I adopted a 4 month old dog who was abused by a young boy at the previous household. It now has a dislike for small boys only. How can I help get the dog over its dislike?

I have a two year old belgian tervuren who I adopted at 4 months old from a household where the little boy abused him (he still has scars on his face). We've spent a good deal of time and training and socializing getting him over his, shall we say, dislike of small boys (never girls, just boys about the same size as his previous owner). Now, we used to go to the dog park for runs and a little bit of socialization, although we mostly went late at night because I didn't want other dogs hurting my puppy (I also had a chow/aussie mix and a large mutt at the time). I made the mistake of not leaving when a "trainer" showed up with his "well-trained" pit bull terrier who proceeded to pounce on my pup and bite him a few times before the large mutt stepped in and the other dog backed off.

At almost two years old Kota, and btw the previous owner had him neutered at 8 weeks of age, is perfectly fine with any dog save for dominant males. For example, last week I met a few friends of mine at a park with our dogs, and my friend brought someone new, so all together we had my three dogs, my friend's male and female pit bull who Kota gets along with, and his friend's male and female pit bull. They sniffed, heads went over shoulders, and Kota exploded. He instantly responds, and dropped into a sit, but continued to growl, (thankfully, this guy's dog was perfectly well behaved and went on about his business) so I told him to 'down'. He did, and was okay as long as the dog didn't walk by, but growled when he did. I gave him a correction, he rolled over on his back, and again, was okay as long as the other dog didn't get within say, three feet. I never correct him very hard. He's extremely sensitive to the point where I rarely ever have to correct him and tone of voice has always been enough in training. Even when it came to not growling at small boys. If I give him much more than a tug on a leash with whatever we're doing, he'll flinch and almost cower, ears back. I think you know what I mean.

When it comes to anything else, he's so easy to control, and he really isn't hard to control even in these situations, but when I tell him to stop, he'll sit and down and even roll over on his back, and I know he'd get up and go right back at this dog if I gave him to okay to move... but is there anything I can do to enforce a kind of "no-growling" when I say so without over correcting him? This is only with dominant males, no other dogs, no aggressiveness with my other male (big clumsy not even close to dominant old english mastiff) or the cats, not with people, and although he's dependable around small boys, since I don't have any I do my best to avoid situations where children are a factor. Is that all I can look forward to with Kota?

At this point I'd certainly never be able to let him run and play while that dog or any dominant male is around.. Kota bee-lines for them, if he gets the chance. He obviously feels left out while the other dog are playing and he's restricted to sit-stay, but I don't know what to do to make him understand it's because he's got this driving need to beat the snot out of every other dominant male he comes across. I've always intended on looking into doing some kind of work with his since he has a pretty awesome drive to work. Herding, agility, or maybe SAR work. Would any of what I've described ruin him from any of these activities? I know a trainer who said all the belgian varieties are unstable of temperament and I'd have nothing but problems when I took him. Well, I've had some interesting times, but I'd certainly never use that trainer. In my opinion, he's over all a great dog. I'm sure you hear that a lot. What do you think? I do appreciate any insight. Good or bad.

Thanks,
Amber