A dog & canine forum. DogBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » DogBanter forum » Dog forums » Dog breeds
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #41  
Old January 2nd 07, 04:59 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
ceb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 953
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

(Melinda Shore) wrote in
:

In article ,
ceb wrote:
I can vouch for the black dogs being scary to others. Plus evidently
black mutts have a lower chance of being adopted, so adopting one
would be a kindness in that respect. (I personally find it a little
bit hard to believe that black dogs are adopted less often, but I
suppose my personal preferences are not all universal.)


When I was living in Berkeley I visited their animal shelter
and I was pretty surprised to find one large, separate area
with kennels full of big black dogs that had been deemed
unadoptable. There were probably about 20 of them and they
all looked very similar.


That's really shocking to me, as you might imagine. I wonder if they
automatically put bb dogs in that area, or if they tried them first in
the general population.

I really love dogs of all kinds and colors, and it's at least partially
accidental that all three of mine are black (only the 3rd was
intentionally meant to "match"). But it all started with Zoe, who was the
cutest little pup -- when she played she really looked like a little
black bear cub! And people tell me all the time how gorgeous Queenie is.
So why this strange prejudice, I wonder?

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the Pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat
  #42  
Old January 2nd 07, 05:04 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Janet B
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,260
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

On Tue, 2 Jan 2007 15:59:37 +0000 (UTC), ceb
, clicked their heels and said:

I was pretty surprised to find one large, separate area
with kennels full of big black dogs that had been deemed
unadoptable. There were probably about 20 of them and they
all looked very similar.


That's really shocking to me, as you might imagine. I wonder if they
automatically put bb dogs in that area, or if they tried them first in
the general population.


I do too. Usually, they just tend to blend together. I had a student
several years ago, who when asked (standard form) why he chose his
dog, his answer was "it was the only dog in the shelter that wasn't
black". Hmmm.

I really love dogs of all kinds and colors, and it's at least partially
accidental that all three of mine are black (only the 3rd was
intentionally meant to "match"). But it all started with Zoe, who was the
cutest little pup -- when she played she really looked like a little
black bear cub! And people tell me all the time how gorgeous Queenie is.
So why this strange prejudice, I wonder?


We all have preferences, but I think en masse, they tend to all start
to look too similar (most tend to be smooth to medium hair, labbish
dogs).

*I* love black dogs! I only have 2 colors of dogs - they're either
black or they're gold. No variance. Can't imagine that ever
changing.
--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com
  #43  
Old January 2nd 07, 05:04 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Suja
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 873
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?


"ceb" wrote in message:

(I personally find it a little bit hard to
believe that black dogs are adopted less often, but I suppose my personal
preferences are not all universal.)


Big figures in the equation prominently. Larger dogs are harder to adopt
out than smaller ones as well. I don't get that either, since my personal
preference runs very strongly towards larger dogs.

Suja


  #44  
Old January 2nd 07, 05:06 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
ceb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 953
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

"Suja" wrote in
:


"ceb" wrote in message:

(I personally find it a little bit hard to
believe that black dogs are adopted less often, but I suppose my
personal preferences are not all universal.)


Big figures in the equation prominently. Larger dogs are harder to
adopt out than smaller ones as well. I don't get that either, since
my personal preference runs very strongly towards larger dogs.

Suja




And I thought that was so often the case -- people I've known who have
loved dogs have mostly (maybe 80% of them, I'd say) loved big dogs and
thought small ones were somehow less "dog-like." Someone just asked me
yesterday if Max was less dog-like than bigger dogs. I said not really,
he has all the big dog behaviors. It's true he's a silly piece of fluff,
but then Queenie is too -- just six times the size. And somewhat less
fluff.

I suppose a big, untrained shelter dog clamoring for attention or, worse,
barking when approached might seem a bit daunting to an adopter -- so
maybe the adoption environment also contributes to the problem.

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the Pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat
  #45  
Old January 2nd 07, 06:31 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Tara
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,408
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote in news:4599f0f2$0$2644$ecde5a14
@news.coretel.net:

but I
think I have done a good job with Muttley and he is now family.


Didn't you just give him away last week only to have him returned to you a
few days later?


