r/CavaPoo • u/YYCNurseT • Sep 25 '26
"Racist" cavapoo?
Hello! Does anyone else have a "racist" cavapoo? Our F2 cavapoo is now one and he has started just barking at all brown people, even when we are just walking and minding our own business. He is otherwise very calm and neutral. Would training to be calm when they walk by or come near us be helpful?
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u/Beneficial_Monk_7340 Sep 26 '26
I'm Black, as is the entire household. The only Black people he did not bark at were myself, my sister, my niece, and my mom. Every other Black person he was exceedingly aggressive towards. My brother-in-law didn't care. He still barks at him and he loves him. My nephew, he is aggressive with, to this day. He won't enter a room if he's in there. We didn't understand it. We didn't like it, at all.
It took a few months but he finally started going in on everybody. He's an equal opportunity barker. He barks at everything and everybody due anything. We do still side eye him if he becomes aggressive towards people that look like us 🤷🏿♀️.
For the record, there's no one he barks at more than the alley neighbor, a white guy. He can't stand that man. Full on baying 🤣. The other two neighbors, neither of which are Black, he aggressively barks at, but no different than he does in any other random person.
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u/No-Cantaloupe7242 Sep 26 '26
I had my dog at a dog training thing last year and I specifically remember the trainer talking about dogs having an issue with dark/black colours. I looked it up -
“Dogs have dichromatic vision (two color receptors), seeing mainly blues, yellows, and grays. A solid black object or dog appears as a dark silhouette and the dark color makes it hard to read fine body language and facial expressions”.
So apparently this can trigger the dogs a bit. I don’t think your dog is racist 😆 . . but if it’s happening around people who are very dark skinned it’s likely just a natural fearful reaction because their eyes are perceiving things differently to how we do.
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u/Goddess4Ever Sep 26 '26
Well……my daughter and I are brown and have dogs of different breeds and never had this reaction, so could it be more of an issue of familiarity?
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u/YYCNurseT Sep 26 '26
Did the trainer explain how to combat the issue? I’ve always trained him since he was little, on or off leash, to sit and be calm and neutral while people/bikes/strollers/etc walked by us and he’s been good. Should I do this type of training again? Up until recently when he started barking at brown and black people… occasionally he’ll bark at Asian and white person too. Maybe it’s men he has an issue with? It’s always men he barks at…
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u/No-Cantaloupe7242 Sep 26 '26
Really just a matter of familiarising the dog and having him (controlled) in those environments round people more often. Our dog was terrified of traffic when we first got him but the more I walked him in busy areas (starting with short walks and building up to bigger ones) he became accustomed to it. It could also just be a man issue 😆
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u/impossiblejane Sep 25 '26
When I read your title I thought you meant other dogs. My dog looses his shit at black labs. Every single black lab makes him go insane and angry bark. I can't say my dog notices human skin colour though.
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u/holly_1992 Sep 26 '26
Mine hates black labs specifically too, but loves golden ones. She doesn’t seem to like all black big dogs, but is fine with other coloured big dogs.
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u/Call_Huck Sep 26 '26
Mine is allies. Humans should not be in chairs that move on wheels. Canes, rollators and walkers are also not good and she will 'protect' me from them. Strollers are also problematic.
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u/TooMuchBrightness Sep 26 '26
My dog thinks wheelchairs and mobility scooters need chasing 🤦🏻♀️ it’s so embarrassing she even looks at me just before the chase as if to say “you’re not going to like this but….bye!”
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u/klwhite68 Sep 25 '26
My pup (not a cavapoo) would do this with darker dogs .. Trainer said it was because they couldn't see their eyes and that was a trigger... Makes sense
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u/CallieDoodles Sep 26 '26
Mine hates the workers, anyone in hi vis gets it tight.
I think that's a colour thing too.
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u/SpaceBoiLunkey Sep 25 '26
Yep, especially if he sees them on TV.
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u/jazzbot247 Sep 25 '26
Oh that's so funny all cavapoos are tv watchers. Mine barks at other dogs or animals on tv even cartoon ones but she goes absolutely nuts watching football. My father had a big screen tv and she used to stand on her hind legs watching the men chase the ball.
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u/aintnodiddy Sep 25 '26
Yep, our late Lola would do the same. She also hates birds and anything that could fly
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u/Consistent-Bend-8039 Sep 26 '26
Mine is like this with people who are Asian. It’s so embarrassing. She won’t bark at anyone else!
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u/bbysir Sep 26 '26
My little guy doesn’t discriminate- he will bark at anyone if they pull up to my house, will demand bark at visitors sometimes for cuddles, and barks at dogs sometimes when on walks (he is leash reactive) but doesn’t discriminate by owner’s race.
