Perhaps the most controversial movie about a dog ever?

VERY painful to watch on many levels.  Kristy McNichol plays the 'owner' who gets the dog and then she's so completely unnerved that this dog has such a Jekyl/Hyde personality -- and of course you'd know she gets her apt broken into at some point by a black. 
 
I HAD a dog well on his way to becoming a 'white dog'.  And he was JUST a spaniel/golden/lord-knows "white dog mix".  But it took me years to re-train him not to over-react to people of color (and he reacted completely different to blacks than he did to Spanish people).  He also reacted differently to old folks than young folks - being agile on your feet and young definitely made him react far far more aggressive to black kids/young men than older retired type folks.  I about died one day  - we hadn't had him very long and a couple of young black boys cut across my lawn (suburbia -- I had/have no sidewalk, but they were fooling around and up ON the lawn) -- Mike was in the back yard behind a 4 1/2 foot chain link fence. (he was all of maybe 6 months old when he did this!! this imprinted young)
 
He was over that fence in a heartbeat and after those kids.  My husband got him under control -- this was 18 years ago and long before I knew anywhere near what I know about training, but man I knew we had a problem.
 
But we've got a park at the end of the street and I started there -- I didn't know then it was called "socializing" but he learned YOUNG that was not acceptable to me.
 
I did get him re-trained and he ultimately wound up a therapy dog BUT -- this dog was never allowed to bite, he was never allowed to be aggressive to ANYONE.  It was apparently a bad experience as a pup -- probably at an adoption day or something.  He jumped all snarls but he did NOT hurt those boys. 
 
However -- such dogs CAN be created (just like that idiot who trained that dog in CA to 'kill' and the pair of dogs killed the young woman in that apartment).  But honestly you have to train them with aggression in mind -- and you have to have someone be really MEAN to them (the dog in the movie was beaten to a pulp as a young dog - the owner paid a black person to beat him ... with the man not knowing he was 'training' only that he was ordered to leave the dog alive).
 
I live in the South, and I have a lot of black friends.  But I know this happens --on both sides of the coin unfortunately.  Ms. Socks (boxer/pit mix-- the one that had such severe heartworm/heart/lung problems) we think had been owned by a black woman.  She gravitated in a big way to blacks -- not a problem for her, but she obviously wasn't taught to hate whites. 
 
It's a horrible horrible thing.  It's also not a movie I'd recommend to anyone -- it spreads hatred and fear, and fear of dogs primarily.  Because aside from the race issue, the really sad thing is that you walk away from it knowing a dog can be trained to kill.  And I think that's the ultimate sad thing.

It's also not a movie I'd recommend to anyone -- it spreads hatred and fear, and fear of dogs primarily.  Because aside from the race issue, the really sad thing is that you walk away from it knowing a dog can be trained to kill.  And I think that's the ultimate sad thing.
 
Totally disagree. But that's what debate's about lol. IMO movies like Man's Best Friend and the Omen spread far more "fear of dogs"...
 
I think movies like this SHOULD be watched and analyzed and discussed.
 
...it is no worse from the race POV, than Mississippi Burning, American History X, or any other movie that covers or discusses racism in real and gritty ways. If you didn't or couldn't watch those then yeah...you probably wouldn't be able to sit thru this one either. I will agree that much.
 
I totally agree with the commentary/review I posted. Totally.

I read the book years ago.  It was very interesting but also disturbing to a teenager who couldn't believe that dogs could be "racist".  I now know that the dog probably reacted to different scents as well as skin coloring, etc. It's a tough read, but EVERY interesting. If you get a chance, get it at the library and LMK what you think.

Would personally love to watch the movie.

I'm absolutely convinced that dogs can tell people's skin. Stanley will greet a black man with so much more enthusiasm than a white man on the street.

I also noticed with Romeo when I first adopted him, how scared and submissive he was of black people.  It was sad, if he saw a male on the street, his ears would immediately go back, his tails between his legs, and he would start whinning, and crouching/walking, until he was literally dragging his belly on the concrete and the look of his face was of sheer terror.  The first time I saw him do this, I stopped dead on my tracks ( I had tears rolling down my face) I did not know what to do, so I picked him up and babied him ( probably not the best thing to do) but after that time, I made sure I created situations for him where he was around black male different ages, sizes, shapes and that the interaction was always a positive one.  I mean I would stop people and would ask them if they did not mind petting him, or giving him treats, the whole time I would talk to him on a soft reassuring tone, praising him, tons of praise, etc.  It toook a long time, but now he is not afraid of anyone, now the problem is he thinks everyone is his friend.

