10/27/2026
If you don't know, I guess I operate my board and train kennel differently than others.
I have a fenced in exercise yard about the size of a baseball diamond and I exercise the dogs out there in supervised, but not helicoptered, groups.
Which brings me to my point today.
Rarely and I mean, rarely does a dog come in that doesn't appear "aggressive"or "timid" when introduced to whatever group is appropriate and at large in the yard.
In fact, some dogs will appear either aggressive or timid for as long as a couple weeks. Many of these dogs come in with a history of being aggressive or timid around other dogs and have been branded as such and the owners either told or believing their dog can't be around other dogs because of this.
Overwhelmingly, and I mean, overwhelmingly, I don't see these dogs as aggressive or timid, I see them as extremely socially awkward.
The last thing these timid/aggressive dogs need is to be socially isolated and further intrench what people believe those behaviors to be.
The tricky part is knowing how to introduce these socially awkward dogs into appropriate groups. I guess that's where my over three decades of experience doing just that is imperative.
Knowing who can go out with who and who shouldn't go out with who is incredibly important.
Personally I don't understand how a dog can be evaluated for temperament and decisions made, carved in stone, during a single visit or even over a number of days then restricted for the rest of his life based on declarations of the dog being timid or aggressive when it was nothing more than socially awkward and needed the proper exposure.
Of course, some dogs are socially awkward to the point that they do not get along with all dogs and some don't get along with any dogs but in my experience that is the extreme minority.
Yeah, please don't run out and cut your timid or aggressive dog loose at the local dog park because you'll probably just generally see what you believe, aggressive or timid behavior.
Again, the key is knowing how to expose what dog to which group and quite frankly I think that only comes through a lot of experience.
I believe the social experience the dogs get here is, for many of them, just as important, if not more so, then the training add one of the things I most enjoy seeing. Dogs, knowing and enjoying how to interact with one another......
I have no doubt this little black Dutch Shepherd would have been branded as timid during almost any evaluation.
She doesn't look timid to me anymore.
