This this this. I've owned my dog for a little over two years now, and sadly I've witnessed the consequences of this sort of puppy-mature dog denial firsthand at our park. I watched over the course of two years as a woman who brought her pit regularly and had trained him to be very obedient, but nonetheless was in denial about the breed's predisposition toward dog aggression, had to see the dog she loves attack another dog quite viciously. He'd displayed mounting dog selectiveness that she'd blamed on the other dogs, eventually creating an environment where no one could relax because the slightest wrong glance from another dog might set hers off.

OP, you seem to be far less in denial than she is, but you need to approach this with extreme caution nonetheless. A dog attack from a powerful dog is a traumatic event for all involved, and not the sort of regret that you want to live with.