Frightened dogs can be the most dangerous, not the least.
She'd probably had a short term traumatic experience at a guess, those abused over a longer time seldom come round that quickly, it takes time to build trust again in most.
My little Belle loves people but at the new vet's she savaged him just for trying to clip her nails! The shrieks from her brought the assistant rushing in to see if we were skinning her alive.

He was aghast and kept saying "but I didn't hurt her!" I told him he wasn't the first she's surprised, the other one knew to hold her down first.

She won't let anybody clip them, not even me, and has to be forcibly held down and it takes two to do it.
It's hardly abuse, but she is terrified of those clippers. She's never been injured by them, I've been with her every time she's had them done and it's the same story every time. She doesn't object to having her feet held or toes examined, it's just the clippers. No telling what her hang up is.
Perhaps that dog just had a 'thing' about leads? Who knows?
Sorry Poll, I'm a bit harder hearted than you and the warm and fuzzy stories get the same cynical once over as the harder ones from me.
There's always more (or less) to a story than meets the eye.
(Especially on those feel good sites.

)