I hope yuou’re very young, cuz you have tons to learn.
Let’s get something straight.
This is not a situation of the mailman being nipped on the heels by a yappie dog.
This is going to be a long-term concern. This is a FReeper with a new, potentially unsavory neighbor, who keeps a well-known aggressive breed, who apparently has no concern that it’s off-property and behaving aggressively to others. This FReeper has an elderly mother, and more than likely, other neighbors with children. If you think for one minute that the “best” response to what will be (no doubt) an on-going relationship with this animal is to kneel down and act kindly, you need to have your head extracted from your hindquarters.
A close friend and colleague is a surveyor. At 91 he still does field work and seems to have a talent for dealing with Miami’s more obnoxious dogs.
One client had a very expensive “attack dog” which was in the yard when he came by to do the survey. The owner not being home, he talked to the dog a bit and then entered the yard, did the survey, and left.
The owner could not believe he was able to get the dog to allow him into the yard.
Just gotta speak dog, I assume.