Big Black Dog Syndrome

This is a subject I will blog about regularly. I will continue to talk about it until its common knowledge and no longer a syndrome. BBD Syndrome is the fate of Big Black Dogs...they are the most likely to die in shelters across America. There are many reasons for this travesty, but its such a grand scale problem that it was officially termed a 'syndrome'.

BBD's are harder to adopt than lighter coat dogs. They are harder to see in bad lighting. Their facial expressions are misleading as you can not read their expression as easily as with light coated dogs. With the sharp contrast of black fur and white teeth...smiling or even slight teeth in view gives impression of barring teeth...which is scary to some. Even other dogs can mis-read a black dogs expression.

On top of basic visual facts, black dogs are often used in film and literature to represent 'evil' or bad omens. Even Winston Churchill used the term 'the black dog' to reference 'depression'. Add on that black fur is possible in many mixed breed combinations and you have many different black dogs that will likely end up in shelters.

I learned this with the adoption of our first black dog, Sam. Pictured second from left. The shelter volunteer said that she was happy to see a black dog get a home. We then adopted Morgan (far left) from Gaffney County. Emma (far right) was adopted from Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control. Hank (squirmy little pup in Jon's lap) was adopted from the Humane Society of Charlotte. Hank was pulled from a kill shelter in a surrounding county to avoid euthanasia by HSC.


There is no difference between any light coated dog and a black dog...just the negative image and labels. Otherwise, they are just as wonderful as any other pup in the shelter. Here are some websites to help explain further
Black Pearl Dogs
Start Seeing BLACK Dogs