My 4 month old male rottweiler is very well behaved overall, but when I bring him near other dogs he wants to paw them in the face. This is his way of playing, but I feel like this is inappropriate. He hasn't been near a dog that would "put him in his place" at this point - just small or equal sized dogs. Mostly he's been around my fiance's parents cocker spaniel female, who is about the same size as him but she's VERY insecure and skittish. She's very jumpy and high energy, so this makes my dog get excited and start either chasing her or pawing at her, or sometimes taking light nips at her legs. He looks like he's trying to mount her from behind, but the other dog pushes him away and shows teeth for a second. How do I correct this with such a young pup? Is it too early to be giving him leash corrections? He does this with dogs we meet on our walks as well.
Keeping my pup away from the skittish cocker is very difficult since they live right down the street and are over with their dog very often. If this is the only solution, that's fine, but I'd prefer to be able to let them around eachother.
Thanks,
Ryan

My male dog used to try to mount my female when he was around 4 months old and I was able to just use a very stern tone and taught him "off" and he learned that was not an option for him. It took a few weeks of hearing my tone, but he stopped and hasn't tried to do it ever again. My female is spayed so maybe that does help.

It pays to be very diligent on this one, because once they learn something that is off limits, it usually works and problem solved.
BTW, my male is still intact.

....my dog used to to the paw-face to the cat....he was only trying to play but we had to put a stop to it since literally every time the cat jumped off of something (he meows when he lands) he'd get a cheek slap by my dog.

What I did was teach "gentle" which means "back off a few steps". I started by teaching it towards me. I'd roughhouse with him a and when he started the paws to the face I told him gentle and scratched his chest (this is a magic spot that makes him turn into goo) he'd back up a little calm and he'd be rewarded. I gradulatly introduced different stimuli until at this point I can pretty much get him to immediately calm down and stop using his paws or body (he's a bodyslammer if you let him) with anything he's interacting with no matter how rowdy the play gets.

For mounting I taught "off" since he often plays with an intact female he looooooves as well as a super submissive male that will literally back into a dog to be humped. It's very effective with the male, a little less so with the female though there are times when she was just coming out or going in to heat. He will dismount immediately but will look more sad doing it...