Proud mom today

My dog is my kid. For pretty much his entire life, probably the first...7-8 years (he's almost 9 -on wednesday) he's hated other dogs with the exception of one or two. I had to be careful with him around other dogs because he would get aggressive and on occasion try to attack other dogs. My dog is small, he's a shitzu-Pomeranian cross, but he can cause some serious damage and if he were to pick a fight with the wrong dog...well...he could get himself seriously injured. Approximately a year ago I decided to work with my dog on his "issues".. I watched the dog whisperer a lot to see what i could do to help him and today he made me the proudest mom ever. I worked with my dog for months upon months trying to get him to not fight other dogs. The beginning was hell. I had to muzzle him constantly... I had to pin him all the time (put him on his side and hold his head down on the ground) to assert dominance and scream in his face. It was a nightmare.. and it was so draining for me.. but over time he got so much better, it took a lot of time but eventually he would only growl sometimes and with me watching i was able to snap him out of it and get him to stop quickly just by saying his name in an angry-warning tone, then he got so good that i stopped bringing a muzzle all together and watched him a little less closely, now he's been at the point (approximately a year later) where i bring him to the park and i haven't even the slightest fear of him getting into a fight. He generally stays close because he doesn't like to stray too far from his mummy, but i encourage him to go off and run which he has done a bit more of recently. Today my friend and i took the dogs to the beach and he actually tried to get my friend's golden retriever to play with him! My dog has always hated big, hyper, puppy-like dogs the most, but him and Tiki only met a couple of months ago and we haven't had any issues; generally they just ignore each other, but today my dog Colby actually tried to get Tiki to PLAY! It was the cutest thing ever!! He bounced around and made some playful growling and grunting noises, and barked a little. Colby isn't huge on the ocean, but Tiki loves swimming so everytime tiki ran back onto shore colby chased him and tried to play with him. It was adorable! I've never been so proud of my dog.. He's come a long way. It's amazing to see the change that has come. I figured i should make a happy post because the last two i've written have been super depressing and I did have a good day today, and I am incredibly proud of my kid. I love my puppy!