Why is my dog suddenly defensive?
I've had my dog Zoe for about 3 years now since she was 6 months. She's a boxer-lab mix. She is incredibly social with other dogs and people and have never had problems with her and other dogs. I go to dog parks where there's hundreds of dogs, I take her for walks on the crowded beach where other people are walking dogs too, all without incident. I could trust her with everyone and around anything. We moved into a apartment building about 2 months ago, a first for both of us. At the building they have their own "dog park" which is just a small fenced in area people bring their dogs to go to the bathroom and socialize with other dogs. A few days ago I got back from work and did our usual routine of going to the bathroom at the park with all the regulars that at the same time. One woman has a small poodle who we have hung around with dozens of time. The little poodle is known to jump and nip at dogs faces when they get too close. My dog would just walk away when this would happen and just go play with the others. She would just act like she wouldn't care. But this day, the dog did the usual nip to her face when she went to say hello, the usual, but this time she just went crazy like I've never seen before and straight up just tried to attack the little thing to the point I had to tackle her. I have never witnessed this before from her. She has never defended herself even when big dogs are aggressive, usually she just walks away, but not this time. Anyways, the woman made a scene and I just went back to my apartment in shock at what I just witnessed. I was hoping it was just a one off event, even went to the real big dog park we always go to and played with all the dogs with no problems. but the very next day, the same routine, I go to bring her to the bathroom and there's two dogs her size there good for her to play with. They're all sniffing eachother, greeting as usual, and one of the dogs gives a small "you're a little too close" growl and my dog completely loses it again and I embarassingly leash her up, apologies and go back to my apartment, scared about bring her anywhere and possibly being known as the guy with the crazy aggressive dog. But she's not agressive, In 3 years of owning her, she's never fought with another dog, had been around thousands of dogs of different sizes and breeds but these last two days it's like something switch in her and this isn't the dog I fell in love with and I'm scared of what's going on. If anyone has any assumptions or things for me to look out for or anything, I'll take ...