Aggression towards black dogs

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TimL_168
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Location: central MD

Aggression towards black dogs

Post by TimL_168 »

Something I saw on Facebook this morning reminded me of an interesting observation. About a decade ago, I had Aurora (my Shiloh, and an adolescent at the time) at a dog park that we stopped at frequently. Someone's dog was acting aggressive towards her for no reason. The owner told me that his dog always acted aggressively towards black dogs. I started paying attention to this throughout all our daily interactions and I did notice that there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of random dogs that would instigate with black haired dogs of any morphology. I haven't really gone to the dog park in four years or so. I kinda forgot about the whole thing. I'm curious if anyone here has ever observed something similar.
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racingiron1
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Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by racingiron1 »

Just anecdotally, my previous dog (rescued Finnish Spitz) seemed to have this behavior. We both noticed it separately and began jokingly calling her racist. It was only in situations where she was in a protective mode, either when she saw a dark dog passing by the house, or when walking with my wife. She would also have the same aggression with men, especially walking with my wife. I used to say she was smart enough to know I didn't need protection because I could take care of myself... My wife would counter that she was smart enough to know I wasn't WORTH protecting!
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TimL_168
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Tell us about yourself: I am: a father of 2 boys, a carpenter, hunter, runner. We have extensive experience with sled dogs, shepherd mixes, a wolf hybrid, and our current dog a 95# long haired Shiloh Shepherd. We added Endeavor in April 2016. She was not working out in HRD. I train for game recovery and general utility.
Location: central MD

Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by TimL_168 »

Lol
Tim L.
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racingiron1
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Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by racingiron1 »

Just re-read my response, and I want to clarify that our old Spitz would react to ALL men (regardless of appearance) when walking with my wife alone. The dark-furred dogs wasn't 100% consistent (she liked some dark ones, and was aggressive towards a few lighter ones), but it was a noticeable preference. Size also had something to do with it, because she would be much more likely to react to those larger than her.
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Dutchringgirl
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Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by Dutchringgirl »

it would be interesting to do a test with all sizes of black dogs to see if its the color or size
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TimL_168
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Posts: 1371
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 2:11 pm
Tell us about yourself: I am: a father of 2 boys, a carpenter, hunter, runner. We have extensive experience with sled dogs, shepherd mixes, a wolf hybrid, and our current dog a 95# long haired Shiloh Shepherd. We added Endeavor in April 2016. She was not working out in HRD. I train for game recovery and general utility.
Location: central MD

Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by TimL_168 »

Back when I frequented a dog park, there were a few dogs that I was able to observe. One of those was a medium sized hound mutt. It was uncomfortable around a little black Bassett/wiener dog mix as well as other black dogs of various sizes up to a newfie. I can't really remember the few others that I noted an issue with.
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karenz
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Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by karenz »

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Xander loves his black "sister". Just saying...
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lindalew
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Re: Aggression towards black dogs

Post by lindalew »

Kind of related . . . Duchess and I were at an adopt-a-thon the Humane Society was putting on last month. There was a beautiful, all black, female shepherd there. I would've taken her in a second, but she got snarly with Duchess, then with a brindle pitbull mix, and also with a brindle greyhound. She was sweet and calm with every other dog there. This dog definitely had an issue with the brindles. I wonder if something may have happened in her past. Bummed me out though, cause I really wanted to take her home.
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