I always find it quite strange that I felt more 'relaxed' with my previous, nervous reactive dog around my children than I do our current, 2 year old, soppy, couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, absolute wimp of a dog.
It's hard to explain, but I think it's just that I'm very aware of how unpredictable animals can be, so even though he's never, ever shown any aggression, it's always in the back of my mind that he could - maybe we just haven't found his trigger yet.
My previous dog liked nothing and no one outside of our family, I knew what would bother her and what wouldn't.
I obviously took the same precautions with both, I think I'm just slightly more 'get out of his face, leave him be' etc etc with current dog.
Both mutts, just not of the XL variety!