Would really appreciate any advice.
We've got a 21 month old Springer Spaniel, have had her since a pup. She's been a dream of a dog so far - very obedient, friendly to both dogs and people, super easy to train etc. She's great with all the family but I spend more time with her than anyone else as I wfh...so I tend to be her person of choice.
The last couple of months her behaviour around other dogs has changed and it seems to be escalating.
We walk nearly every day in a 70 acre Country Park - it's a dog walking hotspot so there's always plenty of people with offlead dogs around. She's always had impeccable manners with other dogs...approaches calmly and keeps a bit of distance before greeting them, sometimes invites them to play, if they're not interested she'll walk away. She still does this - she'll greet, sniff, play with other offlead dogs on every walk with no issues - she's not generally dog aggressive.
The problem is now with any dog that approaches me.
I've noticed for a couple of months that she'd started seeming 'jealous' if I ever paid attention to another dog that approached me and bent down to pet them (infrequently - I don't fuss over every dog that passes, only if they come to me. Maybe once on each walk). Whereas previously she'd be unbothered by this, she started coming straight to me if this happened and would clearly want attention too - so I made sure I petted her as well as the other dog. This didn't help though and she started to get more insistent on having my attention if another dog came up to me, jumping up at me (she has NEVER jumped up at anyone previous to this, we trained her not to) and putting herself between the dog and me, but facing me, absolutely clamouring for my attention.
Because of this I stopped acknowledging other dogs that approached, and I've said to owners I chat with 'oh he's beautiful, I won't pet him though as she's a bit jealous' type comments. This hasn't helped though and it's gotten worse.
We're now at the stage where if another dog approaches me, she'll place herself between the dog and me but now facing the dog, not me - and she's clearly completely on edge, still and tail straight just watching them like she's ready to pounce. Yesterday was the next escalation - a dog jumped up at me and she growled and semi snapped at them. The dog backed off straight away.
IF the dog that comes near me wanders away - she'll instantly relax, follow them with wagging tail and greet them and play as normal a few feet away. So obviously I'm the issue, not that specific dog. Also zero issues with people approaching me, it's solely dogs. When dh or dc walk her or are present, she does kind of 'keep an eye' on any dog that approaches them but nowhere near the extent of what she does with me, no blocking the dog from them etc.
What can I do? I've googled a lot because it clearly seems to be a guarding behaviour but I can't really find guidance on this online. It's either about object resource guarding (she doesn't) or about guarding one person from other family members or people (she doesn't) or about dog-aggressive dogs - which she's not as long as they don't come within a few feet of me.
Any insight or advice would be very appreciated!