my Saint bernard dog

Question
Hi labman..
I have a male saint Bernard dog 14 month old ,his is not Aggressive at all on our family members and even not on strange people .The only problem i face that he barks on strange people when he is on leash and if he is not he can run after them ,this is the first problem .The second one is that he is not good with other dogs male and female, and he wants to bites them .So because of these 2 problems i read a lot on the net that castration my dog can help to solve these problems. So please tell me your opinion and if there are any other solutions.
Thank you very much


Answer
Yes, castration or the less accurate but more common term neutering will help the problems.  It is no cure all, but an important step.  You will not see much difference until there is time for the existing hormones to disappear from his blood stream.  It also reduces the chances of the dog getting cancer later in life.  

Giving it better leadership will help too.  Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/  For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm

It is possible he just wants to play with the other dogs.  Here is a link to a picture of a couple of dogs enjoying the one's visit, [img]http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/gretchenandellaplaying.jpg[/img]