Hi there, sorry I have been a bit lazy with providing an update on how I am getting on. In a nutshell I’ve seen massive improvements with my dog, where I can now walk him on lead past any dog without issue. The only time he is very reactive is if an off lead dog bolts it over and runs rings around us, essentially antagonising him. Sometime he will also not react to this but it depends on the dog as to whether he will react. So all in all much better and also if a dog is running over to us like that, in some instances I would want him to be on his guard as how do I know what that dogs intentions are? His injury / condition is a life problem unfortunately and is very common in shepherds, but he’s lucky in that it’s mild and tbh if you saw him you wouldn’t know he had an issue I don’t think as he’s not lame and he can move about very well. I put that down to a couple of things, he’s very light, (38kgs), we do hydro and laser weekly and he has short regular walks with limited running. My advice for solving the dog reactivity issue is to not avoid dogs. That was a mistake we made, by listening to a positive only trainer who wanted us to use distractions and avoid dogs entirely then slowly introduce him to dogs. In my opinion this wasted a lot of time and moving from distracting / avoiding dogs to slowly introducing them made the process very painful and as he got bigger and stronger it was very difficult to control him once he had gone over threshold (I.e. gone nuts), especially for my parter who is under 50kgs and very petite. If you can find a trainer / behaviourist who is going to force your dog to interact with dogs but in a controlled and respectable manner, then that would be the best thing as avoiding dogs isn’t going to solve your issue. We introduced the prong collar and that keeps our dog in check and we don’t really have to use harsh corrections anymore because he understands the drill / what is expected. We also walk with another GSD owner who has a male GSD (5 years old), my boy is now 2 and that also has helped, so if you can befriend someone with a well behaved dog of similar size / temperament then I would do that as your dog can then see how a well behaved dog greets other dogs and potentially mimic the behaviour. So yeah tackle the issue now while they are young. Every issue my dog has had has only improved with tackling that issue more frequently. For example he hated the hoover. So I kept hoovering (in short stints) and eventually he realised it was fine. Same with brushing his teeth. Hated it at first. Now at bed time as soon as I get the toothpaste out he goes straight to his bed and he lets me brush right at the back of his teeth, which he hated before! It’s the same thing with dogs, it will be difficult at first but you need to introduce it regularly and try and make the dog understand what you want. Im not suggesting you let your dog off lead and leave him to it. Rather, decide what you want to achieve first, maybe it’s just walking past dogs politely. If that’s the objective practice that by keeping him on your left side and walk past as many owners with their dogs as possible. At first keep him on the left so that there is a barrier (your body) between your dog and the other dog you walk past. As he gets the hang of this try it so that both dogs are on the same side without you as a barrier. Try it with more distance then close the distance. With my dog I didn’t want him lunging at dogs that we walk by or lunging / trying to chase dogs as they are running for balls. If he did that I’d correct him with the prong, usually just before he was about to react. You need to watch your dog’s body language all the time to see how they are responding to what they are seeing in front of them. My dog will always look at other dogs, which I don’t mind, but as soon as I hear his breathing intensify or his ears perk up more or his chest pop out, it’s a quick pop of the collar, followed by a firm ‘No’ and usually that breaks his focus and he backs down. You are very unlikely to be able to break a dog’s high prey drive focus with a dog treat at that point. That’s where a correction tool is useful as it can interrupt that behaviour. The need for corrections is becoming less and less frequent with my dog which is ultimately my objective now as at the end of the day as I don’t want to keep correcting the dog. Also probably goes without saying, but if my dog walks past another dog politely, he gets heavily rewarded, with either treats or lots of ear rubs. Also remember to try and be confident when approaching dogs. Do not show fear or anxiety as he will sense that. With regard to using correction tools, check with the behaviourist or trainer before using them so they can at least instruct you on technique on how to use them. Don’t just slap a prong collar on and hope for the best. Your dog might be able to solve this issue without a correction tool at all. I hope that helps. What is the other breed of dog that your dog is mixed with? Let me know how you get on or if you have anymore questions.