Black Dogs

I'm not sure if it's fear or just some element of basic human psychology. People just seem attracted to animals with symmetrical white markings, lots of spots, fluffy white hair, unusual colors, etc. Solid black dogs just don't catch the eye the way other colors of dogs do.
You can take two horses, similar breeding and talent, and the plain chestnut (reddish brown) will be harder to sell than the chestnut with lots of chrome (white legs, white blaze down face).

ORIGINAL: nymaureen

ORIGINAL: MhadDog

My black dog has eyes that shine in red

makes people have (bad)dreams all through their head.

Very cute little rhyme.

Imagine having this face inches away from you,staring into your eyes after waking up quickly from a VERY bad dream about the little girl from The Exorcist movie..lol

Scary, very scary. In truth, he is very handsome and it would comfort me and I'm a person that does have lots of bad dreams. Reminds me some of one that I lost very suddenly, a couple of years ago, to a probable tumor around the heart.. He had tan on his legs though.

 I cannot take credit for the rhyme..it is a modified version of Led Zepplins"Black Dog"  Hey Hey Mama..lol

People are terrified of Kaiser. At first i just thought it was because he was a GSD but now i'm realizing how many people don't know what kind of dog he is. Most people think he is a lab mix...so they may be afraid because he's large and black...no clue.

Max, (golden retreiver/poodle mix) 115 lbs, solid black with root beer eyes - when we adopted him he was 6 months, & 63 lbs.  I only saw a dog that needed (hopefully me).  Never entered my mind about his color, till we tryed to take his pic.  Impossible!  This is the best (siggy) we have have done (the professional did great, but that was his job).

if you look at other black breeds, you'll see that they are the more dominant, aggressive, popular with law enforcement... dobermans, rotties, russian terrier, beu.beue... i cant spell it... the boo-vee -ay! .. black GSDs, or the more darker coloured sables, beucerons, i know i am leaving out a few, but you get my drift. people that are scared of dogs, or big dogs, and/or big BLACK dogs probably have mental images of these breeds and their reputation comes to mind. when adopting a dog from the pound its sometimes hard to tell what mix it is.... when i got a puppy from my boss, years ago, the pup was a dobie mix.. my grand mother came to visit one day and saw him and just gushed over how beautiful he was.. i pointed to the neighbour's yard and at their dog saying he was the dad... he was a HUGE doberman..(recently neautered because of his procreation with the boss's dog) my grand mother got mad and said No way... my cute little fuzzy black and tan puppy had absolutely no relations to that monster killer dog! he was a black and tan coon hound mix.. NOT a doberman! [8|] impossible because my dog was so nice and sweet and friendly... and he wasnt completely a solid black like a dobie.. he did look more like a hound mix..

personally i love black dogs. i love the myths behind them and i like the intimidation.. no i dont go waving my big black dogs around like weapons, but i am the type that doesnt want to be aproached while out walking alone.
if i can get away with it i would bring home another dog, and it will be a black dog and probably of doberman ancestory, if not pure bred.

ETA
i also want to add that some cultures ARE afraid of black dogs souly because of myth and legend. i was watching a war dog memorial show once and they were talking about a black lab in eithe Viet Nam or Korea. everyone tried their best to bring him back home to the US, but they couldnt.. then they tried to rehome him with the locals but they refused because of their fear of evil black dogs..  he ended up staying at the Embasy i believe. it was really a sad story.. and all because he was a black lab..

Never entered my mind about his color, till we tryed to take his pic. Impossible!

 
Haha! Ain't that the truth! I had maybe three decent pictures of Cherokee before I got my DSLR last year. $1200 to be able to take good pictures of my dog (and now I have hundreds!). [8D]

ORIGINAL: chelsea_b

Haha! Ain't that the truth! I had maybe three decent pictures of Cherokee before I got my DSLR last year. $1200 to be able to take good pictures of my dog (and now I have hundreds!). [8D]

 
got a digital Cannon - 8 meg - that is the best we can do & in very bright light, filtered thru the leaves on a grand oak

We have several large black dogs in our rescue program that have been with us for at least seven years. Of course, they'll always have a home in our program, but it seems that people really aren't interested in them. Personally, I have two large black dogs, and I've always been pretty sure that Grey wouldn't have made it out of the shetler if not for us.

My Radley isn't all black, but mostly.  People are terrified of him.  I have had people cross the street to avoid him.  One guy said that he was one of those mean dogs.  My downstairs neighbor had visitors while Radley and I were sitting in the front yard, he was on a leash and sitting.  The visitors were 50 feet away and the door to the building was between us and them and they still wouldn't get out of the car until I took Radley to the back yard.  Funny because he is a huge lovebug.  Here's a picture of the scary beast:
Edited because I can't spell.

Check out this blackish dog!  Cool, huh?  I bet people will think he's scary



And I agree w/ all the others who say that black is more common, hence they aren't adopted as quickly.  I don't think people are really more afraid of black dogs.  I think it depends more on the eyes/ears set.  My MIL is afraid of big "pointy eared" dogs, and lots of these dogs can be black or part black.