| This isn't advice or an opinion, but just my personal experience with a similar problem.
Dresden isn't aggressive but is very prey driven. Any other dog, no matter what size, that is excited, jumping or running fires her up. It was getting so bad she'd be spinning on the end of her leash on walks when another dog went by.
It has gotten a lot better since starting obedience classes. We've used a couple of different techniques. She's been taught "watch me" and I'll use that when her attention wanders to another dog. Also, I found I wasn't correcting strongly enough when she decided to lunge at another dog, I was "nagging". Something else that's really important that I didn't do enough of was praise after a strong correction when the dog is back in position.
She's by no means perfect yet, but I did get her by another dog out on our walk the other day without too much fuss. I put her into "heel" as soon as I saw the other dog, used a lot of "watch me" and treats and corrected when she went out of position. She was a coiled spring, ready to lunge, but I kept her so busy we got by with a semblance of control. ;) My instructor said as the obedience training progresses this will get easier.
Like you, I have a goal for this dog. Dresden is going to be my next therapy dog, so has to be able to ignore other dogs. I've been taking classes for about 6 weeks now and practicing faithfully at home and I am definitely seeing an improvement. Hopefully, the obedience training will help with your "challenge".  |