Scared of MY dog?? No way! (Racial question)

I also have noticed that black people tend to be afraid of dogs.
When I lived in NC, I didn't have any black friends who had dogs.
That is sad. 

Hi Nadja!!!!!  []

I've heard of it, Jean, I've just never had it happen to anyone I know, firsthand. Living in the South, I know all colors of people who have (and some who take fantastic care of) dogs. I also know all colors of people who are afraid of dogs. My best friend's husband was from Korea, and he was afraid of dogs. Emma snarled at him, from her kennel, once, and he'd RUN from her. That's a culture thing, though, because dogs are not really pets for regular people, where he's from. There's tiny dogs from pet stores, for the people who live in very nice high rises, and can afford $100 doggy coats, and there's street dogs, and there's livestock dogs (yes, for food). Most of the regular people he knows don't have dogs for pets.

Anyhow, hopefully, that's something that's faded away, in recent years? I would like to think that NOBODY would do that, ever. Of course, I know it's not even remotely true.

I was the one who said low SEC, but not because of people's inability to care for their dog, but for their exposure to dogs; dogs as fighting dogs, dogs as guard dogs, things that come with urban life. In a rural environment dogs are like livestock, I guess, they have jobs that are different from the jobs of urban dogs (like hunting, herding, etc).

Paula

There must be something said about cultural memories and dog exposure. For example, meeting Black Africans with my rhodesian ridgebacks has a whole different dynamic than meeting White Africans with them. I can only speculate that for Black Africans their exposure to these dogs was not generally positive.

As for the idea that race might influence your perspective with dogs - there is something to that. I don't like Police dogs -  I don't trust them. But it's not because the dogs are inherently bad, it's because I don't trust the Police. And that is definitely influenced by race.

Paula

This thread gives me a different perspective on something that happened when I was a teenager.  An African-American meter reader sprayed my folks' 3-legged, black dog in the face with mace.  The dog was chained to a pole (yeh, I know) at the far end of the driveway and was wrapped around that pole at the time.  My family was furious, especially since my sister was driving up the driveway at the time and saw the whole thing.
 
My mom did the meter reading after that and sent in a postcard.  For the rest of his life the poor dog growled and snarled everytime an African-American stranger got near him.
 
This was a cycle of fear creating fear which created more fear.  What an unfortunate cycle!!!

ORIGINAL: jeano

Denise, I think we are the only two willing to admit that this exists.

I think you missed my post. I basically said that my childhood dog picked up on the racism of my family and barked at black people. Where else would dogs get it from?

Actually it is funny you asked this question because I have had this happen quite a few times...
 
 
A few months ago I was walking Raja at the park, an African American man,riding a bike, saw Raja and got off his bike and looked  very scared.
I told him that she was freindly and Raja was even wagging her tail,
 
his comment back was
 " She doesn't look like it, that thing is huge"
 
I thought it was strange but I have had this happen often too, even at Petsmart AA people tend to be afraid of my dogs, when whites are wanting to pet them.
 
Also does anyone else notice their dogs seem more leary around dark skinned people. I know one time there was a vet tech that was African American and Jazz who used to LOVE everyone and anyone acted scared and very cautious.

Dogs do not generalize well. People who look dramatically different (strongly different skin tones, very short or very tall, walk differently, have different types of voices, etc) do not qualify as people, in a dog's brain, unless you've socialized them VERY heavily. They just don't understand.

Emma has no idea that Italian Greyhounds are actually dogs. She thinks they're huge rabbits. For that reason, she was NOT socialized to them. It's the gait[] Their gate is quite different from most dogs' gaits. I think it's very graceful, and pretty. Em thinks "RABBIT!!!".

Teenie is afraid of men with white hair. A man with white hair probably hurt her, so ALL men with white hair are BAD. She doesn't understand that it was ONE man with white hair.

My Grandma's dog was terrified of black boots. A pair of black boots kicked him once, so ALL black boots became bad.

A dog belonging to a person of a certain race in a predominantly similar area may not understand that people of another race are still ok. The dog may think that these new people are a totally different creature.

It's really cool to hear all of your comments on this issue - and thanks for not flaming me! 
 
It's got to be a kind of vicious cycle thing. 

I am, for the most part, the only person of color in my kennel club.  We have some hispanic and asian people that come through on occasion, and there is a VERY nice Indian/Sri Lankan man and his wife that attend classes frequently....but beyond that, the club membership is white.
 
People actually find me to be a very valuable asset in their training classes, as it gives them a chance to socialize with somebody that isn't white, and they can have a good experience.  People have different scents as is, but races up the ante a bit.  People will smell even MORE different based on diet and lifestyle.  For example, an Asian American who is more traditional in the food they eat (Fish, rice, chicken) is going to smell different from a southern African American, who may eat more fried foods and red meats.
 
One of the people I assist had a Keeshond named Blue.  Great dog she said, but the very first time they had a black judge...the dog FREAKED OUT!  The dog had never seen/interacted with a black person before, and he pitched a fit.  Didn't try to bite her or anything, but he wouldn't allow the judge to touch him during the stand (He kept moving away).  It had never been an issue before.
 
She made a point of catching the judge afterward to apologize, and asked if the judge would spend some time with her dog, so he knew she was nothing to be afraid of.  The judge was very pleasant and understanding, and within 10 minutes, Blue was her best buddy (Ellen says Blue lived for cookies, and the judge had some good ones xD).
 
Also, think back to the days of segregation (Not so long ago).  Police would go to riots and rallies with thier police dogs, and sic them on the protestors.  That certainly isn't a good experience with dogs!  And then those people go home and tell their kids, and their kids tell their other kids, and they grow up, and they tell THEIR kids.  It goes on and on and on.  Even if the kids never have a bad experience with dogs, they end up thinking that all dogs are bad because of what happened to their parents.
 
