preschool. The teachers were afraid the kids would blurt out something innocent but inappropiate. Nope, they paid not a bit of attention to different races of people.

They were in awe of the elevators (we had mostly 1 story malls). They were amazed that they could walk into the 'magic box'. The doors closed, the box shook and when the doors opened all the stuff that had been outside the doors was moved and new stuff was there. No one had prepared them for the concept of different stuff on different floor and going vertically to change floors. It was a hoot!


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## Ninde'Gold (Oct 21, 2006)

So, we went out for another walk last night, and as we were approaching a corner, two old men were crossing the street diagonally and ended up being at the corner right where we were.

These guys were white (well not white, color wise yes but I think Polish or Russian... some sort of accent) and Tucker walked right up to them sat at their feet and they pet him and told him he was a very nice big boy.

And this was roughly in the same spot where he went at the young black lady.


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## crazy daisy (Jul 3, 2011)

My friend's dog is very racist... a maltese barking and growling at black people (friends)... we all find it funny though.

My cousin's yorkie. The blacker they are, the louder he barks at them... then a white person walks by and he shuts up... don't know how they pick it up though

Luckily my Daisy isn't racist.


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