Originally posted by Cincy'sMom
Excellent points Nicole! I think they only thing you really can do is know as best you can how your dog will react in any situation and be ready to step in if they surprise you.

We are lucky in that even though are dogs are big and play rough, they seem to understand about smaller dogs too. Our next door neighbor had an elderly long hair doxie ( now at the bridge) that Sadie would just lay down and snuggle with in the front yard, even when she was just a puppy herself. At the same time, I know if a dog is jumping and barking at a fence while we are walking, Sadie is going to be protective and try to go at that dog. I start telling her to leave it before we get the yard, keep tallking her to as we go by and keep all 3 focused on moving ahead.
I forgot to mention something about small dogs too. Schnaggles, all 10 pounds of him, went for a small fluffball pup at puppy class a few weeks ago. It was a complete surprise for all of us considering that he's normally shy when first meeting dogs. Fortunately both animals were on leads. At the park last week he also growled and barked aggressively at a blue heeler that was 10 times his size - thank god she was deaf because it was quite embarrassing! Our lesson from that was to check out every dog we meet, regardless of size or preconception of how our dogs might react.