Is this a good thing?

[Sophie45]

Whenever Sophie is approaching a new dog, she goes in the down position and stays there until the dog comes up to sniff her. I know overall this is a good thing, and it's her telling the other dog that she's not a threat, but I have a stupid question....well, actually two stupid questions:
1) Is she being TOO submissive? She even does this to dogs smaller than her (she is 70 lbs at 9 mos old!) I am probably a little too paranoid since she was attacked, but I want to make sure that she could defend herself!
2) Will some dogs take advantage of this submissive act, like, "oooh goody I can pick on and bully this one!" she definitely gains confidence once she warms up to the dog, which usually takes about a minute. I DEFINITELY want a dog to be cautious when approaching a new dog, but I DEFINITELY DON'T want her to get attacked again! Although she was twelve weeks old at the time....
OK one more question-should I encourage this behavior, praise her when she goes into a down position? I have been praising her, but don't know if this is good or not.
Thanks guys!

[Rivsky]

Unfortunately some dogs do like to bully submissive ones - they think they're an easy target.

My dog is also submissive and often lies down for other dogs - even puppies at times. I generally tend not to react at all when he does this - just make sure he can see me so he knows he's not being "abandoned" or left to his own devices. I'll watch for signs that he's had enough of the other dog and only then will I move to catch the attention of the other dog so River can get up and we go back to what we're doing.

I've no idea if this is the "right" thing to do or not but it has worked for us so far....

[Dogsareme]

Funny you would ask this.
That is what the black lab did that Mudd did not do good with. And like I had mentioned she was doing really good for the most part until that encounter.
So I wonder if they think they are easier to bully? They might, she sure seemed to think she was miss queen the way she approached him. She held her head high and tail high which I know was a sure sign she was saying she was the dominate one (she doesn't normally approach dogs like this).
That's a really good question. ....

[shodge]

A great question as Lola has always done the exact same thing!! She has never been attacked, has just always been fairly submissive. The funny thing is, she doesn't do it with every dog (almost, but not every single one), and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how she picks the ones not to do it with. Size or gender doesn't seem to play a part. Like yours, she gets up and starts to play pretty quickly. Someone once told me this was a shepherd/herding dog trait.... Sorry I'm not offering any advice here, but I will be interested to know the input on this!

[calgal]

Ever since I got Zada at 3 months old, she has always flattened out when a dog approaches her, male, female, puppy, it doesn't matter. Funny when I got Azrael 3 months after I got Zada, she didn't flatten out with Azrael. Instead, they just ran and grabbed each other up and gave hugs and kisses to each other. Since they came from the same breeder I think they remembered each other.