Last week a dog trotted up to us on the street (he was off lead, my dog was on lead). He was quite a large male, probably around 1.5x times bigger than my lab. I was taken aback to see a dog just wandering around the street on its own. As I was glancing around for his owner, suddenly this other dog went from just sniffing, to having my dog on his back, snarling over him at his neck. It was very scary and very aggressive. I started yelling at this other dog and putting myself between him and my lab, blocking him from getting to my lab, which he kept trying to do. my dog was scared and not sure what to do, he's never had a bad interaction before, he thinks everyone wants to be his friend Meanwhile the owner shows up wringing her hands doing nothing to try to get her dog back under control I didn't recognise the dog at first but then I realised I've seen this dog before, lounging in the open front doorway which leads directly onto the street. To make matters worse, even after this happened, these people are still leaving their front door wide open with the dog free to roam Fast forward to today and a different, friendly dog came up to us off lead (my dog was on lead). They sniffed while the owner walked up to collect their dog, and then out of nowhere my lab growled and snarled at it, then calmed down straight away. It was a very quick and short growl and didn't escalate, but I was quite shocked. This other dog did nothing to elicit that reaction. My dog has never growled at anyone or anything before, he's the biggest softie in the world. I'm a bit worried now and unsure what to do
What a worry! To be honest, I would avoid all interactions with him while he is on lead. It is asking for trouble, as the dog often feels that flight isn't an option, so is more likely to choose the fight option if he feels uncomfortable. It might be worth training Beau a "behind" cue to get him behind you, and then you can stand like a policeman with your hand out. An assertive, growly "STOP" or "NO" (or, to be fair, "TURNIP", as the dog will only be listening to your tone and not understanding the word) should help to convince the dog it's not worth the trouble. If it's safe and you're happy to, you can let Beau off lead to meet and greet, but I never let my dogs meet others when on lead.
Double Ditto @snowbunny . You may have inadvertenly done the best thing you could with the second dog, which is not to react yourself. IF you had tightened up in advance Beau might have been worse. Good for you, try to do that again, if necessary. We recently had a similar incident but Oban was the OFF leash dog and the aggressive husky was on leash. You don't mention injury but my dog had multiple puncture wounds on his ears and neck. In our case I am pretty sure it was a neutered male not liking my intact male. The exact same thing you describe happened, first sniffs then the other dog attacked. Oban does not now growl at huskies (yes it was a husky, the breed I've had the most trouble with) or leashed dogs or bigger, black dogs, or neutered males. If you give Beau a chance to recover he will probably be just fine, though maybe not with that particular dog.
