Hello, I have a male staffy who will be turning 3 in September. Last January, my ex-neighbour's black Labrador and my staffy nipped each other through the front fence. When we go for walks, my staffy does not display agression to most dogs. He does however display aggressive body language and growls when he sees any black dog of any breed of a similar size to my ex-neighbour's black labrador. Apart from remembering the experience of last January can anyone please provide any explanations as to why my staffy does this? Has anyone encountered a similar situation? Regards, Nel
Something exactly like this happened to me! On a walk not so long ago a choc lab bounded up to my dog and attacked her. Luckily no damage was done. My dog has never shown any dog aggression at all until a few weeks ago at the vet. A black lab came in and she snarled at him quite nastily. I was shocked. The only reason I can think of is that she remembered the oher incident with the other dark coloured lab. She was happliy playing with a poodle just before this. Strange...
Quite often a black dog presents a solid shape with no hint of expression particularly if the dog has very dark eyes. Dogs can find certain breeds, hairdos and colours difficult to communicate with because: difficult to see eyes because of same colour eye and coat difficult to see eyes because covered with hair light eyes - can disconcert some dogs eg wall eyes, yellow eyes. You may need to find some black dogs with whom your dog can socialise to provide him with some experience.
Hiya, I have suffered similar problems with my staffy. He has been attacked several times by offlead black labs and started to really tense up whenever he saw a black dog and especially a black dog lab sized or actual lab. I was able to re-socialise him with a lovely black lab and golden lab and since then he has returned to his normal happy go lucky self with other dogs.
Hahahaha this reminds me of when I first got Poppy, she would growl and snarl at any black dog, I used to get comments about her being racist I was told the same as Smokeybear has said about them being a solid shape and they can't see the eyes!! Cured her when I got Kiara and she's been fine since
Black dogs can be particularly difficult to read for the reasons smokeybear has stated above. I also think it can depend on how you the owner respond and deal with a situation when a dog is bumped by another.