[Concerned]

I was walking my dog and on the way back one of our neighbor's dog got out. The neighbor's dog is sniffing my dog but my dog doesn't sniff back. The neighbor's dog is wagging his tail but the wag is straight and high. My dog (a she) has ears back, sitting down, and looks cautious and scared but was wagging her tail while looking at the male dog just before the sniffing encounter. When my dog's butt got sniffed she was running around (zoomies?) but I was holding her six foot leash. Afterwards at home, she drank and fell asleep afterwards which hasn't happened ever since her first few weeks of being walked outdoors.

Are the signs that my female dog was displaying fear? Did she get a traumatic experience from this? What is the best course of action when this happens? Should I have remedied the situation before it escalated by bringing her inside the house?

I am afraid that she might not want to walk outside anymore.

 

[Shell]

Most dogs who are on-leash will dislike or show some mild discomfort about being sniffed by a loose dog. The dog who is on-leash doesn't have the option of normal body language communication and the dog who is off-leash doesn't have the benefit of being able to correctly read the other dog's body language cues.

Best option IMO when an on-leash dog is approached by an off-leash dog (assuming the off-leash dog isn't approaching with aggression) is to body block the loose dog and move along steadily to an area where the loose dog cannot follow. Unless the off-leash dog actually did something like bite her or tackle her, then I highly doubt that she is traumatized. Even if the off leash dog jumped at her, most dogs will shake that off and move on.

Is there any chance your female is in heat?

 

[Concerned]

I did not know this about off and on leash dogs. Thanks. My dog isn't in heat.