Worried about doggie.

[Pan]

The other day, I was walking my doggie and a little girl came up. Barley was wagging her tail and all happy, letting the little girl pet her.

However.

Today, I was out back and two boys came up, very nice and polite boys, too. She wouldn't let them go near her. She tucked her tail and backed away like they would hit her or something.

Could she have been hurt by young boys when she was running loose? She was always great with kids when we had her a year ago. :(

[Witchy Cowgirl]

I'm afraid this is very likely.
We had a dog once who was a very protective dog. She never backed away from anyone.
She got lost, actually we think she was stolen. When we found her there was a big bump on her nose, she had lost weight and was very unkept.
Ww took her home and got her healthy again. She was fine. Unless men with ball caps came around. She coward from them.

At the time we lived in farm country that used working dogs. She was an Austrillian Shepard but was a family pet and had never worked cows. She had come to us because her family had moved to TN. from CA. They lived in apartments and couldn't keep her.
We someone took her because of her breeding not realizing she wasn't trained. Then when she wouldn't work she was abused. And of course because she was scared of men in ball caps we associated that her theif was a cap.