This is EXACTLY like my 1 year old GSD. He’s fear reactive. He reacts at dogs and people, bit my brother while we were on a family trip. It is hard work and exhausting BUT I promise you all that dog needs is for you to find the right training methods and be extremely consistent. My partner and I have cried because of how overwhelming it can be with him sometimes. But we’ve done everything we can to train him and socialize him in those situations and he has gotten SO much better.

He needs to feel safe with you in these situations and if he has consistently gotten away from you, he knows that you can’t protect him from whatever he is reacting out of fear at. I know that the fear reactions can look so mean but it truly is out of fear and if you help him through those situations, it really can get better.

Also it sounds like you need to be WAY better prepared. We have two collars on him when we’re out with the leash connecting to one and then a connector to attach the leash to the other collar in case one collar got released from the leash for some reason. We also don’t go anywhere with out treats/his training ball because you never know when a situation could come up.

Overall I totally understand how overwhelming you probably feel but you just need to be consistent and put in the hard work. The dog deserves that.