Ok, a little background for those that don't know:  Skipper is a male rat-chi mix we adopted in March...he is 2-3 (according to the shelter but I think he's older) and was neutered in Feb. which means he was an intact male for several years.  He was surrendered because his  eye was injured in a fight with another dog.

Well, he gets along find with new dogs that are female. But any male dog is another story.  Today we met a stray dog in the cemetary, big shepherd mix, intact male.  Dog loved Loco and they played a lot.  I had the 3 little ones on leash.  The male dog, luckily, was very calm and playful.  Never agressive, never had his hackles up, etc. just wanted to hang with us and play.  No collar so I don't where he came from. 

Problem is Skipper got VERY agitated with this male coming near to "his" females.  and when he actually sniffed noses with him he then growled, snapped and ran at the big guy - luckily Big Boy ran.  Unfortunately, that reinforced Skipper's Napolean complex.  He kept getting agitated...I carried him for a way but couldn't carry him all the way back to the car.

What REALLY upsets me is that Mitzy (who is scared of new dogs, especially big ones) was doing so well lately.  And she was even ok with this dog today at first.  She didn't want to play with him but she wasn't terrified like she used to be...she was just walking along with me while he played with Loco.  But after a few times of Skipper trying to attack him the exitement/agitation got to her and she started to growl and bark and run at Big Boy.   Now, this really upsets me because it's fear aggression and she can get killed that way!

Bill suggested walking Skipper alone from now on.  He said the behavior could be corrected but it would take lots of hard work and time - and my biggest hindrance is that I cannot use a collar on Skipper.  Anytime I use a collar it irritates his collapsed trachea so I have to use a Puppia harness which gives me NO control at all.  So, I'll have to walk him separately from the girls and just pick him up if a male approaches.

All this and the shelter told us "he loves cats and gets along with any dog"!!!!WTH???!!  He also attacked our cat....shelters don't do the dogs any favors when they lie like that.

Hope you did not take my comment as being critical -- I wasn't being critical.  Actually, given the circumstances (trying to handle two other dogs), you did the correct thing by removing him from the situation.  Sometimes you can't worry about the RIGHT Thing to do... you just need to take action fast to decrease any danger.  You did the right thing, Mary Beth.

MB can Skipper wear a gentle leader?  I know I can even control Dar when she gets silly, which she tends to do in Petsmart, She gets over stimulated and because she weighs so much and is so strong, she is totally uncontrolable even on a chokeer chain, I don't have a prong collar but we do have a gentle leader for her, and it really makes her mind, one thing is that she hates it, and realizes when we put it on her that she messed up and got the leader, another thing, she really does listen and mind much better with it due to the pressure on her nose and the back of her neck, she completely loses intrest in the other dogs, just wants it off again, now we only have to show it to her and she straightens up.  She isn't mean to other dogs but people with little dogs don't want a huge dobie lunging after their baby even in play.  Actually she used to be agressive a little bit but over time learned that she was not being a good girl and she was getting us upset.  Now she is great with all other dogs, but she still scares the owners.   We only have to break out the Gentle Leader when we go to pet smart or the  outdoor flea market.  She tends to want to sniff butts in close quarters when walking  and most people don't want their butts sniffed.  Skipper will learn, it will just take time and patience, and I think taking him out alone is a good thing too.  I would have picked him up too.  Now I worry that the big dog might be a stray and lost, I worry alot about loose dogs!  It makes me sad that nobody cares enough about their dog to keep it safe in a fenced yard or at least put a collar and tags on it.  Some people are so uncaring when it comes to their sweet pets.  The pets have to suffer for it too.  So sad.

Nora - I didn't think you were being critical!  I just wanted to be sure you understood why I picked him up.  After all, I'm asking for advice and I want you to have all the information.  It's really hard to communicate a complex issue via a typed post sometimes - no voice inflection, etc.  But don't worry - I'm not that sensitive!

Barb - don't know anything about gentle leaders...are they the things that look sort of like halters and go on their face?  Skipper might be able to use those if there is no pressure on his throat. Don't know if the neck pressure would affect his trachea or not but I'll Google them and check them out.

Thanks for all the advice/input guys.