Solution: Mean dog - NYT Crossword

I know this is a simple one — “Mean dog” = CUR; this word also goes with “snarler,” “scoundrel,” “contemptible sort”; “mangy mutt” and “nasty biter.” But it’s 2017 and I have a bone to pick with this puzzle staple. I took in a blackmouth cur this summer as a refugee from Hurricane Harvey and she’s a lovely, coltish girl with big brown eyes, very refined and well-mannered. I had never known of the “cur” and its illustrious history in the world, so I did some research and these dogs are getting a bum rap. They just don’t have all the fancy bells and whistles — a cur is “a working dog (rather than) a luxury dog.” We can’t all be DeVoses and we can’t all be Lulu the Labradoodle, so in this hopeful new era of sensitivity I think we should start cluing this entry as “Working dog.” Thanks much.