Sounds like you're making pretty darn good progress.
The other day there was this young kid (ok so he was probably maybe 17-18) attempting to walk this older pup (could tell by behavior it was still very much a puppy, although near full size), poor kid was having one heckova time at it. It appeared the pup had never been on a leash. Pup was torn between not being happy about this foreign thing keeping it restrained or was it a great new pull toy to play with. Boy, to give him much credit, was endlessly patient with the pup. He walked it up and down the alley for a few hours, then around the neighborhood. Which is how it came to my attention. Rowdy only barks at people/dogs he doesn't know. Person he knew, it was a neighborhood kid, dog he didn't know.
That evening we take the girls out for their walk. Maggie had just had a major crazed run in the back yard off lead. She'd not had a walk in 3 days due to ice cold rain (the one thing I will NOT walk in) It was probably a good thing she was already pretty tired. We ran into this boy and his pup downtown. Boy moved pup to the boulevard off the sidewalk and waited for us to pass. As we got close I saw why, pup is a beautiful American bull dog, one I've posted for adoption for the pound. (which means I knew his personality, which was sweet as pie even with other dogs) Molly gave the pup a warning growl (she does this with every dog due to some unpleasant past experiences) I told her to hush it was just a baby. Maggie wanted to play with him, he wanted to play with her......fortunately Maggie was already too tired to push the issue cuz the boy had all he could do to keep control over the huge pup wanting to play. lol I was very happy to see that the pup had found a very patient owner. Although I did suggest a choke collar for walks to him as we passed, at least until he was trained.
But it made me think of you and Abby for some reason. lol
Maggie is good on walks 99 percent of the time. It's that one percent that drives me nuts. I have warned Travis if it continues she'll be switched to a choke collar for walks. Maggie won't like it, she likes her harness. But I won't have a dog trying to play tug o war with me or hopping (literally) around like an insane dog while I"m trying to walk her either, even if it's just one percent of the time. She is the only dog I've had this issue with and for the life of me I can't figure it out. She has used a leash since she was 5 wks old for pete's sake. It's certainly not because she's not used to walking on one. ugh