My dogs love other dogs....they don't even react when one is freaking out behind a fence- but I think they would come completely unglued if a large, stuffed dog started coming towards them.
Update: The behaviorist evaluation went very badly. He was extremely aggressive (toward the life-size stuffed dog "walking" toward him) to the point of biting the stuffed dog. He was all hackles and puckered mouth and assertive forward movement (with his leash attached to the wall so he couldn't actually run around). The behaviorist believes he's very aggressive and that I will never be able to fully trust him around other dogs, though with a lot of work I should be able to teach him to stay calm. Her guess is that he was never socialized with other dogs as a young puppy, and that this may be a big part of the reason he was dumped by the side of the road (which is how he ended up in the shelter) - as she said, "nobody dumps Lassie."
I don't know what to do. We live in a neighborhood and city where people just let their dogs run out the front door sometimes or wander around outside, or where they can escape fenced yards all too easily. Any place I would like to take him hiking (a big activity for me, and one I'd really looked forward to doing with my dog) runs too big a risk of running into unleashed dogs. He's already 70+ lbs and not done growing, and I'm not very large. I just don't know if I can face a (dog's) lifetime of nervous, highly vigilant walking and the tremendous amount of work this will require. Of course I expected that owning and training a dog would be a lot of work, and I'm excited to do that work, but this is a whole other level, and the stakes feel so extremely high. I'm single and don't have a high-paying job; I don't know that I can afford private training, much less the real financial and emotional costs of something going wrong (that is, if he actually hurt another dog).
I know some people will think I'm a horrible person if I consider trying to re-home him somewhere where he'd have space to run but wouldn't be around other dogs (I wouldn't just give him back to the shelter), but I feel I have to weigh all the factors here both for myself and my dog, and if just walking him every day is too big a risk to him and me, that option has to be on the table... if I could even find him a new home. Which is a thought I totally and completely hate, but I just don't know if I can do this. I know that sounds weak, and it feels absolutely shameful (believe me, "strong and stubborn as hell" is a much more common description of me), but... I just don't know what to do. Any (non-judgmental) thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
