My 9 month old gets really excited when he sees another dog and starts to bark. I've tried the watch me command and even with treats he is more interested in the other dog. This is even though he is a food orientated dog. When he sees my sister's dog he gets excited and then we can walk them together without problems. It is the same when he gets to meet other dogs, he plays for a bit and then moves on. If off lead dogs come up he really likes it. The trouble is because he is barking and pulling he looks aggressive. I've started walking at night to avoid it.

I took him to puppy classes and then on to the next group and he had 3 months of training/socialisation. Unfortunately at the next group up there were a couple of dogs that were aggressive and he was bitten. I stopped going after that. I've looked and there are no other local training groups. I know that he is ok with other dogs when he gets there, but I'm stuck on how to calm him down and wondered about the best way of using my sister's dog for this as he is not interested in my dog at all. Thanks.

Take your time with this. At his age this can develop into more reactivity and its already seriously frustrating for him.

Treats, trained cues etc. are unlikely to work because he is over threshold and too aroused for learning or listening to you.

The biggest reward here, as in the thing driving this behaviour, is him getting access to the other dog. Use that as the reward as its the thing he already wants.

But, now you have to teach him to earn it. Work with your sister's dog or other dog that you know. Start only a few feet apart. Take one step toward the other dog and stop if your dog does anything crazy - pulling, tension on leash, jumping, vocalising etc.
As soon as he stops that stuff or moves to reduce tension on leash, take another step and wait.

This might take a while but you need to be consistent - he must learn that good things come to calm dogs only.

If he doesn't calm sufficiently to take a step forward, say "uh-oh" and move away. He learns how to gain and lose access to this big reward.

Now while that's going on you also need to work on impulse control. You can simulate this exercise at home too and I would recommend that you play this a couple of times a day for about a week before working with other dogs.

Put dog on leash and work in your kitchen. Toss a few of his favourite treats just out of reach for him and wait for him to do something to loosen that leash. As soon as he does take a giant step forward to eat the treats.

With both of these exercises, you can increase the distance between the reward and the other dog as he improves. Take baby steps though.

He needs to learn about self control and self calming so that he has a better way of coping with frustration -> learning which behaviours earn him the things he wants.

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Thanks. That was really helpful.