Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I just returned from a dog walk with a good friend.  At the end of it, a man with two dogs, a doberman and a mix, walked around us and his doberman snarled and barked.  My friend and I admitted that certain breeds of dogs scare us:  dobermans, german shepherds, pit bulls and rottweilers.  Of course individual dogs of those breeds can be wonderful, but with dogs there is a hunk of instinct that survives whatever training and kind home a dog may have.  We are creatures of instinct as well, and if we've had a bad experience with a particular breed, fear arises.  But what bothered us most is something we've both encountered numerous times.  A dog owner assures us their dog is "friendly" as he is flattening his ears, his hair on his back is up, he is barking and snarling.  This seems to be in the category of "wishing makes it so".  I can see the dog is not kindly disposed to my dog, and almost any other speech would be preferable.  "Sorry" is good, as is the action of pulling the dog back and away.  Of course, many of these dog owners believe their dog needs to be off leash despite the law, because the dog is so well behaved.  An apology is the only right speech here.  Lots of luck.

What should my right speech be in this situation?  Normally, I say nothing.  The dog owner is obviously at least somewhat deluded, so what is the point?  But sometimes I say "my dogs are old" or "maybe he just doesn't like my dogs" or "he's scaring me".  Nothing is going to make a difference to the off leash dog owner.  They feel they have the inalienable right to have their dogs run free.  For leashed dogs, maybe the best comment is:  "thanks for having him leashed, I appreciate it".  It's not judgmental, and it acknowledges the attempt to be socially sensitive.  I need to work up a standard reply.  In the meantime, my old female dog barks back, defending me and the male dog.  And that worries me, because I'm afraid she'll get herself in trouble. 

Now, if the dog owner were sensitive, they'd recognize the stress they are causing.  And the terror to children of an off leash dog that gets in their faces.  But that would require mandatory dog owning training, which is so not going to happen.  I just hope to never hear again "he's friendly" when it is patently clear that such is not the case, at least at the moment the phrase is being stated.  It does not reassure.