I was checking online and some dog sites suggested that you should be 'socially conditioning' your dog and exposing him/her to people from as many races as possible. A dog who repeatedly shows fear or reacts negatively to persons of a particular race has probably not been well socialized with people of that race. If a dog is raised in a homogenous community with limited access to the world, they may be hesitant—and sometimes aggressive—in the presence of something or someone new. At-home care advice, recommendations of the best dog food for your dog, conventional veterinary medicine as well as complementary therapies, positive-reinforcement, training methods – you’ll find it all at Whole Dog Journal. Might sound stupid - I certainly would think so, but my 15 month old Cairn Terrier barks like crazy everytime she sees a black or Asian person.

Perceived racism in dogs is a phenomenon acknowledged by many animal behaviorists—and common enough that there’s even a Key and Peele sketch about it. There are a lot of dogs who also don’t seem to like children, people wearing hats, people in uniform, etc. There's a bit in the Perfect Puppy book about getting them to meet men with beards and people with glasses during the 8-12 weeks window so they don't end up reacting to that. However with my dog this is a fairly recent thing - it's only happened a couple of times and I'm pretty sure she's encountered people of colour before with no adverse effect. What the dog might be picking up on is other peoples anxiety, you have interpreted it as "racism" and now you are anxious if you see someone.

e. other dogs) to walk in a straight line toward one another, which is an aggressive act in the canine world.

She's generally speaking a lovely, friendly dog, not particularly 'barky' when we're out walking normally, and I've defnitely noticed the difference with black or Asian people.We both started to chuckle, albeit a little nervously, but I felt it was important to try to lighten the mood a bit. It's just another habituation thing - skin colour as a variable just like people wearing sunglasses or hats, or certain colours or shapes of dogs or whatever else exposed to or not in the critical puppy socialisation period. I always advise my clients to expect to take two steps forward, and sometimes one step back, but to keep working.

So unless you know with absolute certainty that your dog was abused, don’t attribute his behavior to this. They’ll quickly learn that keeping quiet around strangers leads to treats, and quit acting out altogether—even when the treats stop coming.

Nowadays this behavior routinely manifests as barking at doorbells/knocks on the door (the doorbell is associated by experience with a stranger appearing; the dog barks both to alert and to protect), barking/lunging at dogs and other perceived threats that pass too closely on the sidewalk (the sidewalk forces approaching predators (i. People of a different race were on the list (as were people in glasses, with beards, in wheelchairs, pushing prams, and many more things I can't remember! based on years of experience training dogs out of protective/aggressive behaviors to every kind of perceived threat.