[LMH]

I didn't want to put this in my head but I am thinking it is true. I don't know what I could have done to encourage this.Kameha seems to never ever get along with Great Dane's. I don't know why! I've been taking him to the dog park since he was 6 months and every time a Dane was there he always gets in a scuffle with them. Especially all white ones.
I stopped going to the dog park but went today just to take him somewhere. So we went after I took him for a long walk and he was tired. I know he doesn't know how to play nice with other dogs so I keep him on his leash. When we got there a GS and a pom were there. Kameha sniffed and tried to play with the pom but he ignored the GS. They left another mixed breed came. He was fine. He tried to play once but the dog put Kameha in his place, he left her alone. Then two beautiful Great dane's come and he wants to start a fight. I was so embarrassed. The gray female kept coming over to sniff and Kam would lunge and bark. He never acts like that-ever. I take him to pet stores all the time but never run into great danes. He loves greeting other dogs. Do you think he just doesn't like Great Danes?

[zimandtakandgrrandmimi]

m dog is pretty dog aggressive but she can control herself on command and things proceed smoothly except corgis. she will do flying lunges at them to the point where she will do a backflip because of the recoil when she hits the end of the leash. she will play with bullies and rotties and small terriers just fine, others she's indifferent to unless the get too close, but corgis she will go out of her way to try to attack them...so I dunno?

[Curbside Prophet]

A form of breedism...I doubt it. It could be learned if your dog had an incident with a similar type dog in the past. It's most likely a conflict of breed behaviors. Not all breeds communicate in the same way, and if one dog is offering a calming signal that's not honored, problems usually do happen.

[Spicy1_VV]

I find this too. I've had dogs that had issues with certain breeds only. Rotts and Chows namely.

Tan point breed like Rott is understandable for some dogs, as the tan point above the eyes could look like that dog is staring down the other. Although that wasn't the case with mine and other tan point breeds, only caused problems if it was a Rottweiler.

[LMH]

It is weird cuz he never has had a bad experience with a dane. He's had bad ones with German Shepards and corgie's enough times to think he wouldn't like them but nope, it's just the great dane that gets under his skin.
Breedism-haha, yes I believe that's the name for it. I never meant to raise a dog that was a breedist.

[Inga]

I had a male that was aggressive to other Rottweilers that he didn't know. Never had a bad experience with them either. We could be at a dog show with hundreds of other dogs and he would be just fine until he came up to another Rottie then he would start a low menacing growl. Strange. Once he was carefully introduced he usually settled in a bit.

[JustTess]

My Samoyed I had years ago got along with most dogs until he met a very active and yappy chihuahua. The chi wouldn't stop running in circles around him and he ended up running off and hid in the closet. Finally came out when the chi left.

[gills]

I think it's possible. My border collie never had the least bit of interest in other dogs unless they were a border collie or a golden retriever. It was very, very obvious. My new dog seems to have taken a dislike to wire-haired terriers. One started a fight with her, which she finished handily, but now ANY wire-haired terrier seems to be her arch enemy. So I believe that dogs recognize breeds.

[Dieselsmama]

Dunno about breed specific, but I have seen color speficic. At a neat local event we have "Gone to the Dogs" (fundraiser for rescues) there were hundreds of dogs. I was walking Ella and Matthew was walking Charlie. Charlie walked right past a little corgi and NO reaction, Ella walked past and the corgi almost crawled of his skin trying to lunge @ Ella. The owner apologized, said it was nothing personal, the dog just did not like black dogs. I was skeptical of course so we sat off to the side and I watched it happen over and over again, male /female, little/big it didn't appear to matter, just color? Wierd huh?

[Motebi]

Dogs are clanish. My dane hated fluffy dogs and really couldn't stand German Shepherd type dogs, even though he lived with one. Go figure.

[Alygi]

My dog loves Golden Retrievers. She always gets along with them. She doesn't like curly-coated dogs for some reason though...

[Billiie]

Yeah.. I knew a black Lab that hated smooshie faced breeds.. so of course he hated Owen lol.

[Love's_Sophie]

I wonder if our energy level changes when a specific 'event' occurs, and the dog learns to read that, and acts accordingly? Like when your dog goes and growls at a certain dog\breed\color, your attitude and energy level escalate, even if you don't really realize it; but we all know how well our dogs read us...

I am a little skeptical when I hear of 'breed or color' racism in dogs...they don't have that sort of, um, shall we say 'mind capability', because racism is something WE humans do, feel, and act out...I'm not so sure our dogs do. That is humanizing them just a bit more than I care to like; they are dogs, they act like dogs, not humans. But if say, I were to have a bad experience with a lab, just one time, and it changed my perspective of them, and I was not really aware of it, but my dog was, because they read our behavior better than we do...then that would be more a likely cause of such 'racism' in a dog...the dog would react because I was reacting, even if I was unaware of that reaction...they can sense those 'pit of stomach feelings' through the leash.

Example of my 'reasoning' would be with our current 'newbie' girl; when we got her, she seemed to hate small dogs, of any sort, even though she is a small dog herself; and the more 'active' the dog, the more likely she was to want to attack it. So, small breed racism? I don't think so; I think she got used to her previous owners reacting each time they past a dog on a lead; they got nervous everytime, because probably at one point, Lizzy simply barked at one. So the behavior escalated, to the point where it just seemed like she just hated other dogs. I work at controlling my emotions around my dogs, especially with dogs with an issue like Lizzy has. And because of that, she doesn't react to other dogs nearly as much as she once did...I can get her focus back pretty quickly when she decides she wants to start growling; hubby is more reactive than I am, so he is having more issues in getting HER not to react...simply because he is reacting. I may be off the wall...but oh well, there's my opinion...Lol!

[LMH]

I understand what you are saying about humanizing. I could see that being a factor. Or maybe it's an energy that certain breeds give off like CB said-I think he said that.
I never thought about it till probably the 4th time it happened. Before that I assumed he would get along fine with every dog. When I took him to the dog park this weekend I forgot about the Great Dane thing. I let him walk up to the dog so they can sniff but he growled.And like I said he's never had a bad experience with a Dane-in fact he's the one who causes the bad experience for the other dog.
And he when he was younger he seemed to have something against all white dogs or all black dogs. It's not so bad now though.
It's interesting to hear that this happens with other dogs too.

[4dogs3cats]

We had a dog in daycare. She was a black dog, looked identical to a basenji, only, all black. I think she had some chow in her.

Well. She HATED white dogs. Any time an all white dog would come near her she would growl and snap. EXCEPT if the dog had like one eye or something. Or we had a dog with a tumor that she liked. Or puppies. But most of the time, she hated white dogs.

[reynosa_k9's]

One of my GSD's was very well trained and rarely ever acknowledged other dogs while in classes, shows or just walks around the neighborhood. One exception was other GSD's. He would always watch them with keen interest. The only other exception was chihuahuas. As soon as he even heard one he was ready to attack. That dog had an absolute hatered of chihuahuas and I have no idea why. He wouldn't even give a first glance at any other small breed. It was only chihuahuas.
Anyway, I always thought it was funny the way he would watched other GSD's. It was like he was comparing to make sure he was still the best looking on the block.

Jihad
and the pound puppy crew.