so after speaking to a variety of people and receiving advice, i've put this behaviour down to her being anxious. So i've been trying to improve her confidence with 'watch' and 'find it' (treat or ball in cover- she loves this) when meeting/seeing new dogs - she has tended to bark/stop dead etc when meeting new dogs for the first time and been altogether a bit nervous. so im hoping once she feels more confident off lead with new dogs her on-lead will improve too. The other day i was able to keep her calm when a very boisterous noisy dog walked passed with a nice game of 'find it'- every time she put her head up and worried, i asked her to 'find it' again and redirected her and that worked really well. Today was a fantastic day though, we did lots of 'watch' on the walk and then also whilst 6 strange dogs walked passed (at a fair distance but still in eyesight, very happy with her then). And then we were walking back to the car where lots of people walk up and down with dogs. So i waited for a quiet bit so as not to expose her to anything too much after a good walk (with watch etc to keep her occupied) and she did really well. Put her on her lead and walked far enough behind about 5 dogs- she didn't react at all so really proud of her (sometimes she'd be pulling hard on the lead desperate to check them out and be quite frantic). And then! an offlead dog was milling around behind her (came out of nowhere) and she only checked back twice- with no growling or worries (just more of -who are you). so all very happy! and then at the vets (first year booster) we met a nervous staffie in the waiting room, and where she possibly could've kicked off before, she didnt 
only once i started paying (groan) did she bark once, but because the dog was nervous anyway, i put her away in the car before carrying on paying.
wow bit of an essay there! sorry guys. just really pleased with how she's getting on at the moment and we have to hold on to the little successes don't we! bit of a ramble but just very excited at these little positives!
That is really wonderful news, very well done
I totally understand your excitement, the smallest things can feel like the biggest triumph's when dealing with confidence issues. Keep it up!!
