Opinions please, mainly black dogs

[DeLaUK]

Theres a discussion going on in another forum right now about certain dogs being attacked by a lot of other dogs, from everything Ive read on the topic and from some personal experience I always put this 'mostly' down to the 'victim dogs' probable/likely lack of adequate socialization as a puppy...as in not being good at reading another dogs body language, eye contact or understanding gutteral growls, huffing etc. And then also for example if a dog is attacked by a specific type/colour/size then it may be wary of a similar looking dog....kind of like a dog that is beaten by someone that wears a baseball cap....the dog may well be wary of anyone wearing a baseball cap.....

The person who started the thread though her dog is all black and now everyone with a black dog is saying that they have had this problem, Ive never heard this theory before (and I know of plenty of dogs that are 'victim' dogs that are not black but I have to admit its not something Ive paid THAT much attention to....the colour) so I was wondering what everyones opinion on this is, do you think there is an increased chance of an all black dog being targeted??

This hasnt been my experience at all in fact the two all black dogs Ive had have both been very much the aggressors with other dogs....and they werent picky on what colour the other dog was.
I did have a little sheltie mix years and years ago, his colouring was like that of a GSD, quite a bit of sable in him....he got beat up by every dog on the block poor little guy, he was rescued from a box along the motorway in UK (in the early 70's) him and his litter mates were only about 4 weeks old.

[DMikeM]

D&D are both black and every dog has ever come in contact with them has been at least semi aggressive towards them. But in all honesty they are also not real friendly towards other dogs.
There are 2 dogs now that seem to treat them as friends one is an older wolf/husky hybrid and the other is a young bloodhound. Both have had enough time to warm up to my boys.

But the real kicker is, people will not even come near us walking down the street, and some people have even commented that they look mean.

[lil96]

I used to think that my old (black) dog was picked on a lot more, but I think she was also more aggressive. But she only got along with other black dogs, she didn't usually get along with white dogs or lcolorful dogs. But both my dogs are always put off by people with really dark skin. It is weird because my dogs were always around people with dark skin and they never got used to them. Someone once told me it was something to do with the way dogs see, but I don't know if I believe that.

[DeLaUK]

If you mean people of a different race, I read up on that years ago, different races have different PH balance in the skin, dogs can pick this up and read it as though the person is almost like a foreign species simply because the scent is not what theyre familiar with. Also say for example a dog is badly abused by a white person, the dog is timid around white people....it could be perfectly fine with a black person just based on the scent.

There was a movie out in the 80's called White Dog, if its still available its worth watching, it wasnt a true story but was based on studies done in South Africa (made in US though) about what they call "White Dogs"....dogs would be trained by white farmers to attack any black people coming near their land/property....the movie doesnt involve any of that but is basically this woman finds a dog (I think.....its been about 20 years since I saw it) and for some reason the dog randomly attacks any black person it sees....so the movie goes through the whole....why is he doing that....good twist at the end of it !!!

Anyways, after the movie was when I started looking into this which is when I read about the PH balance being different. Fascinating stuff, like you would think that a dog would recognize a human as a human through vision above anything else but thats not the case for some dogs.

[Dukesdad]

I believe dogs sense humans just like other dogs, through sight, scent, eye contact, and body posture. They size up a stranger using all four of these "signals". If any one of the four is percieved as aggressive then the dog goes into an alerted state. If all four signal friend then the dog relaxes.
In two years of going to our dog park I can't say that I've noticed that color was a factor in any episodes of aggression. I have noticed that Boxers more than a few times are involved.
Duke also does not seem to 'like" black and white dogs. Why, I have no idea. Duke, as a puppy, was severely attacked by the seven year old Black Lab in his first family. That's why that family gave him to me. I can imagine that Duke just drove the older dog bananas until the older dog snapped.
One thing I did read is that black dogs are harder to adopt out from shelters. Seems people looking to adopt prefer any color but balck.

[Jamiya]

Large black dogs do tend to be harder to adopt out. However, black dogs are also more common than the other colors. If you want to compare, you can't use straight numbers - you would have to look at percentages.