The relationship between humans and dogs is complex and ambivalent. The dog was the first animal that Homo sapiens domesticated. This means that the human-dog relationship has lasted longer than any other human-animal relationships. Despite all this, mythological, symbolic and folkloristic traditions often depict dogs in a negative light and as a dangerous and threatening force from the underworld. Due to the belief that seeing an unknown dog can lead to misfortune, accident or even death, people were often afraid of dogs.People had to invent certain rules that could help them determine which dog was dangerous and which was not. Those rules had to change over time based on the fact that human-dog relationship is culturally and historically defined. The author analyses stories from in the Glasovi (Voices) collection to show that, in the last few centuries in the territory of modern Slovenia, black dogs where most feared by humans. In contrast, nowadays the most feared dogs are those of the Pit Bull and some other breeds. Nevertheless, the folk superstitions and prejudice toward black dogs is still present in modern Western societies. In the English language “black dog” symbolizes depression. And some are still reluctant to adopt large black dogs from the animal shelters.Odnos med človekom in psom je zapleten in ambivalenten. Pes je bil prva udomačena žival, zato njegov tesen odnos s človekom traja najdlje med vsemi živalskimi vrstami. Kljub temu pes v mitoloških, simbolnih in folklornih tradicijah najpogosteje reprezentira negativne, nevarne in grozeče sile iz onstranstva. Te ljudske predstave so bile nekoč razširjene tudi na območju slovensko govorečega prebivalstva. Zaradi prepričanja, da soočenje z neznanim psom za posameznika ali njegove bližnje pomeni nesrečo in celo smrt, so se ljudje psov pogosto bali.Specifična znanja, prek katerih so lahko posamezniki psa ocenili kot bolj ali manj nevarnega, so se med generacijami med drugim prenašala prek ljudskih tradicij, folklornih pripovedi in vraževerij. Kot na podlagi analize folklornih zgodb iz zbirke Glasovi ugotavlja avtorica, so se pretekli prebivalci območja današnje Republike Slovenije bali predvsem črnih psov. Danes, nasprotno, o tem, ali je določen pes nevaren ali ne, sodimo predvsem na podlagi njegove pasme in telesne strukture. Kljub temu se naše vražne predstave in predsodki do črnih psov zrcalijo tudi v sodobni družbi. V angleškem jeziku črni pes simbolizira depresijo. Nekatera zavetišča za živali pa opažajo, da se ljudje manj pogosto odločajo za posvojitev velikih črnih psov
