Denise in NH wrote:
> I had a little incident while waiting in line with my dogs for rabies
> shots. My town has a day each year where you can go to the town garage
> and get discounted shots from local vets. No office visit expenses, etc.
>
> My dogs at the time were 100 lbs and 65 lbs and they were both friendly,
> but waiting in line with 10 or 15 other dogs and all of the people
> walking around was starting to make all of the dogs nervous and jumpy.

I had what I thought was an amusing incident at obedience school when I
took my 6 month old Bouvier des Flandres for training. There was a
woman there with a poodle. She was supposed to have been some sort of
professional who was just attending classes for the dog's sake. It was a
poodle. We were walking around in a circle when the instructor told
us to turn. She turned, but the poodle didn't. The stupid little poodle
lunged and snapped at my leg. My Bouvier jumped on top of it and
flattened it. She didn't even try to bite it, just pinned it to the
ground. The lady went postal and told me my dog was vicious. Hell, it
was the poodle that tried to bite me, and all my dog did was protect me,
and without using her teeth.

FWIW, Bouviers were bred to herd cattle. They use their bodies to shove
their charges, and use their teeth to nip. However, they are big dogs
and have powerful jaws. They make excellent card dogs. She was very
protective, but tended to use her substantial size as a physical
barrier. I heard from several friends who came to the house when we
were out that she was quite vicious sounding and would rear up by the
window and bare her teeth. My brother in law said that when he
experienced that he had rung the door bell and the next thing he knew
there was a monster looking through the window at him. Oddly, she never
acted like that when we were home.