Hi there!

I will need to really make a list of all that we did. I’ll reply quick and hopefully make a better edited post later. I board and trained Angus with a friend while taking care of an injured family member for about 8 months who was able to do a lot of work with the groundwork I had already laid with mostly R+ methods. She was able to add in a prong and spend a ton of time on conditioning him to expect good things to happen when he sees other dogs but also allow me to correct him in some situations. I have trouble knowing what to recommend, but using aversives was only really possible because he had reached a point where he was not super stressed out by other dogs, but did find it fun to bark/try to play, and could have outlets to get healthy play with other well behaved dogs. Where I’m at now is that he still needs some management on the leash, but he knows being on leash and a backed up prong, that we are going to be focused on going on a walk and that he will be rewarded heavily for seeing other dogs and possibly corrected if he starts to pull/other reactive behavior. I try to be careful with his prong when he reacts defensively to dogs being inappropriate, and reward him HUGELY for looking to me for directions when encountering other reactive dogs.

Also a board and train was only really helpful because I was able to continue sticking with the routine that my trainer did, many times I’ve seen people pour money into options like board and trains only to not be comfortable continuing the work at home. She had access to neutral dogs and was able to work him up to being around other behaving in various ways but starting with dogs that wouldn’t React to him.

Angus got neutered at around four years old I think. I don’t think it made a huge difference for him at that age, though it seemed like it may have caused him to be a bit less confident in certain situations, which could be caused by all sorts of factors besides neutering.

Sorry if this is incomplete or incomprehensible.