Pups New Aggression

dollydrops

I have a problem with my 10month Golden Retriever.
He is very well trained and normally does what he is told but because he is only a pup he get over excited when he meets someone new most of the time.
Yesterday evening I was finished work early and brought him out for a walk about 6 normally I don't bring him out until 9 there was loads of people around the area and lots of children out playing in small estate where I live. I know some of the children and they came over when they seen the dog and he was delighted being petted by them there was two black children among the group and when they petted him he growled at them. All the children got a fright and back away I got fright myself because I have never heard him growl at anyone. I only ever heard him bark and growl at the neighbours cat.
He actually hardly ever barks.
I pulled him away from the children and walked on.
Out on the main roads he done the same with two more black people that we walked by. Normally he doesn't even bother with people on the roads when he was a younger pup he used to try jump on people but he is trained not to now.
I really had to put my strengh into pulling him away from the two black people that it freaked me out he was so aggressive. I gave him a slap for doing it but I really don't know how to tackle this problem.
I am also worried because I have a friend who has two black children and they love coming over to see the dog. He has always been fine with them and has never gone for them or anything but I am afraid that he might if I don't find some way to stop him doing this.
Maybe I am overreacting but I am so surprised at this and the fact that he just suddenly done it out of the blue because there has never been a problem before.

Sigma Force

Had he met any of the people before it could be just that they were new to him either that or your dogs a bit racist lol.

You're right to tackle the problem it's not acceptable behaviour have you tried using a Halti or similar harness so you have some more control over him for now and perhaps take him to some training classes with a trainer that only uses humane methods of training it would help a lot.

peasant

This could have a very simple explanation:
While your dog is used to meeting black children at home, it has never come across black people "in the wild" before and it got a bit frightened.

Dogs learn by association, differently from us.
They always group together location, smell and other information when storing an experience. So the dog not only notices a difference between black people and white people ...but black people at home are also different from black people outside.

Try and see if you can work with the black kids outside, to gently (and properly) introduce your dog to them and the issue will in all likelyhood just go away.

olaola

The only person my dog has ever barked at is a black person. Not long after we got her (she's a rescue) Twas quite mortifiying!

dollydrops

I have a harness for him but I have never used it before, I have never had to use it before!

In regards to the children that come to my home. Their mother is white and their father is black. So they aren't very black. Where as the children last night and the two men where very black.
God I really am very to get this across properly I want to be politically correct if you know what I mean.
I am not racist nor is my partner he thinks its funny that the dog is.

If I was to bring him to training classes could anyone recommend one to take him in west dublin/kildare area.

peasant

dollydrops wrote: »

God I really am very to get this across properly I want to be politically correct if you know what I mean.

I'm afraid you'll just have to call things by their name . Dogs don't know about political correctness. They will notice anything that they aren't familiar with and react to it.

That does include people of different colour, people in unusual dress, people in wheelchairs, people on crutches, drunk people, etc, etc ...

ISDW

I have heard in the past that because dogs don't see in colour, only in shades of black, grey and white, that they find it hard to make black people and black animals out properly. Apparently, and I don't know if there is evidence to back this up, I guess there is somewhere - black dogs get into more fights than dogs of other colours, because visually they can be frightening to other dogs.

You aren't being racist at all, in fact you're trying very hard not to be, you aren't pleased because your dog growled at a black person, you're trying to stop it happening.