Tara
  #47  
Old January 2nd 07, 10:44 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Melinda Shore
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7,732
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

In article ,
Paula wrote:
Sometimes we have a bunch of unadoptables who are being held for court
cases. Maybe they were part of the evidence for a prosecution. Or they
could have all been bred by some idiot from their aggressive dog or
trained by idiots to be aggressive or something. I hope they don't just
assume that big and black equals man eater.


This was about 15 years ago and my recollection is that they
had identified them as "unadoptable" because experience
had shown that big black dogs didn't get adopted. That is
to say, it's not that they were rogue dogs or bad dogs, it's
that they were big black dogs. I do think that shelter
operations have gotten a lot more "enlightened" over the
past decade or so.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Sending more troops into a war is properly called an "escalation."
  #48  
Old January 2nd 07, 11:01 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Paula
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,726
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

(Melinda Shore) wrote in
:

In article ,
Paula wrote:
Sometimes we have a bunch of unadoptables who are being held for court
cases. Maybe they were part of the evidence for a prosecution. Or
they could have all been bred by some idiot from their aggressive dog
or trained by idiots to be aggressive or something. I hope they don't
just assume that big and black equals man eater.


This was about 15 years ago and my recollection is that they
had identified them as "unadoptable" because experience
had shown that big black dogs didn't get adopted. That is
to say, it's not that they were rogue dogs or bad dogs, it's
that they were big black dogs. I do think that shelter
operations have gotten a lot more "enlightened" over the
past decade or so.


Let us pray! They obviously will be unadoptable if they are put in a
different section and labeled as such. How many people shelter shopping
are going to go up and ask why and if they can't please just adopt one
of the dogs labeled unadoptable? Then you have a self-fulfilling
prophecy on your hands.

Our shelters save the unadoptable section for dogs that are highly
aggressive so they don't want the liability of adopting them out but
can't PTS until the period for an owner to claim them is up or they are
set aside for another reason, like being evidence in a prosecution.
Some of them are also under quarantine. It would never occur to me to
assume something really drastic hadn't happened and I should look to
adopt a dog from that area. I wouldn't even go in that separate room
unless looking for my own dog that had escaped and might have been
picked up or something similar.

Paula
  #49  
Old January 2nd 07, 11:22 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Janet B
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,260
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

On Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:01:08 GMT, Paula ,
clicked their heels and said:

How many people shelter shopping
are going to go up and ask why and if they can't please just adopt one
of the dogs labeled unadoptable? Then you have a self-fulfilling
prophecy on your hands.

Our shelters save the unadoptable section for dogs that are highly
aggressive so they don't want the liability of adopting them out but
can't PTS until the period for an owner to claim them is up or they are
set aside for another reason, like being evidence in a prosecution.
Some of them are also under quarantine. It would never occur to me to
assume something really drastic hadn't happened and I should look to
adopt a dog from that area. I wouldn't even go in that separate room
unless looking for my own dog that had escaped and might have been
picked up or something similar.



The shelters I have been familiar with don't make seeing those dogs
possible. Chained off areas, secured doors, whatever, but they are
not for the public viewing. If the dogs were unadoptable due to
aggression, all it takes is one finger through the kennel door......

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com
  #50  
Old January 2nd 07, 11:27 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.breeds
Paula
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,726
Default Scariest LOOKING breeds, public perception?

Janet B wrote in
:

The shelters I have been familiar with don't make seeing those dogs
possible. Chained off areas, secured doors, whatever, but they are
not for the public viewing. If the dogs were unadoptable due to
aggression, all it takes is one finger through the kennel door......


Yeah, in ours you have to have a reason to be in there and you have a
shelter worker with you. If you have taken a shelter worker away for
anything but you are looking for your dog and think it might be in there
kind of situation, you are going to catch hell.

Paula
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
rec.pets.dogs: Mastiffs Breed-FAQ Mike McBee Dog info 0 May 21st 06 05:23 AM
rec.pets.dogs: Mastiffs Breed-FAQ Mike McBee Dog info 0 March 20th 06 06:33 AM
rec.pets.dogs: Mastiffs Breed-FAQ Mike McBee Dog info 0 January 18th 06 06:48 AM
rec.pets.dogs: Mastiffs Breed-FAQ Mike McBee Dog info 0 December 19th 05 06:36 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:30 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.2.0 (Unauthorized Upgrade)
Copyright ©2004-2024 DogBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.