Is it possible that your dog could be a racist?
Some scoff at the idea, but others say canines can learn prejudice against particular races.
By Mekeisha Madden Toby / The Detroit News
Image
Fox
In the "Racist Dawg" episode of "King of the Hill," Hank Hill's dog senses Hank's resentment of having to turn over repairs in his home to a professional, voiced by Bernie Mac, and the dog's hostile reaction is mistaken for racism.
Pet prejudice
Do you think dogs can be racist?
On the latest episode of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David and his wife, who are white, purchased a dog. All seemed well until their friend Wanda Sykes came over for a visit. Upon seeing her, the dog went insane, barking wildly at Sykes and trying to bite her.
Sykes, who is African American, said the dog is racist and leaves. Whether the dog is racist and what to do about it was a thread throughout the episode, which aired Sunday.
Just the phrase "racist dogs" sounds like a punch line. In fact, it has been on a few TV shows. In addition to "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central had a sketch based on the idea. It also was a humorous storyline on an episode of Fox's "King of the Hill."
But for some, the idea is no joke. Type "racist dogs" into Google and what pops up is a whole world of chat rooms arguing about the question: Can dogs be racist?
Of course, plenty of people scoff at the idea. But there are others, including both owners and people who study dogs, who say Rover can be racist.
Central among believers is Nicholas Dodman. He's a veterinarian and director of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
"Certain dogs may be only aggressive with certain types of people," says Dodman, author of "Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-Z Guide to Understanding and Curing Behavioral Problems in Dogs" (Bantam, $14). "Some dogs don't like fat people, people with funny hats or men with beards.
"And some dogs don't like black people and are racist."
American culture often looks at racism only as a belief that a particular race is superior to others. But racism also is defined as treating people differently based on how they look. That simpler meaning is more key to the idea that dogs may be capable of racism.
Susie Essman, one of the stars of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" who appears in the racist dog episode, says her own pup prefers Asian people.
"I adopted my dog, who is from Japan, from a rescue shelter," says Essman, who is white.
Her dog Sumo is a 5-year-old Shih-Tzu. "The people at the shelter said he was cuddly but not a licker. And they were right. He cuddled me all the time. And then I brought my boyfriend's daughters over, and they're half Asian, and he practically licked their faces off."
Melissa Laiserin, a PetSmart dog trainer and program development manager for pet training, said clients often ask if their dog is racist. Her answer is always "no."
"Dogs don't work that way," says Laiserin, adding that dogs can be prejudiced against an individual but not a race.
Jeanette Robbins of St. Clair Shores still isn't sure whether dogs can be racist or are just individually biased. Robbins, who is white, had a dog who despised his veterinarian, who was Sikh.
"He took one look at his turban and tried to attack," says Robbins, who eventually gave the dog away. "We had to muzzle him so the doctor could treat him."
But Dodman, the Tufts University veterinarian, doesn't question whether dogs can be racist. He says explaining why dogs might be racist is the same as trying to clarify human racism.
One reason, he says, is a lack of exposure. Dogs should be exposed to all different types of people in the first three to 14 weeks of their lives.
"Whatever a dog is exposed to in that early period is expected and processed as the norm," says Dodman, who has studied animal behavior for 15 years. "That's the period where trust is also built. After about six months, a dog can develop neophobia, or a fear of anything new. What or whoever that new thing or person is can be viewed with mistrust."
But neophobia wouldn't necessarily dismiss all seeming prejudice on a dog's part. Sometimes dogs specifically treat people of an unfamiliar race differently based on negative encounters and associations, Dodman says.
"If a man with a beard abuses a dog as a pup, that pup will grow up to dislike men with beards," Dodman says. "The dog figures that this man was bad, so all men who look like this are bad.
"That association can and does happen with race."
That doesn't mean dogs treating some people differently can't be due to their owner's intent. Dodman says dogs can be taught to hate certain people.
Annette Dukes agrees.
"Dogs don't think white people are good and black people are bad unless someone teaches them that," says Dukes, a property manager who lives in Detroit.
Her own experience with the idea of a racist dog isn't exactly conclusive. A little girl at a home Dukes was visiting told her the household dog, a Great Dane named Cujo, "eats blacks."
Dukes, who is African American, didn't wait around to find out if Cujo was racist. She left.
"I wish I could thank that little girl. She saved my life," Dukes says, only half jokingly. "I'm 5 (foot), 2 (inches tall) and that dog came up to my breasts. I wasn't taking any chances."
Of course you might ask -- couldn't it just be that the little girl was racist or just didn't like Dukes personally? Sure. But Dukes says she took the cautious route based on what she says is historical context for the idea that dogs can be racist.
"Look at the Civil Rights movement and the dogs that were used against (black people)," she says.
The German shepherds who attacked African Americans during civil rights marches is one of the historical incidences some say give credence to the idea of prejudiced dogs, along with the Dobermans sicced on Jewish people during the Holocaust and hounds sent after African Americans who tried to escape during slavery.
Counterarguments place the blame back on humans, not dogs. Dogs were certainly trained by people to attack in those incidents.
And verbal cues aren't required for a human to motivate a dog's actions. Dodman says dogs pick up on the feelings of their owners.
Dr. Grace Chang at Southfield Veterinary Hospital agrees. "Dogs can sense the fear of their owners. So if a person fears people of a certain race, dogs can pick up on that." But, she adds, "Dogs can also attack or growl because they are territorial and protective."
Chang, who has been a dog doc for more than 20 years, doesn't believe dogs can be racist. But she does refute the common belief that dogs are color blind.
"Studies now show dogs can see some color," Chang says. "They can also see black and white and tell the difference between the two.
"I've never had a dog turn on me because of my race. But I'm Chinese, so I don't know how dogs process that."
You can reach Mekeisha Madden Toby at (313) 222-2501 or mmad den@detnews.com.
 |
