Dislikes lead

I am currently fostering a collie. He is 18 months old and has a few issues. Mainly food guarding and dislike of children. He has bitten.

He is extremely nervous but is settling a bit now and getting used to the dogs and relaxing.

I need some advise on handling his dislike of having a lead put on. The very sight of the lead makes him behave 'dizzy.' He is okay with having his collar touched but if I try to attach a lead to his collar he whirls and grabs at my hands and pounces and snaps. I have so far been using a slip lead but even this takes a while and some patience as he gets a bit stressed and snappy. Once on a slip lead he will then calm and put up little resistance and I am able to attach a line to his collar. Obviously I need to remove this line when he is unsupervised (at night or in his crate.) So the following morning the same pallava happens again.

Any hints on how to overcome this would be extremely welcome.

Any chance of getting a harness on him? It might be easier to distract at the front and clip on his back?

Thanks, yeah I'm going to try a harness to see what his reaction is to that.

I'm wondering whether he has been tied up outside as he has spent a lot of his time in the garden.

Poor boy sounds pretty traumatised! I would make the lead part of the furniture - just have it laying around all of the time. Occasionally pick it up and play with the clip, then put it down (ignoring his reaction, until there is no reaction - at which point treat). I think with a highly reactive dog like this, slow and gentle is best

Thanks, I agree he needs calm, slow handling. He hasn't had a good start and a lot of mistakes have been made with him. His previous owners have tried but received such shockingly bad advice as to how to handle this dog.