Has anyone experienced this (black dogs being disliked by other dogs)

Neb, a black Lab X is extremely laid back and is certainly not dog aggresive but the strange thing is that other dogs seem to take a dislike to him. Dogs who get on with most other dogs do not like Neb.
Now a friend of mine told me a few months ago that he had read somewhere that some dogs find it difficult to see black dogs properly. They can see a shape but cannot make out all the detail and this makes them nervous. I took this with a pinch of salt at the time but having had Neb for about a month now and seen this behaviour in other dogs it makes me wonder if there is actually any truth in it.
Anyone else heard or seen this?

I have heard this before and it does seem to be the case with certain dogs and other black dogs.

Although just to throw a spanner into the works, Woody is also one of those laid back dogs that seems to be disliked, but he's a Yellow Lab!

hmm... we used to get that too...

our black labs that are uber soft - get picked on by other dogs... and in the same token - other dogs we've had have loved other dogs if they're not black. we had one dog that hated black labs - we just thought perhaps he'd been attacked... interesting!

xx

lady my old dog used to be like this with black men and woman, she really used to be wary fo them.

I read up on this years ago (havent read anything recently on it though) after seeing a movie called 'White Dog'. Apparantly different races have different PH balance or something in the skin, so for a dog that has been abused by or never had any contact with someone of a particular race could see that person as...kind of like a 'foreign species' so to speak. Ive seen it happen in dogs owned by someone whos race is different to mine....the dog has got a little defensive/aggressive/anxious toward me. Its pretty common.

In reference to certain individual dogs being attacked, just my opinion but I think there can be a number of reasons. Its believed that Boxers are targeted by many dogs because of the shape of the face/mouth, Im not sure about that though, Im sure that if a dog is attacked by an all black dog it may well be wary of other black dogs, same way as a dog that is treated badly by someone who normally wears a baseball cap may be wary of anyone that wears a baseball cap but when its a variety of dogs attacking or being wary of a specific dog then I believe it is the 'victim' dog that is giving off some kind of signal that alerts the other dogs, not necessarily resulting in an attack but making the other dog cautious, nervous for some reason.

Im not sure about other dogs eyesight, obviously dogs that have limited vision can become wary or defensive (or aggressive in some cases) but if its most of the dogs that come into contact with the victim dog, I wouldnt think they would all have bad eyesight. What Ive seen with dogs losing their vision is they may well show some aggression....up until they get closer and can see the person/dog/object clearer.

Ive noticed it seems common in dogs that have been seperated from the litter and dam too early, they dont receive adequate canine socialization so they themselves are not 100% in basic 'dog language' (body language, vocalization, eye contact). Could also be in dogs that were badly raised by the dam, for example we recently had a litter of Husky pups, had mom and dad also (the owner was taken to hospital and the dogs were brought to the shelter). The dam was okay with the pups until they started cruising, then she snap at them randomly, one or two in paticular, she attacked one of them at 7 weeks old, shook it till it was unconscious (it was fine after a visit to the vet), over the next couple of weeks I watched it closely, it was your average subordinate, just wanted to play, we had seperated the dam from all the pups but what I noticed was that the two more dominat pups would constantly try and attack this one pup, it wasnt the weakest of the litter....my own conclusion was the dominant littermates had seen this pup being targeted by the dam a number of times....dogs will copy each other and thats what they were doing....it left the victim pup confused, she wasnt doing anything wrong when she was attacked seriously by the dam nor the when the other pups went for her, so while technically she should be stable having been with the littermates in those early few weeks but she has received mixed signals. When a pup tries to take another dogs food it may well be growled at, if the pup gets too rough playing with the dam it will get growled at, its learnt what the boundaries are and what behavious is acceptable, when a pup is growled at or attacked for no apparant reason other than just being there it has to leave the pup with a level of confusion....I think this will be a problem for her throughout her life.

Like I said, just my opinion.

ji yes i have experienced this too,my dog really doesnt like black dogs,when i worked at battersea dogs home we found the black dogs were often picked on also we found that black dogs or puppies were also the last to be chosen i have since worked at other rescue centers who have also experienced this problem,for what ever reason the black dogs are the hardest to rehome !! strange or what!!!

Hmm this could explain why JRT's dislike Roxy?? I may look into this.

Interesting stuff. Our last pup ( who ended up a 7 and a half stone bruiser!!!!) was totally black and if there was another dog around that may go for a dog, it was always Ems they'd go for. He was a total victim, from the word go ( except around our own dogs and those other dogs you meet out and about who love all dogs!!!!!) It was strange and his trainers have noticed it too. We didn't know if it was because of his size as well. Bless.

Its usually Black dogs with dark eyes that are disliked the most as other dogs can't see the eyes to read the signals as to whether the other dog is friendly or not.
My Jet Black Rottie x GSD has dark eyes and no tail to help show a friendly signal so she is a real target.

Thats makes a lot of sense. Roxy has Dark eyes and a docked tail, so maybe other dogs are getting the wrong signal off her? although she is only 4 months old you'd think they would just accept her as an annoying toddler?