Just wanted to get some opinions on our dogs behaviour. Sorry this is going to be long but want to give as much info as possible.
He's a 10month working cocker spaniel, still intact, although we will be neauturing as he has one testicle that hasn't decended. No behaviour issues in the house, fully house trained, no more biting, excellent with 2 kids (10 and 15), very loving, no separation anxiety, no destruction, great with people/visitors and settles very well. Only issue we have is his dog reactivity.
At the moment I'm focusing more on training outside than 'walking', in the sense that I don't just walk along and let him do what he wants. We are out in the morning for 45mins to an hour and this includes basic gundog style training (we have been to classes) so do retrieves, searching, steadying and then around 30mins in evening where we practice loose lead walking and do a bit of searching. If he sees a dog in the distance, he will do a quick glance and then very easily refocuses back on me and no issues.
At the moment, I am trying to avoid having to directly come across another dog but it's inevitable really. When a dog is coming in our direction, first of all, I try to clock it first and will move dog to side and hide a treat and tell him to search and hope he doesn't clock the other dog. If I'm not quick enough and he sees the other dog he will instantly lay on the floor and stare (sometimes will literally shake), for now I keep the lead short but lose and if he chooses to disengage and look at me I will reward (very very rare he will disengage!). As the dog walks past he will continue to stare and then once they are past he will go to lunge (I make sure there is no way he will have contact with the other dog) and bark. This will go on for maybe a minute after (until they are a good distance away) once I think I can get him to refocus on me I put him in a sit and reward him for this and then he is ok.
As is all too common there's also the issue of off lead dogs with no recall, I always ask the owner to give space (I will already have given more than enough space to pass if they had control of their dogs) but the dogs continue to come upto mine, I stand infront of him (he's always laying down, staring) to try and block, if the other dog gets to his face he tries to back away and after a few seconds will lunge/bark. Normally by then the owner has reached us and gets their dog. One one occasion, the other dog would not go and owner was useless getting it back, my dog kept backing away, I was trying to block, but it ended with a bit of a fight, no dog drew blood but both were biting each other.
I want to get a handle of this behaviour and help him, I'm looking into a behaviourist but just wanted some opinions on why he's doing this and if what I'm doing is ok? He has actually been completely fine with any dog if he has met them offlead, he has loved playing, so I'm not sure if he just feels restricted on a lead? Or my other feeling was that he's possible guarding us? His reactions are worse in the dark and also if my kids are on the walk too.
Just to add, we did gundog classes for 4 months, asked the trainer and she just said he was excited to meet other dogs and will grow out of it. I think she didn't really know though and isn't the correct assessment.