The Freckled Kid Down the Block

Appearance does not predict behavior, in dogs or humans

By Kirstyn Northrop Cobb

Years back, when I was in junior high, there was a kid who picked on me. He didn’t just pick on me; oh, no – he was straight up mean. More than once I went home from school in tears and begged my parents not to make me go back. This kid called me names, he pushed me down, he even destroyed some of my school books. He was just a mean kid. I can still picture him now – he was blond, not very tall, with brown eyes. He had freckles across his nose and was of average build. For two years, he made me miserable.

But even then, I knew that he was just not a nice person. Did I at any point think that all blond children were mean? No. Did I think that kids of average height and weight were mean? No. I have freckles myself, so certainly I didn’t think that freckles would play a part. What about the brown eyes? Did they make him the bully that he was? Nope, not them either. Seriously, to think that this boy’s appearance would cause him to be (let’s be honest) a jerk would have been absurd.

So, let’s ask ourselves – why would we ever, ever think that way about dogs?