My 6 y/o dog hates only 1 person on our street. Why??

[christiansawka]

She’s always very well behaved both inside with the family and visitors and outside off leash at the park around all kinds of random folks/other dogs. She has also been very welcome with new neighbors that recently moved in down the way.

But, she just can’t stand one specific person that lives down the street. When she sees them outside, she flips out, when she sees/hears their car drive by she flips out.

She has always been very compliant with “leave it” or “no bark” if she’s gotten hot and bothered in literally any other situation but with this person I always have to bring her back inside and help her cool down.

We’re currently looking into a trainer to try and remedy this behavior but I can’t help but think it may be a waste of money since it’s literally a problem with ONE person. Although I’d much rather have it be zero people, and am willing to do what it takes to make it so.

Any thoughts or ideas as to why this is happening? And any tips from anyone that’s had a similar experience?

TIA!

 

[thudomi1582]

@christiansawka Dogs often find people who are out of the ordinary--or at least out of their experience of ordinary--off-putting. That means she could be freaked out because your neighbor wears odd clothes, sports a weird hat, has an unusual gait or body shape, or a rocks a funky hairdo. Keep in mind that this is relative to your dog's experience--maybe their clothes/hair/walk/etc. are totally normal but something she had not seen before. Observe your neighbor and see if you can identify what it is about them that she finds unusual. Then you can try to recreate it for desensitization purposes.

Another possibility is that something scary happened when she saw/smelled them for the first time (e.g., firecracker went off, a car backfired, etc.) and now she associates this person with scary things.

Those are the two things that come to mind first. The trainer may have other suggestions. Pinpointing what it is about them that freaks her out will be key, because that will likely dictate the training plan. You might want to make friends with your neighbor too, as you may need them to be part of the training (just a guess).

 

[flip1992]

@thudomi1582 Either that or she knows that geezer eats people.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@thudomi1582 This is true. Walking the neighborhood or in cars. My dog always barks at darker skin people, African Am and Latino colors. He was fine with White and Asian skin colors. Btw my dog was a Black/Tan Miniature pincher

 

[needhislove321]

@imagebeastmarkbeast My dog is aggressive towards Asian men. No idea why, no bad experiences with them, I’m white but I have a mixed race brother and tanned Spanish friend who he loves, but if an Asian man approaches us he’ll bark and growl. Not bothered by black men, Asian women or anyone else. Really strange.

 

[kyndiah]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I work at a dog daycare and we had a Shiba Inu come in who’s mom told us she hates white people. Her mom is Asian. We did find out that that dog doesn’t quite hate white people, but she listens a lot better to our Asian employees. She also understands English and Japanese!

 

[m0majesty2021]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yep, this is a real thing. My first rescue was a brilliant brindle pit mix who was generally very friendly though not attention-seeking from strangers. But when I first adopted her she reacted negatively to feet (of any phenotype…she never did get truly comfortably with feet) and larger white women. We shared a mutual love at first sight, she learned to love white men with beards very quickly (my partner at the time), and had zero problem with most other people. But she would low growl and move to my opposite side or behind me if we were approached by thicc white ladies.

She of course couldn’t tell us why, but contextually, I assumed she’d been kicked — possibly repeatedly — by a white woman before running away/being abandoned.

She eventually got over it (I have a very diverse group of incredibly patient, loving friends), but it was strange and really sad to think that someone had hurt her so badly it made her distrust everyone who resembled that person. She was my best girl for 17 years — I still wish I could throat punch the person who made her afraid of feet.