I swear, I must have read and reread this thread a thousand times already! There is so much information in it! Definitely useful and thought provoking!
Unfortunately, Duncan and I had an incident 2 weeks ago when we went home to visit my family. I have been hesitant to post about it, probably fearful of the answers/advice...or something...
So this is what happened: It was early in the morning, around 7am on Sunday. I thought I would take Duncan for a walk around the block for old times sake (we were at my dad's house where we lived for 2 years). We got about 1/4 of the way and a man came by on the other side of the street with his golden retriever. I made Duncan sit while they passed. The golden growled, but just for a second and then stopped and then Duncan just went nuts, barking and leaping, his hackles up. I made him sit and told him NO a few times. After the dog passed, I made Duncan sit for a few more minutes. He kept trying to get up but I just told him to sit again.
OK, we continue walking. About 3/4 of the way around the block, we see a neighbor standing in her driveway. We exchange hellos and then she says to me, "I can't help but stare at your dog. He looks just like ours." Now I very rarely see dogs that look like Duncan so we started talking, Duncan and I in the street, her in her driveway by her garage. She says, "Let me go get my dog" She goes in the backyard and comes back with her 18 month old bernese mountain dog mix that she adopted from the same shelter where I got Duncan. Her dog is on a leash with a regular collar and Duncan has on his gentle leader and a leash. I said to her, "Is your dog friendly?" and she said yes. So I walk a few steps forward and let the dogs meet. Duncan is 99.9% of the time, great with other dogs as he always wants to play. (There have been times at the park where he wasn't but this was a completely different situation) or so I thought. Her dog growled first and as she was pulling him away and saying "sorry, he doesn't usually do that" Duncan bit the dog in the face. He caught him on the eye and would not let go. The woman was screaming and pulling her dog but that was making it worse because the dogs were still attached. I leaned over and gave Duncan 3 knocks on the nose with my forearm and he let go. The woman took her dog in the house and I told her to please check him over well to make sure he was ok. I turned to Duncan and made him sit. I told him NO and BAD DOG a few times and told him to lie down. He wouldn't!! He was being a jerk to me, all hyped up and trying to ignore me. I wasn't about to give up though after all the discussion here on correction so I literally pulled him to a down position and told him to STAY. He did.
The woman came back out and said her dog was ok. Later on, I dropped off dog biscuits and a toy for him (his name was Reece) and found out that thye did take him to the vet and he had to get 2 stitches under his eye and be on antibiotics for a week. The family was extremely nice. As soon as I walked in, the woman and I both started crying and hugged as we were both so upset about what happened. And Reece was so sweet, not scared of me like I thought he may be, came right over and let me love on him and apologize. I did volunteer to pay the vet bill and, although, they didn't want me to, I insisted.
So needless to say, Duncan's aggression is escalating and he will no longer be allowed around any other dogs....it's very upsetting.
Despite my best efforts, he seems to be going downhill. We went for a walk and to the park last night and practiced our obedience. He did fantastic....didn't miss a beat. I had him on his long leash and walked 15 feet away from him while at least 3 different soccer games were going on and he didnt' move a muscle. I even ran around in circles and went behind trees and there he sat. I dont' think that these aggression problems have anything to do with obedience however...(he's also having problems with Collin but I'll post that in a different thread when I have more time) Sometimes, I think that whatever he went through before I adopted him have permanently changed him. Most people I know are scared of him, except really my father and myself to be honest. And I really dont' know that anyone but me can trust him 100%...Sometimes, it seems like a switch flips in his head and he can't control himself or forgets what he is or what he is doing....I will post more later, I have to get back to work...any help and advice or stories of anything similar and how you handled it would be appreciated.