Lol, Molly would "submit" by peeing if she thought anybody was extremely angry........... I had to be very careful around her if I was angry.

My dog was never socialized as a puppy.  We adopted him at three.  He doesn't really understand how to behave with other dogs.  He'll miss cues to play, or bark to initiate play (which turns the other dogs off).  If a dog is large and male, he will greet politely, then snap, lunge and growl.  Having a dog come running at him definitely makes him nervous.  He's been bitten three or four times by dogs doing that, so he gets pretty aggressive when dogs rush at him now.  On our daily walks, it happens about twice a month.  Usually we can stop an oncoming dog by yelling "Stay!" or "Go back!" and DH has body-blocked a couple of them.  Our dog has never been in a real fight, (AFAIK) because we keep him close.  He is not allowed off leash, ever.  But I think if he met a large off leash dog when he was off leash, he'd probably react badly.

Having a muzzle might prevent your dog from biting mine, but it wouldn't stop my dog from biting yours if it came at us. Unless your dog stays very close to you and is 100% obedient, I'd keep it leashed.

When I see a muzzled dog, I assume it bites people.  It would definitely keep me from approaching your dog.  As a runner, it would probably make me a bit less nervous, but then I usually stop and walk when I see a dog anyhow.

I also would assume that a muzzled dog was aggressive and would be more wary of it.

We are lucky enough to live right by a park with lots of off-leash dog trails.  85% of the dogs we encounter are off-leash.  If we come across a leashed dog, most of the time I'll treat it the same way I treat a bicycle- my (off leash) dogs need to come into heel until we pass the dog on leash.

But I don't have a lot of patience for people who bring dog-aggressive dogs to the off-leash park.  On-leash or off-leash, their dog has no business being where it is going to encounter off-leash dogs.  My dog Mia got picked up by the head when we were passing an on-leash dog from behind when we were out running.  Granted, I should have made more noise when coming up on this dog from behind, because that can be an issue, but in reading the body language of the people with the dog (long loose leash, relaxed, not looking around), I misjudged them.

I've found that meetings are a lot nicer when both dogs are off leash (in my experience), then on leash because a leash is their territory and they will be more unwelcoming to other dogs when on leash. 

In my case, we were not "meeting" - we were standing at the curb waiting to cross the street when the other dog walked behind us and lunged at my dog.  He got him right in the throat and it escalated from there.  There was no growling, no posturing, no eye to eye contact.

I've had a half dozen friends who have been attacked by off leash dogs, and it's all very similar - the dog charges and lunges for their dogs neck.   It's a complete surprise, with little time to react.

When you have two dogs intent on killing each other, it's not a situation you can easily manage by just not being afraid of being bitten.  They are strong and determined.  My friend had to beat the other dog off hers in one situation, and almost lost a few fingers in the process.

So, I'm just saying, it's not a situation that's easily controlled, so IMO, I try to avoid getting anywhere near having that risk.   Generally speaking, I don't let my dogs meet strange dogs.   Especially when a good % of them are poorly socialized/trained.   

I'm a dog lover but I'm mean to unleashed dogs who jump up on me.  I'll knee or kick them and yell at them.  And don't tell me "she won't hurt you, she'll just lick you to death, ha ha."   Maybe I don't want to be licked to death.  And I don't want your dog's muddy clawed feet on my clothes and legs.

I heard a dog guy explain that a dog will always back down if you are authoritative enough.  I run on country road and encounter lots of dogs.  The dogs have always eventually backed down, but dang I've had some scary moments.  I pick up rocks when I'm approaching a dog and I have no mercy on dogs who leave their property and come after me.

On the other hand, a few times I've had friendly dogs show up and run with me for up to an hour.  A couple times I've had people pass me and say "you need to have your dog on a leash" and I say "it's not my dog".

I'm a former dog owner so like them. My close calls with unleashed dogs have been in neighborhoods on runs.

At lunch I often walk a pond that has a bunch of unleashed dogs. This in itself doesn't bother me but I don't want a dog (muzzled or not) coming out of the pond and going against me which happens. I have seen close calls for trail runners. My biggest problem are with owners who let their dogs run ahead out of sight.

I think that there is peer pressure among dog owners to keep them off leash when they are with friends who have dogs that behave. Often the other dog is running into people. One time I saw a dog go after someone's lunch which was the owner's fault for not watching closely.

Actually I think I know what I am going to do, because the more I go back on his "antics" when seeing people, he runs up fast but then right past them as if it is a game before he comes back to their side and walks with them, then back to me. I think instead of a leash and some of ya'll might be against it but it worked on Molly's lack of social skills with other dogs, I am going to get a remote shock collar, so even when hiking with him and Dorian I can let him know immediately that his behavior is unacceptable. It will get rid of the stress I'd have yanking him back to me or being drug around or forward, and it works quickly.

Yeah, I'd like to know where they live so I can avoid those areas completely. I've only met questionable dogs in neighborhoods or the one next door, but luckily the owner built a fence to keep him from charging us at the back door, he bit my stepson and had almost attacked me and Molly the first year we moved out to Chandler. We use the backdoor because the driveway is right there, we have 4 doors......... technically this is probably a sidedoor but that dog (Aussie) was sweet and playful in the beginning but then after a  few months he would start running at us as we'd either be coming out of the door or going in, almost biting me 3 times, I actually dumped my coffee on his head, and he almost attacked Molly who began to hate him. They had played before but she and Rocky were sick of him, the fence doesn't go all way to the road, so one day this past Summer DH was out there raking leaves and picking up large sticks when the dog came charging at him, he did this 3 times and on the third time DH cracked him in the skull with a large stick.

Rocky is overly friendly with dogs and people, but he needs to work on his manners and learn what personal space is because he really doesn't have a clue that not everybody wants to bump shoulders, sniff his penis (which he throws out in the dog's face, he learned that from doing it to Molly to get her into a playful mood...... doesn't really work with other female dogs), or say hi at all. That is why I am going to get a remote shock collar so that he'll understand a lot faster that we don't run up excitedly to other dogs or people, he might be well-socialized with dogs and people but another dog might not be. Though I must say, so far the dogs quickest to play with him and be friendly have always been Pit Bull breeds.

LRB - My boxers do that. It's very annoying, I hate cleaning up pee!

 

I want to know where some of you people live where there are SO many aggresive dogs. I have encountered a lot of off leash dogs and have never felt threatened or scared and I"ve only been attacked once and I was like 13 when that happened. I'm 30 now. I have even encounted "the oh so aggressive" pit bulls off leash and still not been attacked or growled out. In fact I just calmly walked up to her, grabbed her by the little bit of leash left (she broke it) and just carried her back home. Maybe I have been lucky, I dunno. But just like with FreeSoul if a dog attacked me I got no problems choking the thing out.