New puppy barks at other dogs, but not aggressively?

[MarieSkye]

Hello all,

I have a 7 month of pit puppy named Bae. She is a sweetheart. She loves everyone, and she loves other dogs too. I like to think that I am socializing her well. She has met many many dogs of all ages and sized and gets along with them very well. She is very smart and obedient but I do have one concern. If I take her on a walk anywhere besides our neighborhood, she will bark at any dog or person she sees from a distance, but once i bring her over to introduce she starts wagging her tail and giving kisses. For example, he other day I brought her into the city (we live right outside of Boston) and I was standing in line at a food truck ordering lunch and some woman saw her, noticed she was a pit bull, and picked up her little Chihuahua and tried to hide it from Bae. Bae caught a peek of the other dog and immediately started barking. Since the lady wouldn’t introduce the dogs, Bae was tugging on the leash and barking at the woman. She is a very friendly puppy and just wanted to say hi, but her bark is very deep and raspy so I feel like it freaks people out. It’s kind of like a “rrrrrrrrRUF” kinda growl/bark, so it sounds scary. It’s not a constant bark, but she just tries really hard to get to the dog and will bark like every 5-10 seconds. I feel confident that she is not being aggressive, but if I was the lady holding the chihuahua, I would be a little freaked out. As far as training goes, I try to correct her when she starts barking by tapping her back leg and snapping my finger (which is a method I use during training to grab her attention) In any other situation just one snap and her focus is right back to me…but when she sees other dogs theres no way to get her to snap out of it…which is what scares me. When she saw the chihuahua I tried everything and eventually I just had to pick her up and bring her back to the car. Once I finished ordering my food I took her out again and she walked down the street just fine. I don’t know whether this is just a puppy thing (since she is VERY playful and loves playing with other dogs), or if it is something that I need to immediately work on in case it could turn into aggression? Has anyone experienced this before? Any tips for training? Any ideas why she is acting this way and whether or not it is just curiosity?

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