My Best friend just seems he has to be top dog

I adopted my APBT “Yog” last Feb when he was 7 months old. over the year he has been Great with everything, adults, children, and my brothers lab that comes over every Sunday. We have a rails to trails that people utilized to bike, run, walk their dogs, ect…I can usally see pretty far, and if no one is around, ill let him off leash. He listens great, and never goes further than 10-15 yards from me. When we encounter someone he know he needs to come close and get his leash on and be a good boy. He is always polite to everyone and every dog we see. But lately, the past month or two, if we see someone who agrees to let them play off leash, he gets so excited that he plays pretty rough with other boy dogs. He has never snapped nor nipped, but is really rough and seems he has to be the top dog. He is completely fine with female dogs, and small dogs, its just like he has something to prove to the boys. He wasn’t in a fighting environment before I adopted him, he was just neglected his first five months of his puppy life. He was locked in a basement I believe, and not treated niclely by a woman. He gets very skittish if my GF or mother raise their voices, or lift a newspaper.

Like I said earlier, He is the sweetest pup you could imagine. He remains well behaved when around my family and friends. When he sees a child, any child, he cries and does what ever he can to go say hi. It is a very rare day if he jumps up on someone. I wouldn’t consider it dog aggression but I fear it is to close to it for comfort. I am working with him, and he is on leash whenever I have the slightest hunch.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated !!!

Thanks,

Mike and Yogi