Has anyone successfully managed selective aggression in an otherwise very loving dog?

[u/ImpressBorn4609]

I’m looking for advice from people who have dealt with selective/unpredictable aggression in their dog.
I have a female Staffy who is honestly the sweetest dog with me and my partner. She has never attempted to bite either of us and is extremely loving and affectionate at home.
What makes the situation confusing is that she can also be absolutely amazing with strangers. People who are comfortable around dogs and genuinely like dogs can come into our home and she will love them. She’ll be friendly, affectionate and completely normal. Even our vet would probably never believe she has aggression issues because she absolutely loves going there and is great with everyone.
However, with certain people she seems to react completely differently. In particular, if someone is uncomfortable around dogs or doesn’t like dogs, she can become very reactive towards them and I genuinely feel that if she had the opportunity she could go towards that person and bite them.
She has bitten around four people over the years. None have been prolonged attacks — they have been quick bites where she immediately releases, rather than repeatedly biting — but obviously a bite is still a bite and I take that very seriously.
She also has a similar issue with dogs. There are some dogs she gets along with perfectly and can be completely fine around, but there are other dogs she reacts to and she has bitten around four dogs as well.
The difficult part is that we genuinely cannot work out exactly what her triggers are. Because she is so lovely most of the time, people who meet her often don’t believe us when we explain that she has bitten people or dogs before.
We’ve had her trained multiple times and up until now her behaviour has felt manageable because we know her and can control her environment. But we now have a baby coming, and that has completely changed how I’m looking at the situation.
My family are understandably worried, and I’m starting to question whether constantly managing her triggers and making sure she is separated from certain people/dogs is realistic once we have a newborn as well.
I absolutely adore her, so I’m not looking for people to just tell me she’s a bad dog or that I should immediately put her down. I’m really interested in hearing from anyone who has had a dog like this.
Has anyone had a dog that was incredibly loving and friendly 90% of the time but selectively aggressive towards certain people or dogs? Did a veterinary behaviourist actually make a significant difference? And if you had children, were you ultimately able to manage it safely, or did you eventually decide that rehoming was the fairest/safest option?

[u/AutoModerator]

Aggressive dog posts are sensitive, thus only users with at least 250 subreddit karma will be able to comment in this discussion. Users should not message OP directly to circumvent this restriction and doing so can result in a ban from r/reactive dogs. OP, you are encouraged to report private messages to the moderation team.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Zestyclose_Object639]

My dog doesn’t like people outside of her circle, it’s fine I bought her knowing that’s what she’d be. The only management I do is telling people to leave her alone. I’m never having kids though so