I don't know if they were actually mean, or just trained to be noisy and act like they were. Either way, I know they'd raise holy hell at the window whenever I walked past it. They might've been thinking "hey Dad, it's so fun to bark at people! Look at how big I'm smiling!" for all I know.

They'll get that hair on you, and you'll never get it off of yourself. Better to leave them well alone.

Not normally, but temperament depends on a lot of things. I've read that socialization and temperament of the dog's parents are important.

Wait, socialization of the parents via some epigenetic effect? Fascinating.

Or more likely because very young dogs would grow some basic traits of character while influenced by the behavior that their parents exhibit in front of them.

For some reason, I assumed that the animals were not brought up with their parents.

Puppies are supposed to be separated from their parents no earlier than about 6-8 weeks old. Critical socialization time is the first 3 months of their life. (Or so. These numbers vary by region and amount of caring; I'd rather have the puppies spend more time with the mom than less.)

Interesting. TIL

Haha no, did I misunderstand because of the absence of a comma?