This is quite interesting! I have a shy, timid dark brown pit who has some brown in her. I've kind of noticed that in my findings, now that I think of it. What an interesting find.

This is fascinating.  Do you know the breeding history of the dogs?  Could this be unwitting selection in the breeding of the dogs?  As you note, differences in treatment would have to be pretty significant to produce such a difference in fear response.  Perhaps in breeding for greater prey drive or rage, fear was unwittingly increased?  The core emotions have separate circuits in the brain so this is certainly possible.  As a medical anthropologist who studies trauma and violence (among humans, of course), I am very curious to learn what you discover.  The synergy between environment and biology makes me very curious about the genetic relationships among the dogs.  The severe trauma all the dogs experienced may have resulted in more severe PTSD symptoms among a group of related dogs because of a genetic vulnerability.  Thank goodness the dogs have you!  

Very interesting findings; I can't wait to see more of your research.

Yes, very fascinating and very observant Dr Frank.    Especially combined with how black dogs are so hard to adopt out this would be a great study and maybe someday help the black dogs.    I have 2 large black dogs that were either going to the shelter or coming to my house.  These two would have NEVER been adopted. (well, I shouldn't say never :) But the one especially was so timid and fearful that he would snarl when approached.  His tail stayed curled under his belly for the first couple of months.  I have had them 8 months and they have progressed beautifully.   Thanks for the report and anxious to hear more.

I know that among the fighters that the black dogs are treated the worse --they think that it will make them meaner. I had to deal with a number of teens on my area and this is what they tell me.

The color, black, has been associated with evil, darkness, demonic possessions

in poetry and literature. Although humans seem to have lost some instincts which

are intact in non-humans, we still have these primal instinctual fears. Humans learn

from other humans and if black has been associated with negativity in societies,

we pick up on that very early in our development. Just as in the studies which show

that male and female infants don't have the prejudices of older toddlers until they

'learn' from their caregivers and are directed towards certain prejudices.

And of course, the black dogs will pick up the fears which humans put out when

seeing, for instance, a black dog verses a spotted dog. Fear promotes fear and

the animals sense this. The cycle continues. I think the issue is the color, not

the dog.

It may be that their handlers thought they should be more aggressive, because they looked "badder," so they were goaded and taunted more than the lighter coated dogs.

Think about sports teams that change to black uniforms because they think it makes them look more intimidating (Atlanta did it, as a matter of fact). Where I live, people who drive black pickup trucks and large SUVs are the scariest drivers on the road.

But if the black-coated dogs were no more naturally aggressive, then perhaps they didn't live up to expectations.

I'll be interested to see what comes of this.

This might sound odd, but I swear it's true. While teaching in the inner city of Chicago, I found a tremendous amount of self-loathing and even racism among the very kids I taught. I think this might explain why the black dogs are more frightened. I suspect they were treated worse by their black human caregivers.

The self-loathing that my students felt was an "artifact" of their poverty, ignorance, lack of opportunity, lack of input from outside their community, and internalization of cultural beauty norms. My heart broke because each and every one of them was absolutely beautiful. It would be just another horror perpetrated by Mr. Vick if the black dogs were indeed treated worse due to "racism".

I have noticed a simular thing with rabbits, I have been rescuing domestic rabbits and I find that the black ones are much more timid and fearful than any other color of bunny.  It seems to be the ones who are very dark colored or mostly black and all black, and not the ones who are white with some black markings.  I have been noticing it for quite some time and thought is was just a coincedence, until I read this ariticle.  I don't believe it has anyting to do with the way they were treated because some of the other rabbits of different colors were treated badly or neglected and are comfortable being handled and most crave attention. Even the black bunnies who have not been treated badly are still very fearful and spend most of their time hiding.  Black rabbits are also usually more difficult to adopt out than bunnies of other colors.

I'm a huge fan of large black dogs.

My guess is that the black dogs have been treated badly, even more so than the other dogs. It's only anecdotal evidence, but the people that my [solid black] dog and I meet when we're out in public generally do seem to be more afraid of him than they are of other color dogs.

Part of this may be cultural, because we use do black to denote 'bad guys' -- Darth Vader, for example -- but I think part of it may also be that the faces of black dogs are harder for a lot of people to 'read.' The dark brown eyes are hard to see, and gosh those shiny white teeth are awfully noticeable when the dog opens his mouth!

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