She's a friendly sort and doesn't even growl. Problem is that's she's got a friendly disposition and hasn't had any bad encounters except one (more later) and so she thinks every dog likes to say hello
3 months ago my wife was walking her (off the leash) in a park and a lady was walking an amstaff on a leash. Normally I don't let my dog go to strange dogs without asking the owner first, but my wife believed in "free hellos" :) -- and our dog went up to the other one, wagging her tail. The amstaff grabbed her by the nose and my wife was screaming.
Luckily the amstaff then let go, but my dog was bleeding and ran to the wife, "crying" (she doesn't seem to know how to attack -- my dog I mean :)
My wife berated the owner, but it seems that the lady wasn't the owner, just walking her boyfriend's mother's dog. And quite frankly my wife (and I later) saw it as our fault as our dog went up to say hello
We told the owner later that luckily there wasn't permnanet damage, just some minor scars (luckily) and my dog's disposition is still friendly, but we emphasised that the owner should muzzle the dog -- I mean, what if a kid goes up to pet the dog, a toddler?
The dog wasn't vicious, but it's better to muzzle a dog on a city walk if you know the dog has a tendency...
A lot of these dog stories would never exist if owners simply used a little common sense.
Odin does not like other dogs getting near me after we had a mishap with a guy and his insane Golden who jumped over hubby and nearly onto my lap at the vet’s office.
He has not forgotten what he perceived to be an ‘attack’ upon me and probably never will.
[in less than 20 seconds, he went from generally ignoring other dogs to being constantly hyper-vigilant of them. I hate that Golden’s idiot owner]
When people come rushing up to us, I inform them of that fact.
I do not allow Odin near other dogs in public and politely request that others do the same.
[but usually people yank their dogs away in a hurry when they see him anyway...even Pit owners]
I’m glad your girl suffered no terrible damage.
She sounds a lot like my Portuguese Podengo Medio, Gypsy.
She’s never seen a dog or person she didn’t instantly love so I have to be very careful around larger dogs with her.
Some dogs are put off by her over-exuberant displays of affection.
So, rather than have to jump into the middle of a dog fight to save her, I keep her held far enough back until I have the chance to accurately assess the other dog’s body language.
[and the owner’s intellect] ;]