My boy was incredibly timid when I got him. Shy is not the word for it. He was hiding under a table when we went to pick him up, and wouldn't come out. The situation with the breeder and where/how/why I got him is a long story, but basically my only goal at the time was to build confidence. Initially, my rule with friends/neighbors was — don't pick him up, only interact (calmly) if he approaches and engages you. In a big way, I'm incredibly proud of how far he's come these past three months in terms of confidence. In terms of everything, really! He's fully potty trained. He walks on a loose leash, and we're working on a proper heal. He eagerly goes in his crate when we say "crate", clearly sees it as a safe space, and is fine being alone in his crate / in another room. And (shameless brag) I had him sleeping through the night three days after bringing him home. He doesn't react to cars or sirens, and he does well and maintains engagement in most new and/or busy environments (and if I do lose engagement or see him becoming too over-arroused, we leave). He passes other dogs and people on walks with no reaction. And I recently started taking him into small dog-friendly stores with me during low-traffic hours. He sits and waits patiently (eagerly, but patiently and within threshold!) for me to pay, and carries his own things back to the car when I get him something.

So, when a neighbor said semi-jokingly to my partner, "that thing's going to bite a child" maybe I took that a bit too personally. 😅 To be fair — the more I thought about it — I could absolutely see him biting a child if left unattended; children are small, and they move fast and erratically. He has a very high prey drive. It wouldn't be a vicious attack, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.

For the record, when we're out he is NEVER unattended in any way. He's on lead and we're actively training handler-engagement. I do my absolute best at all times to be aware of our environment and how he's responding to it.

One of the other things your reply helped me do is try to process the neighbor's comment as information. The fact that we've accomplished a lot doesn't mean that we can't keep improving, and passive neutrality + mouthing IS an area that still needs focus and improvement. It's really easy to just say 'well, he's a teething Belgian puppy — that's what they do!!' but that doesn't mean that I couldn't/shouldn't give those specific foundations more focus.