Hi Kelly,
Chienne is also a very vocal dog :rolleyes: It's embarrassing to have her start screaming high-pitch bloody murder at a dog that's lunging to get to her when we're 10 feet away. I think it's more anxiety than anticipation. If the strange dog is ignoring her, she ignores it back or moans very quietly if they make eye contact. When I hear her and tell her 'enough', she does stop on command. :)
Here's what I've done over the years on her screaming bit.
Put her at a sit and have her look at me. My body is usually between us and the other 'couple'. Everytime her eyes leave me, I tell her 'no' which draws her focus back. That other dog might be out of control, but she's in hand and I'm in charge :P I just wait until everything is calm again to procede. Usually it's when the other person gets their dog in hand or just passes me.
Now I have a dog that will walk on a loose leash, occasionally moans softly, but is paying more attention to me than the strange dog :rolleyes: :P I guess I can be happy with that ;)
I can no longer give her the faith that no dogs will attack her, since they have and she remembers them unlike her 'buddy,' Samma. There are too many unpredictable dogs that we've come up against in our travels. The last was only 3 weeks ago with a very large GSD that took offense at us walking by -- very scary for me too having him go into angry and loud warning mode only 4 feet away :(
But Chienne at least has the belief that I will take care of her. I know this because each time we've had troubles, when I've let her leash go to handle it, she stays right behind me where I've told her to stay. I'm not nervous of other dogs, just cautious, which we've both learned it's much safer to be. :( :)
If she was growling, I'd probably do the same thing.... especially since she wears a halti in the city, easy to chuck her chin up to look at me and tell her "no-growl". She used to growl when she was younger and I did that. She quickly stopped---learned to moan instead :rolleyes: :D :D