I think these are all wonderful sugestions but I think your best bet is to find a posisitive reinforcement trainer to give you a hand. Let them show you the ropes and get your dog started...you've already hurt yourself trying to control your dog on your own and understandably now you're frightened.

I think a good trainer will be able to start your dog on effective management and just as importantly help to build your own confidence levels back up.

I'd hate to see you take another serious fall while trying to follow exercises you've be given here which you don't fully understand.

Please keep us posted on how things work out...hopefully it won't be long before you can once again enjoy walking your dog.

Pete

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Sonny, the black lab, ran ahead to make sure there were no gophers or jackrabbits in the way. If you don't give a dog a specific job, he'll improvise one for himself and it will invariably be fun. There's a lesson there.
John Gierach

Good point.

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If he isn't getting enough exercise, he's got a lot of pent up energy. That needs to be dealt with. How much exercise is he getting?

Training can definitely help with the door issue. We have Ben trained to always sit at the door, either before going in or going out. He sits and waits at the car. He sits and waits before crossing a street or when a car passes by. He gets intermittent treats when he sits before being asked, which he does most of the time. You can also work on giving him rewards when he passes a person or other dog without lunging at them. Start by treating him frequently as you approach another dog/person. Keep his attention on you. Teach him that strangers lead to more goodies, as long as he looks at you instead of them. It takes time and a lot of practice, but it is doable.

We sometimes use a pinch collar with Ben. Our trainer told us to use it to keep him from pulling us off our feet, which he had been doing. His pulling and jerking was turning walks from fun to dreadful. The collar worked very quickly to calm him down. Now we use it rarely. Never on our daily walks around the neighborhood, where he doesn't get very excited any more, but when we are some place new and exciting, or if we are in a place with a lot of distractions like bicycles or horses. It takes him about 5 minutes to realize that, oh yes, he needs to pay attention to us and not race off on his own, dragging us behind.

Age and training have both helped to calm him down a lot. When we got him at 3, he was definitely a problem child. At 5 he's a sweetheart. Some of it was training, some of it is security/trust, some of it is time.