If you gett attacked Chris by the dog just do what this Aussie woman did - Woman saves her pet pooch from beach brawlExactly, it's an animal and you cannot predict what will happen, whether you blame the animal or the person provoking the reaction, an animal doesn't know the difference between someone messing about or an attack or something that it's just got mixed up as being a threat.
I don't own a dog but I go walking with one every day that has to have a muzzle. You can't predict how they will react to certain situations. The muzzle is to stop those potential situations being a problem, it's being responsible with the dog.
I'm sure most of the babies that have been mauled by dogs the owners would say the dog wouldn't have harmed a fly and it was very 'unexpected'. I keep hearing on this thread about 'rare' occurrences. Rare doesn't mean 'never', just remember that.