Dogs attacking my puppy

[FluffyFlufferson]

I’m not sure if we’ve just had bad luck, but 3 times in the past week small dogs off lead have attacked my puppy quite viciously in the park. One even bit me on the hand when I tried to push it away. It was tiny so didn’t do me any damage but still!
Their owners were semi apologetic but clearly had no control of their dogs.
Is it because he’s a puppy? He’s fairly big compared to his attackers, and the bigger dogs just ignore him. It’s our first dog so not sure how best to respond/prevent this.

I was shocked when an off lead terrier made a beeline over to my large puppy and snapped in her face. When I called after the owner who’d just walked past, she said, ‘Oh he only does it to big dogs.’
As if that made it alright!

Small dogs often attack our 20 month old Cavapoo. He's really anxious of other dogs now so has to be kept on lead so we can build his confidence. One woman with a yappy dog who always nips him told me puppies have a different smell which antagonises older dogs- no idea if that's true or not. She also told me her dog hates dogs on leads and wasn't happy when I told her maybe her dog should be on a lead too in that case

Older dogs can and do "correct" puppies. This can look like snarling and snapping at a puppy who is approaching too boisterously. It's how they learn. However the older dog does not hurt the puppy.

But OP's puppy was on a lead and not bothering them, so why on earth would it need correcting?

Think I would boot them especially if it bit me.

In my experience smaller dogs are worse behaved than larger dogs because the lazy owners don't see the dog as a threat to others. So many small dogs get away with bad behaviour such as biting and yapping relentlessly just because of its size.