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If you focus on the OP's problem of large strong lab pulling on leash, then in my opinion the approach of establishing leadership AND training, is a practical approach. Of course the OP can go to group training classes, but I would recommend she makes sure the trainer uses positive methods, leash corrections etc. simply aren't necessary.
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Completely agree
Personally, I would try a headcollar with this dog (just to break the intensity of the pulling habit and make it a bit easier on the dogs neck and owners hands/arms) and couple that with some good heel training and I would have thought that would sort it with time and commitment and the headcollar would no longer be needed. Labs love their food so, I would have thought clicker training would be ideal. With some really high value food rewards like liver cake or frankfuter.
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This is where I disagree and is unfortunately the mistake many dog owners and indeed certain trainers make. A dog with behaviour problems should not be subjected to harsh or punitive methods. For example if a dog displays fear aggression then the last thing you want to do is pop or jerk the leash everytime another dog is present or approaching, this just says to the dog "hey I was right, the presence of other dogs makes bad things happen."
What you do want to do it take the dog through a behaviour modification program by applying desensitisation and counter conditiniong, using both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. By doing this the fear aggressive dog will eventually see other dogs as predictors of good things. Yes, it takes time, consistency, patience, there is no quick fix, but I'd rather have this outcome.
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Completely agree again. I think that miss diagnosis of problem behaviours- such as aggression when the dog is labelled as a "dominant dog" is very often a massive injustice to our pets. Dominance/pack theory was a theory that was developed observing wolves and whilst there is evidence that there is something in it, much research has been done on behaviour in canines and how they learn etc...
Like you said in cases of fear aggression, negative/punishing methods just reinforce the fear. If a dog is fearful of other dogs and everytime the dog reacts you spray the dog in the face with water (attempting to "correct" the reaction) you very often just reinforce the negative associations with other dogs. Also correcting a dog for a warning growl can also lead to increased aggression in some cases- as the dog *may* skip parts of the aggression scale and show a more severe reaction.
These sorts of problems are sometimes seen with resource guarding- a problem which many associate with the "dominant dog". It has since been suggested that this is not the case and that resource guarding is actually a form of fear- "fear of loosing desired object" (I think there is a book by Jean Donaldson called "Mine!" that my friend says was really good that tackled this problem- not read it myself). Often, correcting the dog when they growl as a warning in cases of resource guarding worsen the aggression as the dog realises that their previous reaction did not work- therefore the use a higher level of aggression.
Like you said behaviour modification IMO is in the long run the best way of tackling fear and fear aggression related problems as it modifies the emotional state of the dog in "fearful situation" and changes the dog's perception of the situation from "something to be feared" to a "positive" situation to be in.