I agree, people often ask for help on here, and start off by admitting their errors, but there seem to be a lot of 'holyier then thou' posts regardless...........

Thanks for the support! I shall keep you informed how it goes with him, he really is a lovely dog, the defensive aggression aside.
We have bought a muzzle as I read that all dogs should be trained to accept wearing a muzzle so we are gently training him to wear that which is going well so far.

We used to use treats all the time to reward him but have got out of that habit so I have bought a lot more treats and will be rewarding lots. Treats with him are the obvious reward as he is so hungry, he steals any food left around, always finishes off the cat food if they leave any.

**Please note, there is an existing thread covering the behaviour of this dog here.

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=116299