Is my child a scaredy cat?!

In my mind I thought toddlers were meant to be fearless? Mine? Not so much. I'm not really complaining as sometimes it's a blessing knowing that she's not going to run head first into a situation but I have recently muttered to her that she needs to "man up"!! Umm I get that it's a bad thing to say for so many reasons! 

The big fear my daughter has is dogs. Up to the age of 1 there was no problem now aged 2 1/4 she's really frightened of them. I do understand she's small and some dogs are big but even small rat like dogs leave her quaking! Now she loves her scooter but the place where we like to scoot is also full of dogs!! She spots one in the distance, makes one of those annoying noises that a toddler makes then either freezes on her scooter or hides behind me. The great irony? 99.9% of the times the dogs don't even come by to sniff her! I have no idea where this fear has come from and no idea how to make it better. She visited my friend recently who has a dog and for the most time sat on the sofa not even letting her feet off the edge! But by the end she did stroke him so we had progress. I try to reassure her and hope that as with most things this is a phase and she'll grow out of it. I'm determined not to take her somewhere else to go on her scooter and hide her from dogs as I can see it only getting worse then in the future. But any tips would be welcome!!