Racist Dogs

JMurray

Who says dogs are color blind?
On several occasions walking around in cities I have been singled out of crowds of Indians by barking growling dogs. People seemed amused at this, although a couple times someone would chase the dog away for me.

Has this happened to others? I didn't think dogs were that visually discerning especially since there are many light-skinned Indians too. Do we smell different, or could it just be me? (I bathe regularly, and perhaps even excessively while in India).

Hippie at Heart

I am told that dogs can see only in shades of gray color!! but they can make out who is differently dressed or going about, other then local people around... i have dogs barking at me in countryside because they can make out am an outsider. this doesent happen anywhere in delhi maybe because most delhi people are dressed so much like each other... rag pickers are not so fortunate and get barked down everywhere in delhi, i guess its because of the rucksack they are lugging around to pick up trash that make them stand apart or different from crowd

john.sw

You don't wear this perfume do you?

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PeakXV

This happens to me as well. I think it is all about the gait. Indians, particularly street people/workers can spot foreigners, regardless of their color/ancestry, a mile away by their gait and/or cadence there of - so why not dogs!? A certain stride or the way one carries oneself which can be a deterrent for touts/hawkers to stay away may inadvertently send an alarm signal to our canine friends.

As an added possibility, I am very much aware of all dogs when I am walking and they may well realize and misinterpret this self-radiating sensor as some form of aggression.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

yossie23

Dogs, it appears, have 200 million odd scent receptors in their noses and can smell out many things about a person or object that we cannot!

"http://www.zinkle.com/p/articles/mi_qa4128/is_200404/ai_n9390754"

Not sure if this answers your concern

Yogesh Sarkar

Dogs know who is a local and should not be barked at and who is a stranger and should be told whose territory it is. Also if you tend to be over conscious in front of dogs, they can sense it and will bark at you. Since most of the western countries don’t have so many street dogs, westerners tend to be a bit apprehensive around them, which if you ask any dog owner, is not recommended.

Best option for you is to get friendly with the local dogs, by giving them some thing to eat. Not only will this make them friendly with you, you will be more confident around street dogs.

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robing

i allways thought they don't like suncream

JMurray

JohnSW, I don't wear it, but I'd like to buy some. It would make a nice gift for certain people I know.

Peak XV, it could very well have something to do with gait. Come to think of it, people too, have spotted me as a foreigner from bigger distances than seemed possible, even though dress-wise I generally blended in.

Anyway, it's not a huge concern of mine. Just a curiosity.

Jim

PeakXV

You're right ... come to think of it - I never seem to see any at all when I get a mean case of the curry farts.

seventies'hippy

Yes as everyone says it is your gait, general stance, and of course the way you smell. it's not so bad these days (in way of attacks) in areas more populated by foreigners as the dogs have grown up with all these different smells & habits, but even though they perhaps appear to be sleeping they've probably still got one eye on you as you walk by.
Always shuffle your feet at night time especially to forwarn them that you are coming,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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amarama

mostly dogs sense fear, it , to them means you are readsy to attack. Most street dogs are very friendly during day light hours. If yyou stay in one area for a while, its not a bad idea to feed the poor things. They will remember your smell and always be your friend, accept in the dark. Unless you become really good friends, which means raw meat. There is also a more metaphyscal side to this as well, which involves, how you say, negative forces acting against you. Dogs are very sensitive to thing of that nature.

aask

The real racists dogs in India ARE the administrators of the TAJ and other tourist hot-spots, where the "foreign" tourists are kind of fined with a hefty fee, when "Indians"(me included) pass by with relatively no damge to their wallet. The only criteria for determining whether you are a foreign citizen being the colour of your skin. That's classical text book racism.

Citizens of India should wake up and act fast, or one day Indian tourists(Brown skinned South Asians) may need to pay special fees to visit, say, Manhattan(touristic place!) or Museums in Europe. Maybe some country should start doing something like that, just to show the Indian govermnet how ugly it looks.

The Indian administration needs to understand that most back packers to India really make less money than a middle level manager/executive in Inida. They work hard and save industriously, to re-experience their love for India. This rasicm against people who love India should stop, and all Indians who can do something, please act.

Oh, regarding dogs, stay your ground, if they are alone. Watch out if they are a pack. If you need to stay long at a place(especially a village or a semi-urban town) and if you like to walk in the evenings, keep a staff with you. The street dogs may not respect you, but they will respect the stick. The stick in a city can be sticky, as you may look odd.

navinkurian2002

If you owned a dog or just knew how dogs behave you wouldn’t be asking this question. A dog barks differently in different situations and its tough to explain this to people who are afraid of dogs or just not in tune with animals. In Mumbai after 2 am dogs own the streets. They petrol the streets and I used to be death scared of them. Till I made it a point to understand why they bark.

Digital Drifter

I have this theory.

I keep assuming that a lot of the tourists keep pets (cats and dogs) at their homes. So when they come down here and the dogs here go mental because it's reacting to the other animals marking scent on the person.

Of course, in theory, it should lessen as you spend more time here as the scent loses it potency as you wash up regularly and pick up others unqiue to India. I believe you face it more because your rucksack kit is ALSO marked and you dont clean your kit in India.

This too is shot when you generally wander aound without a kit and still get them critters homing in your legs and butt like a guided missile.

Or it might be a fetish thing with the strays.

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