Over excited biting of other dogs.

I'll start with a bit of background on Bailey first.
I re-homed him at 7 months old, he was half starved and evidently trained with a horse whip and locked in a shed most of his early life
When I went to meet him he wouldn't stand up and walk he just crawled, absolutley terrified of everything! Afetr having him home a few days I realised there was something wrong, after trips to specialists etc he was diagnosed with Bilateral Optic Nerve hypoplasia! His optic nerves didn't develop properly - not due to his beatings it's a birth defect. He has about 5% sight in his right eye and thats all - he can see shadows and movement but can't work out distances etc.

I was lucky I found a really good trainer and we worked long and hard on him and he's now 2 yrs later a confident dog. He's generally good with other dogs but I always lead him up when I see one as he invariably walks into them especially small ones and because if the other dog is a bouncy excitable type Bailey gets over excited and grabs hold of the other dog by the shoulder and shakes!! He's never broken the skin and there's no fighting noises it's almost as if he thinks he's playing!
He does it to my Kiara too if especially if she's waiting for me to throw her ball and gets bouncy! Labradors seem to be the worst for setting him off as they're usually quite lively dogs.
He was never taught to play as a puppy and even now I'm still working on it but this grabbing thing is a real issue, I feel it's only a matter of time before he either breaks the skin or the other dog retaliates which due to Baileys size will not be easy to split up!
I think by putting him on the lead I'm not really treating the issue just stopping it from happening I'd like him to be able to meet other dogs naturally, as he's usually away from me when this happens it's difficult to stop it instantly. He's usually really good at listening to me and he's learned loads of commands to help keep him safe when we're out but it's like he shuts down and stops listening to me and I have to actually grab him and pull him away, once the other dog calms down he's back to being laid back, he did it yesterday when I was out walkies with a friend all were off lead and walking together nicely when suddenly her dog decided it wanted a stick throwing, picked one up and got all bouncy around my friend, Bailey was straight in grabbing and shaking it by it's shoulders, he knows this dog and has done for a while and we've been out walkies loads of times without an issue, after the other dog had calmed down, Bailey was OK with it again!!!

Any ideas how to stop this Please ??

If this were my dog I would be looking at improving basic control . You`ve done really well addressing his issues, but now I`m wondering if you are making allowances because you know his history too much? Another dog ( & owner) will simply see an out of control dog.
Maybe you should go back to basics and improve his recall etc before letting him have unrestricted play? I would be training him round other dogs. personally, not letting him play with unknown dogs. Walking him with calm dogs would be good too.

Is this a GSD X?

He's a wolfhound x retriever .

When we're all calm he listens to me instantly, he will wait, heel, be careful!, sit, lay down, follow me! and even jump on command straight away but when he gets excited he stops listening!

I know. That`s why you have to train in all situations. I train in the local park, with dogs, bikes, kids etc whizzing past. Try doing a few minutes a day training in that sort of situation, and I bet you`ll see improvement. I also like make training a game, to make it fun.

That is absolutely spot on for an answer!

If my dog (gsd) was grabbed by her neck like that, all hell would break lose Is it just small dogs he does this to? Maybe he thinks they're prey that he can dispatch coz that's how they would do it isn't it, grab them by the neck and shake them, have you thought about that?

I would say exactly what C&D has said there

Casper is a bit like this - when we first got him we were told he was good with dogs and had no reason to believe otherwise since he got on so well with Kiki, went off to the local country park, let him off (as his recall had proved fine so far) and he bowled straight over to someone's dog and tried to scruff her! After that it was back on the lead! It's not that he's aggressive with the dogs, the total opposite, he wants to play, play, play, but his play-style is very rough and not all dogs appreciate this.
What I'm finding helps is mixing him with other dogs and not letting him do this behaviour. We've been going to group walks and the number of dogs seems to calm him down and he doesn't exhibit this scruffing OTT behaviour, and we've also been walking with a Dogsey member and keeping Casper on-lead initially and then on a longline so if he tries to do this to their dog, I can pull him away/off. He seems to be learning not to jump on the other dog and I'm hoping to meet up with other dogs one by one (have another brave volunteer from another forum who's offered to walk with us) to do the same with.
If you can't stop him with commands then definately stop him with some form of restraint, a lead or a longline, because the more he does it thent he more it'll become his normal way of interacting until one day he does it to a dog who takes offence and possibly does Bailey some harm. And find some nice calm dogs you can arrange walks with to practise the behaviour you do want

He does it to all dogs regardless of size! We don't meet many dogs bigger than him as he stands about 34" to the shoulder!!!

Think I've put him on a long line so he has a chance to show the behaviour for me to correct it, it'll also give me chance to re-inforce some commands without putting him or another dog in danger. Don't know why I didn't think of it before!! I used a line on him initially with his training

Thanks Guys for your help

xx

I bought Bailey a harness yesterday so I can long line him and it's really strange but when he has it on it seems to calm him down!!

Today we were out and a couple of dogs ran up to a fence barking at us and he just sauntered on by! Usually he'd start bouncing about and getting excited!

I know this may wear off as he gets more used to it but is this a usual reaction to a harness? I was wondering if maybe he feels safer??

TTouch practitioners believe that pressure of different parts of the body can have calming effects - many use body and face wraps that look similar to some of the harnesses and headcollars out there so I guess it is a possibility that it calms him down.
It also may be the fact that you know you have him under control that is calming you down and he isn't picking up on you worrying, which in turn calms him down