Your situation sounds very similar to something that happened to us recently. I take Mika pretty much everywhere with us, I'm a SAHM so she goes out alot. I always let her meet other dogs BIG and small and theres never been any problems. She also lives with 2 other dogs-a staff and an OESD. Recently I took her to my brothers house and she met his 6 month old staff pup. I let her off the lead and Mika attacked him
I was really taken aback
She had never snapped/growled before at anything!!! I tried to calm her down but she was not happy, my brothers dog was fine he didn;t feel threatened at all and was just trying to play with her. I found once she was back on her leash she was much happier and actually started to play. But once I let her go again she got all defensive.
I think the leash is like a security blanket to her, she feels safe and secure and is much happier. I am going to continue trying her off her leash with my brothers dog, I want them to get along, but carefully does it
Hopefully Boston will learn to play nice too with time and patience. Good luck to you both
