Racist Dog?

A good friend of mine has a dog with a pretty serious problem. He seems very aggressive towards dark skinned, especially African American people. Sometimes even with African Americans he's familiar with he'll be ok one minute and snarling the next. She's really good with her dog and is very distressed by his problem. He was adopted from outside of the US and was around dark skinned people a lot before she got him. She thinks he may have been abused by them, but we also wondered if it's just because they look differently. I don't know. She's at her wits end and is looking at possibly putting him down because he's already bitten a dark-skinned child and has lunged at at least 2 other dark skinned adults. Are there any other options? Serious answers only please. No stupid racist comments either please.

Racist Dog?
In "dog world" the word would not be racist.. it would be unsocialized..





I cannot believe people are so alarmed, be your question, honestly. Wrong wording here people, no need to attack, geesh!





I have had a few dogs (all adopted) that had a hard time, getting used to my hispanice (especially darker skin toned) or black friends at first, but the trick was, I gave them a treat, to give to my dogs, and viola! instant buddies.





People! not everywhere in the US or anywhere else for that matter are completely diverse in all races!!!! where I live its probably 80% caucasion to 15% African decent, and 5% other.. and just a town away (within 5 minutes) a complete flip! Dogs only know what thier owner shows them. That is ALL they know. So yes, its is hard for a dogs to instantly befriend who they do not normally see.. same as children, or other dogs...
Reply:not to say anything about black people but they are bigger so it might be scared of bigger people i know me cats are scared of tall and fat people lol
Reply:yeah the dog was probably adused by dark skinned people that had the dog first. I have a dog that was abused by a military person who wore black boots. he would kick the dog with them and now we can never wear black shoes around her. its hard work when we have guessed over but we still love her! we have also tryed professional animal trainers and nothing has worked!
Reply:Your friend needs an animal behaviorist to work with the dog. I am a huge animal lover but people have to come first. Biting a child is a red flag and if the dog can not be broken of this fear aggression it must go.
Reply:Do not put the dog down, for animals are color blind? If you do not believe me, ask your biology teacher. I was a Natural Science major in my first college; we studied it.





I actually saw the eye sockets of animals. Their world is actually black and white, but not in terms of race.





This might be hard for you to believe, but ask your professor or teacher who has a background in biology. If the animal is around whites, he is looking at characterists not color.
Reply:It sounds horrible, but dogs sometimes are resistant to certain types of people. There are many dogs that are male aggressive or afraid of men. Likewise, some people have reported that their dogs respond differently to people of different races. It could be linked to how they were treated earlier in life, a string of horrible coincidences, or some sort of unexplained biological phenomena. Unfortunately, it might take some work to break your dog of this behavior, but it is worth the effort to remain dominant when your dog becomes aggressive around certain people. Finally, another important thing to note is that dogs don't think like we do, so the idea of a "racist" or "sexist" dog does not make sense as dogs do not consider any people "better" than others. What I'm trying to say is that your dog's aggression is not motivated by the same things that would seem to motivate a human in a similar situation, and it is important to remember that and not lose your cool when trying to train him.





Good luck!
Reply:how long has she had him? That's one thing about adopting an adult pet, you never know what they have been through. Be patient and use plenty of positive reinforcement. The dog is going to have to learn to trust and feel safe in it's new environment. And the comment made by another person answering this about black people being bigger??? That's just ignorant and people like that should not be answering any questions!!!
Reply:It is likely that he's had a bad experience with someone who was dark skinned before he was adopted, and now he can't differentiate between people. You are right, though, aggression like this is serious. I would suggest hiring a professional dog behaviorist/trainer. You have to change the dog's association with dark skinned people from bad to good. If he's a food motivated dog, I'd suggest getting treats and carrying them with you when you walk him. Whenever you see a dark skinned person, give him a treat, no matter how he reacts. Keep doing this for a few weeks. Don't let any children approach him, because you know he's dangerous.





