I'm sorry if this has been discussed before - I searched but couldn't find what I was looking for.

Today, Star (15 month old bullmastiff), balked at, and basically refused to, walk by a German Shepherd's home. The German Shepherd was out, as well as her owner, and we said hello. But for some reason Star wouldn't walk past. Just about that time another neighbor came out and said hello and we went to talk to her, thus making us take a detour down another street, and not going past the GSD.

Star had 2 bad experiences with GSD's in the past - one was when a gate was left open and the GSD came out and barked at Star, but there was no contact involved. The 2nd time was when we were on a walk and a neighbor asked if her GSD could play with Star (we were in the forest). She said her dog is not at all dog aggressive, so we let them meet and play, but this dog was older and faster than Star and played aggressively, and it scared Star. I asked her to call off her dog, and she did, and all was well. But neither of these dogs bit or even touched Star, and neither of these dogs were THIS dog behind the fence that Star refused to walk by. Star has never come in contact with that dog before, so there was no reason to be afraid.

I didn't force her to walk by the house, and my husband said that I was showing her that I wasn't in control by allowing us to go a different direction, and that I should have made her walk by. I know we discussed this before when Star was afraid of my new car tires (which lasted about 4 days and then she was fine again), whether I should make her get in my car or ignore the situation and just work up to her getting back into the car again. That was resolved when I washed and waxed my car all afternoon with Star sitting about 15 feet away, and eventually Star came and got over her fear.

But with another dog? Do I force her to walk by (thus being the alpha who takes care of my dog), as my husband says, or just take a different route until Star gets over her fear?