Am at my wit's end at the moment as first show for puppy coming up in a couple of week's time and around a month ago, we were out walking and a man and his Akita (only mentioning because of size) walked silently up behind us. Made me jump out of my skin and puppy too as we had no idea he was there. There was only a very narrow walkway so we had to squeeze to the side to let him pass. I would have thought he should really have made some sound, spoke to his dog or something, before approaching us so closely but I dont suppose everyone has been taught manners!! Up to then puppy fine, well socialised, I mind dogs too so used to different dogs coming and going but at ringcraft, following this, I suppose, quite innocent incident, she has taken to barking at bigger dogs. She barks when they come near and when they are doing their "showy walk" towards and past her.This has been going on for three weeks now and am worried sick that she will act like this at the show. Will be ok if in puppy breed section as all her size but in any variety, she could be coming up against big doggies. The trainer has told me to turn her away each time she reacts and to reward her every time she looks at a dog and does not react. I do this all through the session and have also started taking her to another class which is full of big dogs (mainly pups) to try to desensitise her from her barking. The trainer took her round to "talk" to the other dogs and she shows no aggression whatsoever but stretches her body fully out as though she is scared to get too near. Once she has sniffed noses, she is fine, but will still bark again when they lumber past her. She has started doing it on walks now so I use the same technique. Is there anything else I can do to help her?
She is a seven month old TT. I did read on an old post that people used lemon squeezers full of water to stop this sort of barking but feel a bit uneasy about that?

Whatever you do don't squirt her - this is fear, and if she gets squirted whenever she's near another dog she'll only associate it with them and her behaviour will get worse.

You need to work her under threshold - that is, far enough away that she doesn't feel scared enough to bark.  Then you will have plenty of good behaviour to reward and most importantly, to reward BEFORE she's done any barking - so you're rewarding her for staying calm rather than becoming calm.  The less chance she has to bark, the better chance you have to overcome it as it won't become a habit.  If she's already barking then turning away will help calm her down but by that point she's practiced the behaviour and it's another stressful moment for her - you need to avoid these.  Prevention is better than cure and all that.

Forcing her to go round and "talk" to other dogs is clearly too much for her, and is basically as form of flooding - trying to force her to get over her fear and it will not help, it will only push her past her ability to cope and make things worse and could well actually cause her to start showing aggression in a bid to get rid of them.  The other class can help if you use it properly - that is, make sure you can remove her if she gets stressed (so don't necessarily follow the class schedule, talk to the trainer about it), and keep rewarding anything and everything good.  That is, not barking, looking at dogs, looking away from dogs, sniffing the ground (calming signal), basically everything that isn't barking.  She also needs to know that she has the option of leaving as being on lead can increase defensiveness (as the 'flight' option is removed) - have a look at BAT training on youtube (by Grisha Stewart), it's excellent for teaching dogs to make appropriate choices when faced with scary things and also to reassure them that they can make their own decisions about how to deal with a situation (but importantly, it sets them up to make the right decisions).

It may also be worth not going to ringcraft for a while - give her a week or two away from that environment, let her stress levels drop.  Each incident where she's felt stressed enough to bark will push her stress levels up; these incidents stack one on top of the other, and the stress hangs around for a few days at least too.  So by giving her a short break, you can get those levels right down again and she'll be much better able to cope and progress when you try again.

I really appreciate you posting this advice. I did feel that she was being forced into meeting the other dogs when she was not comfortable doing it at all, but I felt the trainer was more experienced in these matters. Yes, I have been doing two classes a week. Two stressful sessions when you put it like that. I think I will take your advice and miss the class and just go out and about as normal on walks etc and practice the methods then. Will also check out the BAT stuff again.  I did have a look at that the other day and it does seem to get good results. Fingers crossed. Thank-you again.