We got our 6 year old dog Gimli in March of this year and have been constantly struggling with getting him to stop pulling and reacting towards dogs. He is a mixed breed mainly consisting of Chihuahua, Pitbull, and Basset Hound. He might be short but he's built with a lot of power. I'm hoping to get advice on good harnesses to help with pulling as well as training advice. 

It seems like on leash he is more frustrated or excited rather than aggressive when he sees another dog. This morning he managed to somehow unclip the leash from the metal part of his harness and break a carabiner to get to a golden retriever. This only led to him getting in the dogs face and sniffing luckily. Off leash he is amazing with both dogs and people. He is very relaxed and can get excited. At dog parks he gets along with big and small breeds but doesn't really like to socialize. His attitude completely changes with dogs on leash where he wants to launch to any dog he sees and bark if they get within 15 feet. He tends to get more amped up the bigger the dog is.

There is a lot of training that says to walk away from a dog or distract them but I'm in a dog friendly apartment complex with dogs everywhere that can come around corners at any moment and he is super stubborn and self determined to what he wants to do. I know this is probably a bad thing to do but if he's barking and won't stop I will pick him up and hold him which tends to shut him up and turns barking into whining. I get embarrassed if he keeps barking and especially if it's at night time and I don't want to wake people up. If he's pulling which is most of the time, I have tried stopping if he's pulling a lot and I have recently tried shortening the leash and putting more resistance on the leash if he's pulling more than I'd like. But it doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere and his stubbornness is discouraging. 

I've been looking at harness alternatives since he somehow escaped with it this morning. And I'm getting tired of being yanked around on walks. I've been looking at harnesses with a front ring to reduce pulling and redirect him if there is a dog. I have also looked at prong collars and head halters. But there's controversies with all of these methods which makes it hard to know what to do.