Trauma from a dog attack

Hey folks,

I feel sort of embarrassed posting about this because as a shelter worker I should have the least amount of breed discrimination, but im posting here for advice, so here we go.

A couple months ago I was dogsitting for a family I met on Rover. They had a Newfie/lab mix and a JRT/pit mix. My dog, Rusty, and their dogs, had met before but did not like each other. That should've been my red flag, but I was dumb enough to think I could keep everyone separate for the duration of their stay.

It worked for awhile; the stay was a week long, and for the first 4 or so days I kept my dog in my room with the door closed while I was home, and the two dogs out in the living room. While I wasn't home, the two visiting dogs were in their crate and Rusty was free to come and go as he pleased (there was always someone home as my landlord at the time was disabled and had aides there, so he was usually in her room).

Anyway, one morning I was determined to get all 3 dogs out for a walk- not together, of course, but i wanted to give them exercise. It was successful up until the point of switching Rusty out for the two visiting dogs. I went to put the visiting dogs in the backyard and put Rusty in my room, but the visiting dogs saw Rusty outside, bolted, and attacked.

It was horrendous. I will never forget it. They were using my boy as a chew toy. I remember trying to grab onto their collars and watching them slip off their necks. I remember realizing I had no means of grabbing them and pulling them off my boy, and I thought I was going to have to watch him die in front of me. I was screaming bloody murder (it's a very very quiet street out in the boonies of Northern New England), and threw myself on top of my dog to try and protect his body from them. I got a bunch of bruises and scratches and was very sore and he got bit up pretty bad on his hind legs, but we are both ok.

Anyway, I work at an animal shelter. Yesterday we got a dog in who looks like a bigger version of the JRT/pit, and he was incredibly mouthy, jumping on my back and on me and he tore a hole in my sweatshirt. Knee to the chest wouldn't work, this guy was just very mouthy and very energetic which I understood why but it didn't make it any easier. Every time I tried to get him off and he wouldn't, I freaked out a little bit more. I eventually started crying and locked myself in the yard, and had to go around to put him back in his cage. I was sobbing like a madwoman, and hyperventilating BAD. It was awful, almost like beginning to relive that experience over again.

I don't want to have any breed or behavior prejudices; it's my job not to! But I know I have some form of trauma from it, and I guess was wondering how I overcome that whether it be by breed or having the courage to deal with those behaviors.

Thanks for reading

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TL;DR dog got attacked, new dog at work reminded me one of the dogs that hurt mine, need advice on how to be unprejudiced from it

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