Advice for an older dog becoming more vocal on walks

[MissyB1]

Basically our female mini schnauzer is now 10 years old, and weirdly has got more excitable and vocal on her walks over the last 18 months or so. It’s like the older she’s getting the louder she feels she needs to be when she spots another dog. She’s not anxious or threatening them, she’s just shouting to them in a very hyper way! It’s annoying to us, probably the other dogs and I’m sure their owners. I stop her moving, stand in front of her and if she’s off lead I put it back on. Sometimes she just carries on screeching at them - and it’s high pitched so it does sound like screeching! As soon as she sees another dog she start breathing fast and I know the noise is about to come, I realise I need to do something at that point but I’m not sure what 🤔
I feel I should point out she adores all dogs and humans, she goes to daycare 3 days a week where her little pack of mates all love each other.

sorry that was quite long! Has anyone got any advice? It’s driving me mad!

She needs a vet visit. When sudden increased reactivity happens in older dogs it tends to be pain and/or vision/hearing loss

She’s actually booked in to have her teeth checked next week, so I’m going to discuss her reactivity with them as well.

I’d have spun and walked her away rather than giving her attention for barking. I’m interested because I might be about to adopt a dog that I’m told is very vocal on walks and needs training for it. It’ll be interesting to see what they suggest.

Our 12-year-old pooch is like this: grumbly to start, heavy breathing and then very vocal. The vet and I believe it's a combination of her vision rapidly deteriorating and arthritis. So she gets in a tizzy because she's often surprised by other dogs; she can smell the dogs in the distance; some she recognises, but some, of course, she doesn't, but all of them are visually hard for her to make out. Daycare may still work for her because, as you say, they're her mates.
But now with the hips, even if the ones she does recognise and likes come over, she's OK until one of them bumps her hind legs, which hurt, and so, to be honest, recently she's just getting grumpy about every dog. Luckily, around our way there are a lot of regular walkers, most have known her for a long time, and so they all know she's becoming a grouch and are very sympathetic. But we don't let her off lead now, and frankly she doesn't seem to want it; she's happiest having a sniff and a mooch. One thing that does help is if I chatter to her all the time; my voice definitely helps keep her calm.