Black Dog Syndrome Does Not Occur In Animal Shelters, Study Says

It is not the color but it's the breed group and age of the dogs that matter with regard to adoption in the animal shelters. This explains that the Black Dog Syndrome does not happen in the said shelters, according to study.

Science Daily reports that the study was conducted by researchers from Canisius College and was fronted by Christy L. Hoffman, Ph.D., the assistant professor of Animal Behavior. It was printed in the journal Animal Welfare.

It involved 16,700 dogs; hence, they focused on dogs between one and 13 years old at two animal shelters in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers investigated the four years of adoption records at the two shelters. They studied the age, role of a coat of color, breed and sex of the dogs. Young dogs are not included in their data as they are adopted faster.

 The outcome of the study showed that black dogs are adopted faster compared to dogs with different colors. They also found out that the breed group and age were more significant than the color.

"In the first shelter, the average length of time a dog was available for adoption was seven days while black dogs were out in 6.5 days," Hoffman said. "In the second shelter, the average length of stay for a dog was 10.5 days while black dogs were out in nine."

Breed group such as American Staffordshire terriers and American pitbull terriers stay longer in shelters. Hoffman explained that bull terriers would more likely to stay for two-and-a-half to three times longer than the average.

She also said that the Black Dog Syndrome has not been proven to be a problem in education and marketing efforts. She is calling for rescuers group and shelters to be careful in examining their data and that education and marketing efforts must be evaluated correctly.

"If a shelter invests efforts in promoting black dogs when, in fact, black dogs might have the same success if they were not promoted, then these resources could be better spent promoting other animals in the organization that is overlooked, "Hoffman concluded.

Wikipedia describes Black Dog Syndrome or also referred to as big black dog syndrome as black dogs that are not adopted for a period of time compared to lighter-colored animals. Black Dog Syndrome may be caused by the black colored pets, size, dimly lit kennels, unclean facial features and negative portrayals of black pets in movies, as well as popular media and books.