Do Dogs Really Hate Hats?

[deanzat]

Conventional wisdom around here says that dogs dislike men in hats. I've developed a habit of doffing my hat as I approach properties with excitable dogs on my daily walk.

Anyone know if there's real research on the topic?

 

[fmw]

I don't know about hats but I can attest to their passionate interest in men on bicycles.

 

[azshawn]

I'm a residential appraiser and I can tell you that some homeowners dogs do really dislike men in hats. I've encountered a few dogs where this reaction is almost like a liht switch, with my Stetson on they want to kill me, with my Stetson off them come to me wagging their tails. It's pretty amazing how much some dogs hate a man in a hat.

 

[HeyMoe]

My dog loves them

 

[gtdean48]

I have had horses that get jumpy when they see a brim. When I have to give shots, I always wear a ball cap since every other time I mess with them I wear a brim. I think it is conditioning = something negative happened with a person wearing a hat or in a dog's case, it is something unusual on top of a person that disturbs them...

 

[zetwal]

Many books on dog training and behavior address the fact that some dogs do react strongly to people in hats, etc.

Do a search for "canine reactivity to men in hats" and see what you find.

 

[gtdean48]

You'd figure that after almost 10,000 years they'd get used to us...
Because it was found deep inside a pile of human excrement and was the characteristic orange-brown color that bone turns when it has passed through the digestive tract, the fragment provides the earliest direct evidence that dogs — besides being used for company, security and hunting — were eaten by humans and may even have been bred as a food source, he said.

 

[Edward]

Many years ago, a relative of mine had a dog that went nuts and tried to attack any young boy of about twelve years old it encountered who had red hair and glasses. Turned out the dog had once, as a puppy, been very badly beaten by a child fitting just that description. I can't comment on dogs and hats more generally - never really around them, and I am distinctly a cat person by preference. My cats are broadly indifferent to hats - aside, that is, from ensuring that they deposit a sufficiently large quantity of a contrasting fur colour thereon.

 

[dhermann1]

I've encountered some dogs who seem afraid of the hats. When I take it off and show it to them, they sniff it very warily and look up at me with nervous distrust. Usually they figure out that the hat is just a hat, and not some sort of dangerous antlers.

 

[HeyMoe]

I wonder if how a dog is raised has anything to do with it? My pooch thinks everyone loves him and has no isses with someone in a hat - of course that may be because folks have been wearing hats around him since he was a pup.

 

[Fletch]

Your doggie looks really cool.

 

[dwebber18]

My dog doesn't mind me in a hat, however if I'm not careful while we are in the car I will notice a subtle push on my head with my hat brim in her mouth, haha. She likes to use her mouth the see things

 

[HeyMoe]

I have had horses that get jumpy when they see a brim.

We had a horse that HATED men in hats and disliked men in general. Women in hats were fine. For men she would just reach over, grab the hat toss it in the air and then tromp on it.

 

[M. Oleman]

That is one dapper dog,

 

[HeyMoe]

That is one dapper dog,

Sad thing is he almost acts like he knows it....

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I've noticed this too.

 

[scooter]

My smallest dog loves hats! She tells me they taste like chicken, and trust me, she has had a broad sampling.

 

[Mr_D.]

It's amazing what animals will remember growing up, and even pass to their off spring.

Anyone remember the Shamu incident where the trainer was mistreating the whale so during a performance the trainer was on the back of one whale, and the other whale was jumping over them and fell right on the trainer crushing him between the 2 whales. They (the whales) knew what they were doing.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Dog's fear the unknown. My dog's are use to me wearing hats so a hat on a person is not something out of the ordinary.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

My three pooches have no particular hatred of hats, just cats!