Like it was said before....vicious cycle.

 
I don't really know about the races.  I have noticed around here either people love dogs and want to love all over them or they are deathly afraid and think all dogs will attack them.

Many years ago, I worked for an insurance company that was debit based....that meant the I went around and collected premiums, and often on a weekly basis.  Most of my clients were elderly (of both races) or black.  This was in the DEEP south.  Many of the AA homes had BIG, BLACK, lunging, fierce acting dogs.  One older lady told me how she HATED that dog (her own) and I asked why she had him.  She said, and this was an AA lady, that MOST of the black folks had dogs like that to keep the punk black folks from stealing from them.  Now understand that this was an inner city kind of area, lowish income, etc.  Whether or not this was actually TRUE, I can't say, but that is what an older black lady told me 20 some years ago.
 
So, it follows that IF this was true, add that into the history of those poor people with truey violent dogs trained to run them down and either kill or maim them, and it's no wonder that some of these folks are truey terrified of big/back dogs!

i'm glad someone else posted this and not me.  i have this problem every day.  let me break it down like this:
98% of african americans are afraid of my dogs.
100% of latinos/mexicans are afriad of my dogs.
about 65% of caucasions are afraid of my dogs.
i have not had occasion to observe a reaction in asian people yet.
 
my dogs are bullies, as most of you know, and i believe that breed coupled with socioeconomics is mostly to blame for this trend.  i say mostly because i have known perfectly well-off. well educated latinos that refuse to come into my house because of my dogs.   
 
i, too, have had people literally DIVE into doorways, which is quite alarming to the dogs.  i have had people hide their children, scream, threaten to kill my dogs, threaten to kill ME.
 
but, truly, i think that reaction is mostly based on breed.
 
anyway, IMHE, lower income blacks and latinos are more often than not afraid of all dogs, regardless of breed.  our friends with GSPs have expressed the same concerns, and i hardly think people are mistaking their dogs for bullies.   for some reason, "po' white trash" doesn't have this reaction, and i think whoever touched on the racist use of dogs by whites as weapons against blacks had the right idea....but i also think that it's a whole lot more complicated than just that as well.

I have some interesting observations to add.  This is a question my husband and I ponder ALL THE TIME because of our own experiences.
 
First off - we do a lot of pet therapy.  Some of it is at facilities like nursing homes/alzheimer facilities  and I am in a suburb of Orlando, FL.  Some folks like dogs, some folks don't.  BUT I'm going to talk about just those folks who are scared or actually 'terrified' of my dogs.
 
Very often it is either someone who is black or hispanic.  But typically it comes down to someone who is black being just plain fearful/terrified and someone hispanic being fearful/angry & fearful.  I chalk up the difference as just being a different ethnic reaction. 
 
I've always thot this was more "socio/economic" rather than color -- because it's so prevalent in this area for people to have fenced yards in low income areas with "vicious dogs" to protect what's inside the fence.  Despite the fact that this is pet therapy the reaction I get from fearful people is that this dog is going to just charge them out of nowhere and consume them (and I've gotten this reaction with ALL our therapy dogs -- from the sheltie/corgie, to the boxer/pit (with a 'don't-mess-with-me-face) to the peke, the two English cockers (a/k/a feed me, I'm CUTE) and the basset beagle mix.  Honestly we haven't gotten any worse reaction from the boxer/pit than we do with the fluffy dogs/cute dogs etc.
 
The best way we've found to reduce this 'reaction' is to make sure they are dressed in holiday 'colors' (bandanas, t-shirts, etc).  One guy saw my boxer/pit one day -- she wore bitches britches with continence pads cos she took Lasix for he heart and she wore a t-shirt to keep her chest warm cos the same heart/lung problem caused her to cough. This guy looked at me and said 'Normally I'd be afraid of a dog like that -- but it's kinda hard to be afraid of a dog in a t-shirt and diapers!!) (btw -- he was black! *grin*)
 
However -- my experience is even more broad than that -- we also go to Give Kids the World -- things brings kids from literally ALL OVER THE WORLD.  From Greece, Israel, Japan to New York City, Houston, Seatle, Chicago, and all the small towns in between, and from Mexico to Canada.  City kids, farm kids, it runs the entire gamut.  They're all critically ill or dying. 
 
It's a true study -- logically people KNOW at GKTW that there just wouldn't BE dogs sitting on Angel Avenue that were vicious or even dogs not sanctioned by GKTW.  Some folks don't see us for dust.  Some folks just aren't dog people. 
 
Some kids are terrified - but they also are curious because ... well it's GKTW and this should be safe.  So I've had kids approach and ask "will they bite??"
 
But honestly -- it's much the same result we see right here.  A much higher proportion of blacks/hispanics (but more from N. America, rather than people of color from Europe/Africa) that are fearful than whites that are. But also a healthy proportion of them that LOVE the dogs.  Because we see such a cross section of people from literally all over the world it honestly seems to be more an urban/socio-economic problem than a true race thing.  Simply because dogs are so often used to "protect" everything from junkyards to apartments to slum dwellings.
 
I don't see many Asians fearful.  I've seen a number of middle-eastern (including those from Israel) quite fearful.  But I've assumed that may be from a feral dog problem where they are from more than 'pets'.  But generally often a lack of experience with any sort of trained/pet dog. 
 
And often language is a problem here as well -- many may be stuck without their interpreter to ask if the dogs are friendly or are there for the children.
 
My husband is one who is loathe to have the dogs "decorated" or "cutsey" looking.  But he's seen a definite advantage to it at GKTW simply because it does make them look more welcoming and less naturally fearsome I guess.