"It just latched on to my arm," Jaymee Arnold told the Herald Sun.
"It must have sensed my fear or something."
Ms Arnold, 25, an intensive care nurse, said she was on her way to work from her Brunswick flat on Sunday morning when she was attacked.
She had seen the dog, but risked trying to get to her car after she saw a neighbour interact with it.
"I maybe said 'good boy' to it. It locked on to my arm and just would not let go.
"I was screaming for someone to help. We tried to get into my neighbour's house and even got through the door, but the dog would not let go. It was then that the man came and kicked at it, and managed to pull it off."
Ms Arnold had surgery on Sunday to repair her badly mauled arm and spent three nights in hospital.
But she could be off work for months and may still lose some movement in her fingers.
Neighbours believe the dog had escaped from a nearby property and been lurking around her flat for an hour. It still had a heavy duty chain around its neck.
But despite pleas to authorities, the dog was not picked up.
Ms Arnold said she had had trouble sleeping since the nightmare attack and would not go back to her flat.
"It is really frustrating to think the owner had been involved in another attack. I don't want this to happen to someone else," Ms Arnold said.
"This could have ended far worse if I had fallen over. I will be off work for months now."
Moreland City Council said it had seized the dog and was investigating the attack.
Council spokesman Marco Bass said the dog's registered owner was a person of interest in at least one more dog attack.
In July, the State Government promised harsher penalties for owners of dogs that attack people, including a 10-year ban on owning a dog.
A spokesman for the Minister for Agriculture said the Government planned to introduce the legislation to Parliament before the end of the year.
(Herald Sun - Sept 11, 2013)
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