Hi everyone,

I am completely new to this website and this forum! I read a few posts and all of the information is very helpful... so I'm wondering if any of you have training / correction ideas about our situation. (this might be kind of long)

(Some background first) We have a 13 month old lab. We've had him since he was 8 weeks old and he is a very laid back/ easy going dog. He is not hyper and does not get excited easily. We live near a park that we walk to almost every day. We walk our lab to the park on a leash and once we are there, we let him off leash. (making him "wait" for our OK) He plays with at least 2-3 other dogs (even up to 20) every day and he plays very friendly, usually (but not always) submitting to the other dogs first. His daily walks (combined) are usually up to 2 hours. Also, we have friends who have dogs that he always plays with and has never had any trouble.

(On to our problem) So, our lab is not the best leash walker but for about 80% of the time, he walks right next to us as we're trying to train him to heel. It has been within the last few months when he has become quite anxious when we approach another dog while on a leash. He barks excessively and usually stops when he "meets" the other dog. We have tried to correct this situation by having him sit while other dogs pass and praise him when he stays quiet and not pull. But he continues to have this leash anxiety and last night we were walking him and a Boston Terrier approached on a leash. Our dog barked as usual and we had him sit but he still barked. We decided that the barking would stop if the dogs met, but this time, our dog lunged and tried to bite the other dog! (he was not successful) We were so surprised... we've never / ever seen him act even the least bit aggressive! We don't know what we're doing wrong and have no idea how to correct this behavior! We need some ideas or stories... have any of you ever had this problem?

Thanks so much for your ideas / help.
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