Can Some Dogs Just Be Mean?

[Santo66]

I think we can all get the idea of what the OP is talking about in terms of "mean"......a loose dog rushes out of a driveway wagging tail and jumps up for a pat and lick of your face......you wouldn't call that dog mean. On the other hand.....a dog comes rushing out of driveway gnashing teeth and tries to take your head off.......that's mean in this context.

Some dogs are like that genetically by default.....they hate everyone unknown to them and they will bite you given the opportunity. They are not fundamentally lovely dogs raised badly......they are aggressive by nature and we need to accept this fact. You can mellow some dogs out with intensive training and dedication to improve their behaviour and reactivity, but you can't trust them as the default aggression at the right trigger will re-surface somewhere.....a dog is either a friendly dog with good bite inhibition or it's not?