Hi Carol v,

Hmm this is tough, we have a Golden Retriever who was attacked too, and began with this sort of behaviour! I dont think there is a cure, in essence, all you can do is make the dog feel a little more comfortable about what they perceive as a threat!

Here's what we did...we did not go the muzzle route as his reaction was not aggressive and you are right about people's reactions to muxxled dogs! His thing was that he would go to snap, but he would lower his body and growl! What we did was to make a point of not removing him from the scenario, but walking him where we knew there were dogs fenced in, so he would get the confidence of being on the other side knowing that the other dogs couldn't get to him, so that he could start to get some confidence back!

Then, we used a 'lead' dog, our second dog who is confident we would always walk by the side of him, and when another dog came to greet, we would send the confident dog off to meet the dog, sending the message to scaredy cat that all was ok, if he growled, we would tap his nose, and then when we walked on praise him! It took a long time as I think he just kept thinking he was going to get attacked, but now he will mix with other dogs fine!

Point to note...do not involve food..or toys! Any dog is going to get aggressive/change behaviour as they want to prove their pack order, and show off to you!

The dog will sense from you too, if you tense when you see another dog, that travels straight down the lead, so try not to change your mood/behaviour, and make the whole experience fun!

ALSO...if you're going to try him greeting other dos, shout to the people that he is not confident, then if they should have a dog they know is 'funny' thats not the dog to try him with! My Cairn is very sociable and if someone shouted to me they had a nervous dog I would have no problem with hanging around to give the other dog confidence!

Hope some of that helps, not a sure fix, just a suggestion.