Dog attack

[Floridatilly]

We had a scary encounter yesterday. My daughter was at dance so the rest of us, me, my husband and two boys (13 & 6) and our little dog Tilly went for a walk down the canal.
A man and his dog stopped ahead of us and told us to pick our dog up as his dog did not like other dogs. We were walking opposite ways so when the man and dog had passed a safe distance away we put Tilly back down and continued on our walk. I was at the front with Tilly, my husband and the boys strolling and chatting a few feet behind.
We then heard shouting behind us, could not see the man shouting but saw the mans dog we had just passed come charging towards Tilly, I tried to pick her up but the dog was so fast it reached her first and went for her, Tilly did not retaliate, she did not growl, she just rolled over exposing her tummy.
It all happened so fast but it was like slow motion if that makes sense. As Tilly turned over the dog opened its jaw around her tummy, I grabbed the dogs collar and yanked as hard as I could before it clamped down on her as my husband kicked the dog and shoved me out of the way getting the dog off Tilly. The sound the dog was making was terrifying, like something from an horror movie. At this point the owner arrived and he and my husband got the dog off Tilly and I picked her up. The man was shouting at my husband for kicking his dog but my husband was scared that it was going to attack me because I was trying to get between it and Tilly. He said it was just warning Tilly and would not harm her. It ended up in a shouting match.
Both my boys were very shook up and as the man left the scene with his struggling dog we checked Tilly over. She has a bad puncher wound to her snout area right near her eye which was bleeding really badly but otherwise ok. She was shaking like a leaf.
I honestly think if Tilly would have snapped back or growled it would have ripped her apart. I think because she submitted to the dog it was not as bad as it could have been.

I don’t actually know what you are supposed to do in one of these situations. My initial action was to save Tilly but my husband thought the dog was going to attack me.
Tilly is 10 and this has never happened before but if I had been on my own with Tilly then it certainly would be a different ending. My six year old is still going on about it now.

The guy knew his dog was not safe around other dogs and it managed to get out of his grip, his lead was trailing behind has it ran for Tilly. It was a boxer dog which I have never known to be aggressive.
Very, very scary. The puncher wound is still bleeding today so it’s looking like a vets job bless her. We have bathed it and she is fully up to date in vaccines
It looks worse because she is so tiny so it’s a big hole.