So, my dog Bo (the black lab under the chocolate ear) loves everybody except, wait for it, GREEN people. Green people freak him out, even though to my knowledge he has only seen them through a car window. Fortunately green people are seasonal, they start showing up around March, outside of tax preparation offices, waving and spinning signs. Okay, they aren’t really green, they’re just wearing Statue of Liberty costumes, but still, the hair on his back bristles up, he growls menacingly, then barks through the window at them. I got him at a year and a half old, hard to know what traumatic Statue of Liberty experience he had in those formative months.

Seriously though, we walk/train at a large off leash area and see dozens of dogs and people every day and it’s a little sad to see how few really confident and friendly dogs there are. Some of it seems to be breed specific; labs like Bo seem to be the most likely to approach strangers and demand an ear rub or butt scratch, but I’m pretty sure that dogs mostly reflect the confidence or the fears of their owner, and I presume their prejudices as well.