Hi. Sorry to hear that you are so frustrated. With 2 problem rescue's I've had my share of issues. My husband was a bit lax and un cooperative when I wanted to instill discipline or new ideas, it took my dad getting attacked for him to pull his finger out and take more of a leadership role. Just wondering, whose dog is it, your's or mum's? Can you not walk her all the time and tell your mum that if she won't do what's best for the dog not to walk her, or keep it to a minimum? It is possible that she is anxious being on a lead, but please don;t think this will answer all your problems. What's the recall like? ARe you confident that he will come back to you if you call and not charge at other dogs? I understand people's concern that a dog can't protect itself wearing a muzzle, but I would rather my dog got bit than attacked another dog. If you want to gauge his reaction, introduce a muzzle and use it at first when you walk past another dog. Try to walk past as many dogs as possible with the muzzle on and him off the lead and see what happens. If he starts charging at other dogs or acting aggressively whilst off the lead, then having him off the lead is not the answer.

What I found with my dog was when I started off lead walking with him on the muzzle, I went into a very relaxed state. This in turn filtered through to Max and after a week or so, I could remove the muzzle. Max, is however a very nervous dog (hense the aggression issues) and does not go very far from me and his recall is superb. This gives me the peace of mind to be able to recall him if I don;t want him to go near a particular dog - usually small dogs.

If you don't already, watch the Dog Whisperer, you'll get some great tips on successful lead walks.

Good luck x