We have a one year old (just had her birthday) mutt that we rescued from a local no kill shelter at 7 months. She had the perfect personality, loved everyone; people or dogs, and was playful and energetic. Enjoys the dog park and will play with me or the other dogs quite well, have never had any problems even if another dog is aggressive, she submits or runs away.
Starting a couple months ago, she has gotten extremely reactive while on leash, leaping and growling. At everything. Horses, dogs, cats, birds, scooters, small cars with loud exhausts, bicycles, kids playing soccer, joggers, etc. It's impossible to take her on a walk. Once she gets stimulated, she goes off into another world and doesn't notice me or respond to commands at all, head halter makes no difference, etc. It's like a massive adrenaline dump.
So we've taken to going for walks on cold, rainy days at the park when no one else is there, or very late at night when everyone is asleep. She walks very well with no distraction, and listens to commands, etc. We took puppy manners class with no issues, but when we went back for the second series of classes, we were unable to work her because she was continously overstimulated. We then took a reactive dog class, and every other dog in the class made great strides, to the point where they could be very near the other dogs (or people if that was their problem) with no reaction by the end of the class... but not our dog. The most I can hope for is quickly distracting her with high value treats before she gets lit up, and getting her away from the distraction behind a wall, parked car, etc. But if I'm not quick enough, the only thing I can do is physically drag her away. Luckily, she's only 65lbs and I'm well over 200, so in a battle of strength I'll win. But it's physically and emotionally exhausting.
If it makes any difference, she's a mix of Rottweiler and GSD. Clearly has an overdeveloped prey and play drive. She's still fine in the dog park, and during one hike in the forest, we had a stray dog ambush us, and she just played with it. So I don't think it's real aggression as much as frustration at being on the leash. But other dog owners don't know this, as the behaviour she exhibits is identical to an extremely aggressive dog. We've even put her on Prozac and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Any ideas? I'm still working on the reactive dog program and have seen some progress, but it's very little and very slow. For my sanity, I really need some faster progress, and I can't afford any more classes as I've already spent $1000 already just on classes for her.