Puppy help please

[PinkTigerBrownPig]

Hi everyone, we have a 5 month old standard labradoodle. She is such a lovely girl and very intelligent....but she has started barking randomly at other dogs. She is either anxious or excited but doesn't seem to be able to communicate well with other dogs.

She has been to puppy classes but they were more geared at obedience than socialising. I have found a social walk but no spaces until after Christmas so anything we can do in the meantime would be great.

Can anyone help please, she's a big dog so she can look totally out of control to other people as they don't realise she's a puppy. I'm trying to distract with treats but she's not responding every time.
She's also going through another bitey over excited stage, any advice here too please.
Thank you

@PinkTigerBrownPig

I wouldn't take your dog on any kind of social walk until you've seen a proper trainer and had them work with your dog in person.

The social walk is with a trainer, who is doing one to one sessions with her first to assess her needs

Ah okay, it sounded like it was just a random group walk, sorry!

In the meantime you could work on encouraging calm behaviours. Teaching her to settle, focus etc. will work wonders long term.

Keep her at a distance from other dogs where she can be calm. If that means turning around and walking the other way when one approaches then do that. Crossing over to the other side of the road, or walking into the middle of a field/ hedge!
When she can look at the dog calmly then lots of treats - she needs to associate other dogs with calmness and getting good things from you.
It doesn't matter whether the barking is caused by being scared or excited - both = high stress.
Work on reducing the stress by giving her the opportunity to be calm, and lots of treats,
As she gets better close up the distance so that eventually when you walk past another dog and she looks to you for a treat rather than the other dog.
You may need human food for this to begin with.

That's great, thank you!!