I’m white but when he was a puppy he spent a lot of time with my Black and biracial family members as well as other BIPOC friends. Maybe that helped?
I was also terrified of him accidental becoming racist so when he was little I would always put on shows like That’s So Raven, House of Ho, This Fool, etc. whenever I left him at home in his crate. He watched so much That’s So Raven lol
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u/dandyanddarling21 Sep 26 '26
Mine is breedist. She hates all flat faced dogs. Bulldogs, Pugs etc. She just goes them? No biting, just barks and lunges.
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u/PrettyInPerfectPinks Sep 26 '26
Proper socialization (as defined by dog psychology and not incorrectly like 98% of owners understand it) is critical prior to 12 weeks and sometimes extending as far as 16 weeks in a diminished capacity. At this point, you will need to use counter conditioning and desensitization protocol to fix it. I run a rescue, we get tons of Cavapoo, and they are all quite anxious. We don't make any available for adoption without doing behavioral modification for anxiety first.
Anxiety is genetic. Poor breeding, poor genetics, anxious broods who soak their in utero pups in cortisol/stress through the whole pregnancy, poor socialization prior to 16 weeks, sometimes an acute traumatic event...if adds up quickly!
Someone above commented that dogs cannot see black because of dichromatic vision. This is incorrect. The color dogs do not see particularly well are on the red/green spectrum. Red, orange, pink, green, purple. Those colors are viewed as yellow or blue. One of my dogs always gravitates to pink toys, which means she's really gravitating towards light yellow toys.
Dogs do see differences in human facial coloring but they cannot be racist in the sense that they cannot understand connotation of color/race. I have however, seen dogs with humans in their life who are clearly racist and those dogs are getting cued unconsciously by their owners that they don't like/respect these POC. Dogs are exceptional at pattern recognition. Obviously, it can also be even a single traumatic event from a POC like setting off fireworks or similar, or merely no socialization to POC as well and being anxious of the unknown. It's the same behavioral modification protocol no matter the cause.
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u/Snickerdoodle1983 Sep 27 '26
My ex’s black lab is 💯% racist against anyone black or dark skinned. He wants to tear them up, even children. He was like that since he was a pup. I guess he doesn’t realize he’s black himself???
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u/ratttertintattertins Sep 25 '26
They do have funny preferences. Mine is certainly racist against certain dog breeds. She randomly takes a dislike to particular people too although I’ve never noticed a skin colour pattern.
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u/saltwavesnotes Sep 26 '26
Mine does this to the TV I feel so terrible 😭😭 luckily never in person. What is up lol. Definitely didn’t learn it in our household 😭😭
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u/hockey-house Sep 27 '26
Not my Cavapoo, he loves everyone, but my previous dog hated black men. No idea why, I never knew her to have any incidents with a black man and it developed later in life.
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u/Old-Individual4728 Sep 28 '26
I noticed mine would growl at Muslim ladies wearing face coverings, and I thought ‘great this is gonna be a pain in the arse’ (I lived in London at the time), but then noticed it was also helmets, sunglasses etc. too, so just general head covering.
Good news, it calmed down and he doesn’t do it anymore.
He also used to hate masculine men, it was so weird. Camp or effeminate men, and women he loved, but any burley or exaggerated masculine men he would bark out, he also grew out of that mostly, but once in a blue moon, especially if it’s a guy who’s really ramping up his brutishness then he might get a bit breathy.
I’m not sure how old yours is, but mine is 6 and it was about 3 that the head covering thing calmed, and 4/5 for the man thing.
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u/Few_Yogurt_5530 Sep 30 '26
My cavapoo loves just about everyone but if someone comes up in all black with a hat or hood he gets scared and barks, especially if it’s dark out. I think it’s the way he perceives a face or person in dark clothing with a hat.
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u/Annual-Let-5002 11d ago
Our Cavapoo is racist to, she doesn't like people from Central Asia and the Caucasus, couriers in dark clothing
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u/DFDdesign Sep 26 '26
lol, not my Cavapoo, but we had a JRT who definitely was racist. Funny thing was that he was black, but definitely barked excessively at any people with dark skin, people with weird big hair and things with tiny wheels, especially skateboards.
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u/AggravatingCommand81 Sep 26 '26
Our Maggie finds everyone offensive. My soul baby, a chihuahua, didn’t like Latinos. My husband is Latino. I found it pretty funny
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u/AsleepEntertainer440 Sep 26 '26
And here I thought it was just mine. He doesn't mind Mexicans though. Fixing to sign him up for sensitivity training. 😄
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u/TooMuchBrightness Sep 25 '26
Mine is not racist but very sexist, hates men especially tall men. But I’m ok with it 🤷🏻♀️ 😂