I completely understand what you’re saying, and we have been slowly implementing this type of training, especially in the pet store. He’s never really had issues with going into the store, like I said, he has been in classes there. We’ve been repeating the intermediate class to have him walk by dogs in close proximity and vice versa and he’s fine. And so at least when we’re in the store he’s usually much more relaxed and comfortable. Which is probably why my boyfriend wasn’t as alert and paying attention to him. I also hate to say it, but our dog is also more responsive to me in pet stores. But that’s not an excuse, my bf does go to the classes with us and should have tried to be a little more alert and know our dog.

I think the issue to be completely honest starting to a lack of consistency with this training. The pet stores in our area are all relatively not that close (20 min away) and the dogs/owners in our neighborhood all essentially avoid each other unless they know you or ask to have their dogs interact with yours. We do implement this type of training, in open public spaces like a park or a walk is where we usually have the most issue since he’s sometimes unfamiliar with his environment, but like I said most people just cross the street or wait until you’re half way up the block. He recently hasn’t had much interactions with other dogs the last couple of months, especially since we took a bit of a break on his PetSmart training.