with door open talking to the family.
If the attack happened when the wife wandered onto the neighbor's property, that's totally different. Dog is too big of a risk.
I'm also sympathetic to the idea that this dog belongs to the sister of the homeowner, and the homeowner clearly had no idea the dog would reach this way to a visitor. Now the homeowner knows, and no doubt will restrain the dog before opening the door again.
The homeowner sounds very responsible and seems highly unlikely to me to let this happen again.