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It was a fairly good article. As to the stripes - good advice as shown in the examples.
It is known that dogs, for whatever reason, do not like uniforms. They make the person look all one color to the dog. Something about that arouses the dog's suspicion. One day I went into the office where a co-worker had her dog. This dog usually fairly friendly stood there and growled at me. I happened to be wearing that day a black shirt and black pants, which in effect was a "uniform".
Unless the people wearing the test patterns were unable to know which pattern they were wearing they could've been sending other nonverbal cues to the dogs to cause them alarm. To do this they would've had to have on an Elizabethan collar or have blinders of some sort. I don't put any stock in this study.
However, I do know that some animals do respond to pattern/ color. My bearded dragon doesn't like it when people wear black -they turn their chins black when they are threatened to scare off a competing lizard and he doesn't like bright orange because I suppose he thinks that the wearer is a really big lizard. That is of course anecdotal and I do not claim to have officially conducted a study!
People say that dogs don't like people in uniform, but I don't know of anyone authoritative saying that. The people they are referring to are the letter carrier, UPS man, fedex person- people who come through their territory every day (in the case of the mailman at least) and don't behave like friends of the family, but leave again immediately, maybe making a noise on the wall if a mailbox is mounted there. If they knock, usually the dogs' owner doesn't let them in as they would a friend. So it's no wonder that dogs can react badly to these people. Their uniforms aren't always all one color.
As far as the striped clothing goes, I think that's minor enough that a dog who's well socialized shouldn't react much. So a new dog owner or someone who wants an easygoing dog wouldn't want a dog who was reactive to that anyway.
Things that changes a person's appearance more dramatically, that many dogs react to, (again, unless they are well socialized and reasonably stable) are beards, dark glasses, and hats. Weelchairs, walkers and canes are scary to a lot of dogs. And race! Dogs that aren't used to seeing people of certain races can react because the person doesn't "look right" to them. That one can be kind of embarrassing to a new owner- "I didn't teach her that!" But they can learn to be accustomed to all these things.
While I don't know if I believe stripes could cause that much of difference, I do know that for some dogs clothing choices do matter.
Hats seems to throw off some dogs, as do wide sunglasses and over sized clothes.
Just the other day we were at the dog park, and there was a lady there in; a hat, glasses, hoodie and rain boots and was power walking. No dog, including my own, was comfortable around her. I heard growling, dogs slunk away. And she was all offended...smh. I'm sure she looked like a big monster walking quickly toward them, I'd be afraid too if I was a dog.
I disagree with the article. My dogs bark at the delivery people or any stranger because they KNOCK on our door. We tell our friends who are expected never to knock on our door and just come in.
Then, whenever I meet a strange dog, I never stare into their eyes, because that is challenging them. Instead I treat them as if they are invisible and let them sniff me without any reaction from me. Once I have passed their inspection, I will gently make contact with them.
Delivery people tend to look directly at my dogs, and that does provoke them.
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But they can learn to be accustomed to all these things.
