Are Dogs Racist?

This past weekend I was at an old friend's wedding. The night before the wedding, I was hanging with a bunch of old buddies, catching up, and I recounted my recent dog-bite incident.

For the unitiated: I was at a BBQ and Andy's huge German Shepard, Truck, was in attendance. Truck was behaving quite well, lying down, seemingly at peace with the world. I went up to Truck - who I know - and said "Hi Truck." He leaped up, barking and biting, and got a few good nips in - nothing awful (no emergency room), but a fairly serious dog attack, nonetheless.

Since I've recounted the story many times, I make it very clear that the attack came out of nowhere. (note: many people who were at the BBQ or who I told the story afterwards ask me, "What did you do?" as if it were my fault somehow. These are the same people who think 9/11 was America's.)

So I made sure it was clear to my friends at the wedding: the attack was completely unprovoked.

One of my friends got real quiet and said:

"You know why it might have happened, man..."

"Why?"

"Dogs don't like Asian people."

"Bullshit, man. What are you talking about?"

"I know man, it sounds crazy. But I swear to God, I've heard this. Dogs tend to attack and freak out on Asian people more than others."

"Get the fuck outta here."

"Dude, I know it's fucked up, but I've heard it."

And then I thought about the other recent dog bite incident when Chuck's neighbors dogs attacked Cindy...who also happens to be Asian. And I thought about the racial make up of the party - no Asians.

"Wait a minute...I had another friend who got attacked by a dog a couple months ago...Asian also."

He started giggling.

I was completely indignant.

"That's really fucked up."

"I know."

I did a bit of research online and it seems like there is a bit of an urban myth out there that dogs do not like Asian people. (note, dogs also do not like Black people, but they like Blacks more than Asians - according to the myths).

Is this possible?

Clearly, dogs cannot be born racist. Nor do I suspect casual dog owners are training their dogs to be racist. And I don't suppose African dogs hate Black people or Asian dogs hate Asian people. But is it not possible that American dogs don't like the vibe of Asian-American people because something, somehow, is a little bit "different" than what they're used to?

For most of my life, I've had very good relationships with dogs. But, I was chased by a German Shepard when I was about 10 years old and was scared out of my wits. And now I've been bitten and attacked by a German Shepard. I'm only half Asian, so it is not a particularly high likelihood my Asian-ness has somehow been the the reason a few dogs don't like me.

And yet, this is the best explanation of the event thus far...