I was recently told that I am a horrible pet owner because I have not trained the reactivity out of my dog.
For context, my dog is a pit/staffy mix mix who was adopted from the shelter at 2 yrs old. Before I got her she had already been there for 8 months and they had little info about her life prior to being surrendered. She showed signs of aggression and anxiety toward other dogs in the shelter before I brought her home.
Ok, my dog is a sweet baby. She’s never been aggressive toward people and has been weird once around my cat, but after some training they coexist and live happy lives. Recently I was telling someone how I don’t bring my dog to dog parks because she genuinely gets extremely anxious and aggressive when she is with other dogs. To me, it would be irresponsible to put her in a position or situation to hurt another pet. I have a lot of land where she can play and she gets tons of love and attention. This person said I shouldn’t even have my dog because it’s my fault that she doesn’t get to socialize and I should have trained her.
Does it make me horrible that I haven’t trained the dog reactivity out of her? Does it matter if I’m not putting her or other dogs at risk?