what could I have done differently?

ORIGINAL: DixieLady

Do you think it would have been different if your dog didn't respond to the other dog?  Where I live, very few dogs are on leashes, my lab never walks with a leash, but she looks to me when other dogs approach her.  She will completely ignore them and keep trotting right by.  She is "overtrained" according to every person that knows her, but everytime an aggressive dog comes up to us, she ignores it like it isn't even there and it goes away. 
 

 
What do they mean with "overtrained"?
 
It looks to me that instead of being "overtrained" your dog beheaves like she should, congrats on that  []

Talking to her is like talking to a person, you can even say "PEW" and she will hang her head and leave the room.  She only has to be told everything once and even helps me at work sometimes.  I got her when I was 13.  I didn't have a lot of friends then so all my time was spent playing with her and training her.  She's been all over the country on road trips and is always invited to the family dinners around the holidays.  I think people refer to her as overtrained because their dogs won't listen like she does.  Our younger dogs are on the same path now, but she has some years on them.  She is 9 years old now, but still goes running and trail riding with me.  She also loves playing fetch at the beach.  We go to the feed store every week and she comes in with me, most people think that she is still a puppy when she is playing fetch with the feed store owners 4 yr. old son!

What a great post, this is something I worry about all the time.  We've run into a lot of off-leash dogs in our neighborhood, but thank god all have been friendly so far.  A neighbor's dog was not so lucky... the same chow that ran after my female and merely sniffed her ran after a male Boxer and mauled him pretty bad.  My worry is often increased by the fact that I have a Pit, and I just know that even if another, off-leash dog attacked my dog, if the aggressor dog was harmed in any way, it would still somehow be seen as my dog's "fault" because she's a "vicious" breed (I live in Massachusetts, where Pits are already banned in Boston and may soon be banned in Salem). 
 
Another thing... in regards to the pepper spray suggestion, in Mass you need a gun license to carry pepper spray (no, really, I'm not joking), so I'm glad someone suggested the citronella spray!!  Does it work just as well?  I'm going to look into getting some!

I think they only thing that saved us is the 2 against one.  At the point I was about to let Zeus loose, he pretty much had us conered. I had already bounced a few things off of his head and I think he was at the point of thinking that he could take us.  Now when the guys came out, it was then 5 against 1.  He stuck his nose to the ground and went on about his business.

I think if Zeus would have tried to appease him, he would have quickly been turned into a girlfriend.  So, most likely, I would have had to drag Zeus home with a dog attached to his back.

Now that I think of it, when the dog warden found him she said that the dog was bothering a woman and her dog and she thought the dog was a female.

MMMmmm in Mexico if you want a dog to go away you just have to pretend you are going to pick a rock from the ground, the dogs there know that movement means something is gonna be thrown at them and they run away (even if there is nothing in the ground and you have your hand empty), i used to do it only when i was a kid (now maybe i would just ignore them because i know better) the dogs then  "re think" their plans since now you have a "weapon", but maybe here in USA they may think that if you are gonna pick something from the ground you want to play fetch hehe
 
I think somebody else here said something about an umbrella, if you use to scare a dog that may help, you can open it and have it between you and the dog, the umbrella would be an "extension" of you and will create the illusion of you are even bigger, they dont know an umbrella is fragile and may back up since you look even bigger now

The first time I bounced a log off of his head he just blinked, turned his head, then came closer.  The second time, he veered away for a second or two, then came back at us.

At the point we were conered, I was in the process of picking up a brick.  I was holding Zeus back with everything I had.  The stare was going on....almost nose to nose. .I knew I only had a second or two left.

I think at this point I became angry and resigned to the fact that we were going to have to fight. That's when the thought of a gun went through my head and the guys came out and snapped everyone out of it.

Both Zeus and I had done everything to avoid this.  We walked away more than once. So, what did he learn yesterday except walking away doesn't always cut it.  Hopefully he learned also, that if need be, Mom will be right at his side when the going gets really tough. Hopefully he saw it as a partnership and knows that I can be counted on to do my part.  I dunno...who knows what a dog is thinking.  The expression on his face when we got through our gate was pretty much that we were top dogs.

Anyway, this morning we went out.  I was petrified.  And sore! Zeus wasn't moving all that quickly, so I am sure he is sore also.  I was a bit freaked because I only had the pepper spray.  Plus, like I said...I'm easily traumatized.  I did find the Direct Stop later on this morning. It was at the last pet store that I checked and I got it for 4.00 because the safety cap is gone.  I sprayed it before I got in my truck.  It shot out in big bubbly gobs.  I really think that it would have worked if I had it yesterday.   So...thanks for the heads up on that.

You can only control YOUR dog. Other dogs are out of your control. If this unleashed dog had really wanted to fight, he could and would have leaped onto your leashed dog and done so. So here, the problem is actually YOUR dog not behaving well on leash- he was dragging hard against the leash and ignoring your attempts to walk briskly on. More training could have prevented at least your panic.
 

Well, this leash agression w/big dogs began about 2 years ago.  Me and the boyfriend are the only ones who have ever had Zeus, so I was perplexed about what brought this on.  Today I remembered something.  A couple of years ago, Zeus and the boyfriend were walking down the street and a big golden jumped Zeus while on leash.  The golden was not leashed. ...he was laying on his owner's porch.  When Zeus and the boyfriend walked past, the golden jumped him.  This is the only thing that I can think of that has ever happened between him and a large dog.

So, now I think I got a grip on why he is acting this way.  I just don't know what to do about it.  I just don't know if Zeus has it in him to stand there and take a nip from another dog. 

Under the circumstances, I think you did about all you could do.  I would second the idea to carry Direct Stop - it's safer than pepper spray, and is supposed to work just as well.
 
I had a similar incident with a surprise ending:
 
I was out with my two labs, and a german sheperd was outside his fence.  Since my younger lab has issues with strange dogs, and the older one is protective of her, I was sure we were going to have a problem.
 
I grabbed the only thing I could see to throw ( a stick), and threw it at the GSD.  He ducked, then trotted over and picked up the stick.  Wagging his tale happily, he trotted over and laid it down just outside the reach of my barking / growling lab! 
I guess he didn't want to fight after all!

Yesterday, we were up on the flood wall/bike path and met with a couple of large dogs. The first, I saw the guy leash his dog so I wasn't too worried.  I went into instant training mode with Zeus. 

But on further up, another guy wouldn't leash his  and I didn't have any room to put Zeus into manuevers nor to redirect him.  So, we were at the mercy of whether the guy could call his dog off quickly enough. His dog was clearly aroused but he called off in a mid-air lunge.


It scared me, but  Zeus handled himself better than usual. About 2 lunges and a couple of warning barks at the off leash dog.  The first dog there wasn't a reaction.  I kept him too busy.

From what I have been reading, I think the best approach is if Zeus lunges, is to go into circling mode...using the calming signals approach.