Towards people wearing caps, not sure about winter hats but baseball caps.

Anonymous wrote:My dog barks at people with hats, sunglasses, darker skin… anything where he can’t crisply see facial features.

One of mine is skin tone agnostic and generally a very well socialized people lover (Golden, I think they come programmed as equal opportunity attention whores) but does act a little wary if he can't see someone's face. Usually this is the trifecta of hat/hood/helmet + sunglasses + face mask. I kinda get it? I felt a little unnerved in the early covid days not being able to read facial expressions.

My dog does and yes it embarasses me.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. My dog is. It because of anything I do. But yes he has reacted strongly on the street and to the TV when he sees a darker person. I can’t explain it. Maybe just because he doesn’t get out much and he’s only used to seeing us in our home? I hate admitting this but it’s true.

So they are color blind but can differentiate darker or lighter pigments?

I gave my dog a DEI book, but my dog took a dump on it then beat up the poodle next door.

Dogs can’t be racist. They are triggered by whatever their limited brains perceives as out of the ordinary. My dog got nervous around dogs with ears that stood up. I don’t know if he thought they were wolves or what. He once crouched in a ditch to hide from a Doberman with pointy ears. He also didn’t like umbrellas.

My dog barks at people with hats, sunglasses, darker skin… anything where he can’t crisply see facial features.

Rescued a senior dog with one eye and a limp he would only bark at darker dogs and darker skinned people. I don't know what he lived through but he had a good life with me. ♥️♥️

Anonymous wrote:My first dog was like this. She was a rescue at age 2 from Loudoun co.
I talked to the vet and the vet said that the darker someone’s skin is, the harder it is for a dog to see. They just see a shadow, can’t make out features.
So if your dog has only seen white people in the beginning few months or years if life, they’re confused by the darker skin and that’s why they act they way they do.

In college, one of my roommate's rescued a dog who had been abused by her family's neighbor and we kept the dog while her family was moving. The dog often responded poorly to people, especially men, with darker skin. That had been her primary abuser. I wonder if the shadowy features she could make made her think it was her abuser.

And yes, it was embarrassing. Especially since my boyfriend at the time and several of our friends fit that profile and it was very awkward when dog reacted to them and not our white male friends.

My first dog was like this. She was a rescue at age 2 from Loudoun co.
I talked to the vet and the vet said that the darker someone’s skin is, the harder it is for a dog to see. They just see a shadow, can’t make out features.
So if your dog has only seen white people in the beginning few months or years if life, they’re confused by the darker skin and that’s why they act they way they do.

Anonymous wrote:If a dog is racist, it's owners are too. If not the current owners, then the previous ones.

This is simply not true. Some dogs are absolutely racist and it had nothing to with the virtues of their owners.

My dog is not picking up my vibes The other day he started going crazy in back of car when he saw someone at a bus stop. I wasn’t even aware of. Same with his reactions to the tv. I’m not even in the room.

* not because of anything I do.

Yes. My dog is. It because of anything I do. But yes he has reacted strongly on the street and to the TV when he sees a darker person. I can’t explain it. Maybe just because he doesn’t get out much and he’s only used to seeing us in our home? I hate admitting this but it’s true.

I've had dogs for almost 60 years. I have never had a dog react to skin color. When I do have reactive dogs, they have been to weird things like hats or someone carrying a lacrosse stick or broom.

Because my son used to wear ski gloves to wrestle with our current dog, my dog thinks anyone wearing ski gloves is up for playing!

Once, my very sedate dog reacted poorly to a man who seemed OK to me in a wooded park, but then I got a creepy vibe from him. I am not sure which came first, though, my concern or my dog's.