[MaxTheGoldenBoy]

Step one: never, ever allow him to greet other dogs while on leash.

Step two: I personally would stop all playtime with other dogs until this problem is resolved. Instead, do something interactive with him: going to a training class, retrieving a tennis ball, teaching him some tricks, whatever, it doesn't matter as long as it builds his relationship with you. Right now he prefers the company of other dogs, hence the lunging. He needs to learn that his human can be fun too.

Step three: teach him to focus on you, not on other people or dogs. You could do this at home, for example by teaching him the "look at me" command. Start by rewarding him when he looks at your face, then add the verbal command afterwards. Do this until he complies 100% of the time. Then re-train the same command in a different place. Dogs don't generalize: even if he "knows" the command in the kitchen, it doesn't automatically follow that he will "know" it in the back yard. You have to practice in a lot of different places for a command to become fully integrated. And don't use the command in high-stress situations (i.e. on walks and while he is lunging) until you are absolutely sure he will comply. If you don't know how to do this kind of training, a group obedience class at a good training school run by people who compete in rally or obedience will help.

Best of luck, hope you find a solution.

Step 1: Ok

Step 2: I live by a dog beach and we go almost daily; do I need to stop this? (also, yesterday he legit started running into other people and sniffing in their belongings, never seen this before).

Step 3: Ok i'll try the look at me command and most likely classes

 

[MaxTheGoldenBoy]

We had/have a similar dog. You should nip it in the bud now while he's still young. I think a shorter leash would be a good solution -- don't give him the opportunity to get too far away from you because he won't make the correct decision. Also, when possible, give your dog wide berth to again take him out of the zone of temptation and go out of your way to not be close to anyone else. And if the people he passes want to pet him, tell them nicely not to, because it just rewards his bad behavior.

You might also want to look into changing him out of a harness. Woosh -- harnesses are tough and they in fact encourage pulling. Because the leash on a harness is hooked on his back, he even has greater force to pull you wherever he wants to go. For greater control, you should look into either a gentle leader or a prong collar. The more he gets to practice the bad behavior, the more he's going to want to do it. It's better to curb it now while he's still relatively small. We wish we were harsher and more proactive when our dog was smaller and younger. Waiting until he's a teenager will prove tougher to correct later on.

With enough practice, he will understand that he's not allowed to just go up to people or other dogs, and that this isn't how you behave in civilized society. Good luck!

The leash on his harness is hooked on his chest not back. I've heard mixed reviews on these. I know the pronged collar would work but I was trying to avoid that at all costs.

 

[MaxTheGoldenBoy]

We also had a front clip harness too. Your 7 month golden will grow to be too powerful and too smart for it to be effective. Trust me, your dog will just learn how to pull you while he's going backwards, and it does nothing to stop the act of lunging itself. I'm sure he doesn't get very far, but the harness still allows his front two paws to come up off the ground without receiving any correction in the process, so he's still learning that even thinking about lunging is okay. I'm sure it's great for controlling small lap dogs, but not for a golden.

We have a prong collar for ours, and if you don't like the look of it, there are fancy ones you can buy that are sewn into a fabric collar (we have one) so the public doesn't know that your dog is on a prong. I would not be using it if I felt like my dog was getting very hurt in the process. In fact, if I gave you $5 every time my dog blew past a correction while on a prong, you'd probably be a very rich person.

If you still don't want to use it, I would recommend a gentle leader for incredible minimal effort on your part other than holding the leash. It does an amazing job of controlling the head of your dog.

Thanks for the reply.