Hi D-F--I'm so sorry! I made a bunch of assumptions about you and your partner's genders in what I wrote. Just shows how easily such assumptions can be made, in my case about men and women and who likely would occupy the respective roles in the scenario you laid out. Very presumptuous of me on all counts, I do apologize, and I appreciate you sounding like you understand and aren't too bothered by it.
As far as that incident with my then-girlfriend, all ended up OK, it's just that she had been teased with the word 'dog' as a little girl and that word being directed at her--even as 'dawg'--was very hurtful.
Overall lesson here, I guess is that language is a tricky thing and we never know what particular words mean to others. Nor can others know what specific words may mean to us. I suppose we can all help the situation by patiently explaining ourselves to others, as you did.