I have been reading the forum for a while now and it’s my first time posting.
My partner and I recently brought little Tony into our lives and for the most part he has been an absolute dream. He is so affectionate and was relatively easy to train - though seems to have developed selective hearing as he’s gotten older, but I understand this is a breed thing.
The only thing that we have been worried about is that once he gets outside he will literally bark at, and sometimes go for, anyone (dog or human) and it makes walking him or taking him anywhere an absolute nightmare.
There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to who sets him off, and he did seem to calm down and would only bark at the odd person on a walk, but since he hit 6 months it feels like it’s getting worse.
From a human perspective, he has met with all of our friends and family on several occasions. Both in the house, and out on walks, cafes, pubs etc. so we have tried to expose him as much as possible.
He does settle after a while at these places but we put that down to him tiring himself out.
He was the last to be picked out of his litter and we collected him at 3 months, so I worry he wasn’t socialised before we got him. Another theory is that he is scared of humans as every time he came into contact with one during his prime socialisation time they had taken one of his siblings.
On the dog side, we have socialised him with a handful of dogs who we know and are well behaved, and he also attends daycare 3 times a week where they also train him and he gets to spend time with other dogs.
He seems to be very well behaved on walks with the older dogs and at daycare (they are constantly taking pictures of him and broadcasting him around!).
My question is, is this him just going through an adolescent fear phase or should we get ahead of the problem and take him to a behaviourist.
He has already seen one, but the advice was just to give him treats when he sees a trigger. We have been doing that but it doesn’t seem to be helping/ only works if we have treats.
I’d also be keen to get your thoughts on getting him castrated. My worry is that the barking is coming from fear/ nerves and that neutering will cause him to become more fearful.
Any advice/ experience would be much appreciated as it’s really putting a strain on things!