Also, to stop him from lungeing at people while you're on the walk, get a Halti or Gentle Leader collar. This closes his mouth if he lunges. He'll learn not to get out of control with people.
Reply:Dogs are trainable to go after certain races. The KKK used to have dogs just for this purpose. I believe they were trained this way. The dog needs to be around people of color in a positive way and he will not act so. I was in a junk yard as a child when the owner pulled a gun on my dads friend who was black and told him he would shoot him if he petted the dog. The owner stated he had spent hours training that dog to hate N***. The dog also lunged at me as I am of mixed race but look white. The owner said that I smelled like a N*** because I was sitting next to a N***. My dad who is pure white was of no concern to the dog.
Reply:I had a dog that was defensive around dark skinned people before and he was abused by one. Another guy that I worked with who was black helped me out by doing a lot of familiarization training with him. We would stand around and talk and occasionally he would turn and praise the dog if he hadn't growled in awhile. We started out far away and worked closer. He eventually got used to him and we started using different people and he never fully grew out of it but he was able to walk by a dark skinned person without growling most of the time.
Reply:The dog is not a racists.. It's a case of lack of socialization around different people.. The same thing could happen if you kept your dog from meeting people with blond hair, or kids, or anything like that. More socialization around different people will make him more accepting of people.
Reply:damn... didnt think dogs could be racist. lol. but he probly WAS abused by his original owners like you said.
Reply:The comment states that, number one the dog was from overseas. She also states that she "thinks" the dog may have been abused. Well from the most that I can recall about animal treatment and dogs overseas. We in the United States are the only ones who treat our dogs better than we treat most human beings. From everything that I can recall about pets outside of this country they are used from anything such as prairie dogs, to eaten dogs, but we don't typically hear about a dog or any animal abuse outside of this country. Which would lead me to believe that maybe this dog was not physically abused, but perhaps emotionally used by a racists person. Example for slow readers: The dog may have been used to rule and subdue others, and let's just say for the lack of a better ethnic group sample with this statement and to stick to the group categorized in this issue. African-Americans, used the dog. Did we already have a memory loss for apartheid? Yes, there is a such thing as residual affects of apartheid, and when apartheid ended, what happened with the affects of a country wrapped in a bitter rage?





A second example for those of us still on a racism rage...let's just switch the light off for a moment. Example: I personally have met a female who was homosexual and had a dog who did not like males. The owner had no problem indicating that the dog did not like males. However, if you ask me, the owner was actually experiencing a much deeper personal issue than the one she would so casually use as her shield for her personal experience.





My suggestion is teach the dog about the affects of racism, but first I would suggest starting with every passive aggressive behavior that the human individual may think they are or are not demonstrating. Here it is a little deeper, Example: Human babies can sense the emotions of their parents and this will cause the child to react, ie jumping while in the womb or immediately crying when a parent walks in the door. All the way down to a child that reacts differently when the authoritative parent is around while grocery shopping. Yes, watch the children in the stores, there is a huge difference.





However could this point actually be a true affect for an animal. For example, I had a medium sized dog "Brownie". He was an all white poodle with a brown stripe down the middle of his back. Yes he was an African-American dog, because he is my dog. Brownie was abused and I am sure that it was by someone who spoke with a loud voice and slammed doors.





Each time Brownie heard a door slam shut or a loud voice especially that of a man, he would proceed to pee on the floor where he stood, once the door shut or snarl and bark at the voice of the man he heard. One man visiting our home, happened to be a dog lover and my children's grandfather. We would reassure brownie at these points that everything was ok and proceed to demonstrate a pure love to him at every opportunity. Brownie was a well trained dog who was excellent with my two children. Brownie eventually died of unknown causes. You might say a wounded heart. Yet, I am grateful for the time that I was able to share his life and influence him in a better way before he left this earth.





As for us as humans and are psydo-psychological outlook at every natural event, that we take to interrupt as kill it, because it has no use. Well I don't have much to say about that.





I'm just watching and waiting on Jesus! At that point children will stop killing children, people will stop being so concerned about the planet and more concerned about the people in the planet which will cause a domino affect of love, kindness, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, understanding and wisdom to reign in this land, and across boundaries of nations so that we are one people, and what else could that cause but a better condition of the planet and a healing in the land encompassed by a better attitudes towards the things that we say and do as humans.





God bless you abundantly more than your hands can receive or your heart can hold. Show the dog the same consistent unconditional love and reassurance while you have a chance to make a change.





Sheryal