To not go to brothers house again if dog is loose?

[Probablyshouldntsay]

Not a whole dog bashing thread ❤️
Im a huge animal lover and fine with the rest of the family dogs, all on the medium to large size.
I had a bit of an unnerving experience with my brothers dog on Saturday when visiting.
I don’t have much personal knowledge of dogs as I’ve never owned one. Whenever I’ve seen dog in the past he’s always been happy and wavy but on this occasion his dog came to sit next to me on the sofa, then began leaning very heavily and stepping its foot on me. To the extent that dog has essentially pinned me really hard.
The dog is a very large overweight boxer, and when it was looking down at me it was showing the whites of its eyes, not wagging tail or asking for a fuss if that makes sense.
I tried to gently, the more forcefully say down, get down etc and tried to gently push but it just would not budge.
Im not explaining very well but I genuinely felt like it was going to attack :(
After a couple more seconds I shouted my brothers name and he came quickly and hauled the dog off and straight into the garden.

He loves the dog, but to be honest it isn’t walked enough or very trained. Brother does wfh so it always has company. It has never nipped or been aggressive as far as I know.
Would it be an overreaction to ask to meet without the dog in future? I’ve never had a sudden gut feeling like that around an animal before.

I was thinking exactly the same. My friends have a large dog and he does the same. And tries to stick his tongue in your ear (🥴). Luckily I know the dog well but I can imagine to others it might feel threatening.

Boxers have no idea when it comes to personal space and tend to think they are lap dogs they are very rarely aggressive. You were probably sitting in his preferred space. For than reason my boxers were never allowed on the sofa.
A firm down usually does the trick but if your brothers dog is not trained this may not work.

Yes as pp said, Boxers are not respectful of personal space. You are absolutely NBU to feel uncomfortable. I have a number of dogs but I would never, ever be one of those dog owners that puts their dog before the comfort of guests.

My default is and always has been - guests = dogs get put away elsewhere unless guest specifically says otherwise.

Im still not quite sure what the OP means TBH. Leaning heavily on them would just indicate wanting to be friendly, in a really overbearing way! (or you where sitting on the bit of sofa they wanted!!LOL).
But standing right on top of you would seem more of a dominance thing.

Agreed.

My dog is a leaner, but I wouldn't describe his leaning the way OP does. When my dog does it, his body is soft, his tail doesn't always wag, but if I speak to him or look at him, it starts to, even if what I am saying is, "dude, personal space." I also wouldn't describe him as standing over me, looking down at me, even though when he's standing on the sofa, and I am sitting, he's taller than me; that does seem more like dominance than wanting a hug. Not dominance as in the dog thinks it's alpha, that's been debunked, but as in OP was in the dog's seat and he was trying to reclaim his space.

Without being there, it's impossible to say what was happening, but I don't think people should be telling her to ignore her instinct in this instance.

I don't necessarily think the dog needs to be locked out, but it should be supervised at all times by the brother and not left alone with OP if she is not comfortable with it.

Ah your update paints a better picture.

both my dogs do this, for them it’s their way of asking for a stroke/wanting to feel closer to you.

obviously you can gauge the feeling better than we could, but when my dogs do it it’s not to threaten - it’s to feel closer and initiate fuss