@johndoe590 So… this hits close-ish to home.
I grew up with my family having multiple dogs throughout the years. Recently, my retired father wanted to go the adoption route (puppies would be too much work), and started a week with a rescue. Within two days it was clear that “low energy and well trained” was overstated and the new dog became a serious flight risk and/or bite risk. Family has young grandchildren, so it just wasn’t an option and he returned the dog to the shelter for rehoming.
Was double adamant about characteristics and was given a 2 year old rescue. Same thing: extremely high energy and bite risk. Non-aggressive dominance issues to the point where it was uncomfortable to be alone with the dog. They decided to hire a trainer, but it is a massive work in progress and during the holidays there were worrying moments of regression.
So: honestly, it’s a difficult situation. I think when adopting you should be clear of your priorities and energy level and recognize that this means that 75%+ dogs will not be available to you. BUT, shelters should not hand out dogs with the hope of getting rid of them, knowing it might not be a good fit. There’s a dog out there for everyone, and yes, all dogs can be trained out of most behaviours. But, frankly, not everyone has that energy to do so and this can exacerbate issues and cause dangerous situations.
My advice to you: don’t judge your neighbour. You don’t know the entirety of the situation through your interactions and everybody is entitled to their own level of comfort, provided a dog is not getting abused (and this can actually help stop abuse).
As for the naming, chalk it up as weird and move on. It doesn’t say much about his view on dogs, as much as it says he has an odd attachment to a name. Perhaps he had an old dog, perhaps it makes him happy: a name is meant to inspire connection and relation between animal and human (which might indicate a new one), not to be some mystical permanent identifier for an individual throughout their life. If that was the case, why would anyone change the adoption name to begin with?