I have been so upset by this it has taken me a couple of weeks to be able to post about it.
Shady my 2.5yr old Rottie x GSD has had lots of behavioural problems all starting from being attacked by other dogs. She is very highly strung anyway (bad breeding) and had a bad start in life.
Anyway she ended up very fear aggresive with other dogs, fear aggresive towards traffic and children, in fact toward anything that rushed toward or past her. With adults though she is the most loving, soppy dog you could wish for.
I have over the past 2 years taken things very slowly with her, never taking her outside her comfort zone. Taking her to her place to walk by car most of the time or planning a very careful route and slowly she improved to the point she would happily play with her frisbee over the field with other carefully chosen dogs present that wouldn't leap all over her or chase or rush at her. (At one time the meer sight of another dog would set her off) She could tolerate cars on dry roads, most vans and even some lorries. Bikes as long as they didn't whiz up behind her and make her jump, she was accepting too and passing quietly. Then came the big breakthrough, she happily played around and sniffed an old golden retriever who just sat down and barked, accepted a Black Spanial walking up to us on the lead in the field which she had never seen before and allowed another small spanial, she had seen about quite a bit, to run over nearly to her, before it turned an run back to its owner. We were really getting there, still had a long way to go but to how she had been it was fantastic.
A few months ago we nearly went backwards when a woman with a border collie was going to let it charge up to shady while she was on lead down a footpath, I called to her and asked her to keep her dog with her as Shady really is not keen on Border Collies after having her tongue bitten by one and i didn't want Shady worried or to attack her dog, she just called back "Oh don't worry he will give as good as he gets" I was furious and told her in no uncertain terms to keep control of her dog, which she eventually did as I didn't want all my hard work undone.
Anyway a couple of weeks ago a similar thing happened only this time they wouldn't call thier dog back and it ran at Shady who I was proud to say although tensed showed no panic, but then it bit her on the neck and ran off as Shady lunged back panic stricken. The person just went on by and ignored the whole situation, I stayed calm as I didn't want to inflict my feelings on Shady although by this point Shady was all over the place with fear, and just calmly said you need to keep that ruddy dog under control, which they ignored and I didn't rant and rave for Shadys sake and because I thought she hadn't been hurt anyway.
After they were out of sight I made a fuss of her and found she was bleeding where the dog had actually drawn blood.
Her following outings were very disheartening as she was so anxious and even the traffic as well as any dog, or strange smell she was reacting badly to.
So we are now starting again, getting her confidence up and just praying some idiot owner doesn't come along and shatter her completely. She is the most beautiful girl who is just scared and anxious and I ask you all please if you see someone walking a dog on the lead, please don't let your dogs go rushing up, however friendly, you could be setting some poor dog back a mile. Please check with the owner first to see if thier dog would be ok with your dog running around them.
Remember the dog is more than likely on a lead for a reason.

Poor you and poor Shady, well done for keeping calm I can't say that I would have been able to do this in your postion but it definately helps when you are calmer. We had a staffie who was aggressive towards other dogs but we had huge problems getting her to wear a muzzle and we also found this made the problem worse so we always walked her on the lead but we encountered numerous "stupid" people who happily let their dogs walk up to her etc even though we were clearly pulling her away!!

Keep up the good work with your training and with your patience (which to have kept your calm you must have lots of!) Shady will get better!

Oh that's terrible, but I'm rather relieved though as half way through your story I thought you were going to say something like, she had bitted a child and has now gone to the bridgeand I almost stopped reading.
Thankfully, that's not the case and there's always tomorrowTake a jif lemon full of water out with you from now on. Keep it in your pocket and give those bl**dy dogs a quick squirt in future. If they're that brave or foolhardy, it won't hurt them to much and your girl will learn to trust you, to keep her safe again.

That's such a shame, my OH does this and it really bugs me, I know our girls are good with other dogs but there are a lot of dogs out there that aren't keen on dogs running up to them,(we've owned a few in our time). I've tried to tell him this but he is just 'oh they'll be fine'. Ive finally managed to get him to at least call them back to him when we see a dog on a lead but trying to get him to put them on a lead ! MEN!!!! :( :(

Hope she gets over her fright soon

I'm so angry and upset for you, all that hard work you've done.  Stupid, stupid people!

The sad thing is even if you walked around with a huge banner some people would still ignore it, the woman with the boarder Collie needs reporting, her dog was out of control to draw blood.

This is the problem people see a dog like a GSD or cross and think their dog has a right to go into attack mode. :-(

When my youngest brothers relationship broke down I volunteered to care for his two GSD's as he worked long hours, so took up training and daily walks and at the time lived on a new housing estate even though it had plenty of fields and woodland around due to the size of the ever growing estate:rolleyes: there were lots and lots of dogs.

Now, my dog never had a problem with aggression from any of the other dogs, but when I started to take out the GSD's I noticed a complete difference in attitude.

People and dogs became defensive.

I would often be training on the common and the GSD's are very well socialised and very laid back so no problems with them, but I would often get loose dogs charging over hackles raised, barking and growling at them, I used to get so cross with the owners and my repetive line was always, if I had two Cav's here you would not allow your dog to do that! some took notice, some continued daily to abuse the GSD's, who never retaliated.

In the end I am afraid I got totally fed up, with these poor dogs getting constant abuse, (have to say the worst was also a Border Collie) so I took my husbands umberella and everytime one of these dogs approached I would ask the GSD's to sit, and open up the umberella like a shield pop it infront of them and shoo the dog away, it did work, and seemed to upset the owner enough to give us a wide berth in future, I wouldn't advise it as a training method, but you need to protect your dog and I found it worked very well, in the end you have to do something, as for some reason people think it is ok for their dogs to attack a larger guarding breed.

If my brothers GSD's had been got to by one of these dogs, they may well have also grown up dog aggressive, :-( you need to protect your own, you need to let rip at these people who allow it, and perhaps the umberella will work as a shield for your dog too.

That was inexcusable behaviour from that dog and its owners. Poor Shady.

Bring a water pistol out with you on walks. Unfortunately these types of situations can happen. I always try to step in front of my dog if I am unsure of a strange dog but it's not always possible. A blast in the face with the water won't hurt the other dog but may save Shady from a bad experience. I hope she returns to her previous level of acceptance much more quickly this time around.