I saw this moving on TV years ago, so long I cannot remember and im sure it was on a cable channel and not local. It is a very disturbing movie. I personally would have never thought to have done that to a dog and find it so hard to understand why anyone would.
 
I am 42 so I believe I was in my late teens or early 20's when I saw it.
 
Dawn

It sounds like an interesting film--I'm have to look into ordering it.  I never thought that dogs cared much about skin color until I saw one of the barn dogs (a blue healer mix resced by the trainer) who was GREAT with everyone else chase a black guy onto the roof of his car.

One of our first dogs, a Cockapoo actually hated black people with a passion. It was extremely embarasing as we would take him on car rides and if we stopped and there was a dark skinned person he would bark and growl at them. I dont know how this could have happened since there were plenty of colored people in our neighborhood, unless someone happened to do something to him that we werent aware of.
The thing I found a bit amusing, at my young age, was that our dog was also black

I think Ella's previous owner was black.
I say this because Ella LOVES black people.
We have some neighbors down the street, and whenever we're walking by and they're getting out of their car or walking into their house, Ella tries to follow them.
She will also notice black people across the street and starts to navigate towards them. It's not aggressive at all. She has her tail in a wag and when we approach and they pet her, she licks their hands. She doesn't even do that with us.

I mean, Ella loves ALL people of any age, size, or color, but I've noticed with black people it appears to be a stronger liking.

When Willow was a puppy, we walked her in a local state park where there are many folks who regularly fish.  We rounded a corner and in one of the small clearings was a dark-skinned person fishing.  Willow immediately was uneasy, hackles up, and mild woofs ensued.  I didn't think much of it right then but it continued only when encountering dark-skinned people (in the park where we walked her).
 
After a few times of this behavior I began to think she had some real fear.  And, with our culture & history being what it is, I didn't want it continue...as now it was making me uneasy, lol.
 
So, following those initial walks, I asked if it were okay for her to go up and say hello.  No problems ever again after that.  She greets everyone with equal love.
 
A lot of people fear the dark, things they can't see, things they don't understand, etc.  I think that this is the same with dark-skinned people...they absorb and reflect light differently.  The canine eye can therefore discern levels of light.  I think Willow found out that these dark-skinned beings were actually there, and not shadows or something like that to fear.
 
Don't know if that makes any sense but it does to me!

I'm pretty sure this whole debate can be cleared up by going to wwww.dogshowusa.com
 

Do you think dogs pick up on it if their person has a negative reaction to someone, whether it's race, size, manner of dress, etc? So if someone were to say "my dog hates blacks, hispanics, midgets, etc" it's really the feelings of the owners coming out??  Just a thought.
 
Joyce

Oh Joyce that's a big can of worms there lol!
 
I can say this...when I as a woman walking alone someplace secluded...see a man I tense up. Man...not any color man...simply a man, he's stronger than me...and 99% of the time nothing would ever happen....but I tense. When I had my Akita boy he would react...immediately. My Beagles don't so much but they hardly notice anything as their heads are down sniffing lol!
 
I do think there is an element of that...but it's really up to each person to analyze their dogs reaction and, if they are able...eliminate themselves as a trigger point for it.

My dog doesn't notice color, she just doesn't like people in general. Well, ok, she likes you if you are under 4 feet tall, but anything taller than that she doesn't like . She isn't agressive, just doesn't like most people, and is a little shy.
 I have noticed she doesn't like one side of my family and loves the other side. When my grampa (dad's dad) came over she actually acted charming, wagging her tail like he was family and not really barking. But when my grandma(Mom's mom) came over Maggie barked at her for a bit before getting used to her. It may be just that grandma has a cane and braces on her legs, but I don't think do because it was the same when we took Maggie on a road trip with us and we went and visited both sides of the family, she liked my dad's side, and wouldn't stop barking at my mom's side (very embarassing) What is funny is that my moms side are more 'dog people' than my dad's side.
 I think some of it had to do with my dad's family is very laid back and they are more of 'you do your thing, I do my thing' type family, so mom wasn't nervos, but my moms side are always getting into fights and stuff, so mom was tense and Maggie sensed that.

Wow, what a flashback!  I remember that movie!!!  It was pretty sad, but you're right, it does make you wonder what you would have done.