My husband has an English bulldog that is almost two years old.  He tends to be nervous and gets aggressive with people or dogs he doesn't know.  He bit a guy that was doing some work on our property so I bought him a muzzle that he wears whenever we have someone over to the house.  He is fine with some people and I'm thinking it is people who project calmness.  Other people he lunges at.  The muzzle is a godsend because I can have him out where there are people so he can get socialized rather than putting him in his crate.  My husband is supposed to walk him everyday but doesn't because he pulls so hard that walking him is a miserable experience, especially since we live on a highway without sidewalks and he lunges at 18 wheel trucks going 55 miles an hour.  Also, we get tired before the bulldog does.  I just bought a prong collar in the hopes that he can get better control and get this dog tired before his arms give out.  If he could walk him into town (wearing the muzzle) and have him interact with some people everyday, I'm hoping he will improve.  We really need to turn him around quickly because we are trying to get our license as a foster care home and they won't sign off on our license because of this dog, even though we have said he will wear the muzzle.  He always wears his muzzle outside because we don't trust him with the chickens, ducks, goats and horses.    Our other dog is extremely friendly and loves everyone.

Does anyone have some good ideas about how to get this dog socialized quickly?

Sorry, but there would be NO WAY I would be sending my child to any day care that had a dog that needed to be "muzzled" that lived on the property! That can be a very dangerous situation for the children. You have not mentioned anything about getting the dog obedience training. If that were my dog, I would have it tempermant tested also.....

You don't have a socialization problem. You have a aggressive dog problem. Maybe socialization could have helped at one point but calling it aggression will help you focus better on what you need to do. Even if you weren't trying to foster, you can't have this potential legal liability behavior.

You can't count on correcting this quickly. I would strongly recommend seeing a trainer or behaviorist that specializes in aggressive dogs. The books are fine and are helpful but I think you need someone to tell you what to do.

That's the main point. Get professional help now. On the other issues which are peripheral to the main problem, I do agree with everything agilitynut says. I'd add the idea of getting a harness and having him pull an old car tire or two on the walks. That really helps tire them out before you. You're not the only one with a dog with too much energy.

I'd have to argue about the prong collars. I think which device works depends on the dog. Halti's, Martengales, etc don't work for some dogs. Prong collars do work and they are safer than choke chains which can damage the trachea. Try the prong collar on yourself and see if it is painful. Agility's point that pain can be transferred to other people by the dog leading to increased aggression is certainly correct. That's an argument against electronic fences, shock collars, coercive training.

Hoping  Frank will chime in here...he has worked with a few aggressive dogs

Not day care.  Taking in foster teens.  No little kids at all.  He has been to obedience training when he was about 6 months old.  He was certainly not the star of the class but he graduated.  We should have continued with more training but we moved and I don't know where we would even find an obedience class around here.  We are out in the country.

The only time we have had little kids here, we crated him (it was before I bought the muzzle).  I will see if I can get my husband to walk him on our property.  We have tried an anti-pull harness.  It didn't work and he still pulls.  He plays fine with our other dog (a mellow german shorthair with lots of energy).  The bulldog doesn't fetch.  I recently attached the two of them together so they could pull each other around the yard and tire both of them.  That had limited success.  Thank you for all the great ideas.  I've been reading articles on-line and printing them out for my husband and I can see that we have a lot of work to do.  He is getting depressed because he is so afraid that he might have to give up this dog. 

I agree it is the aggression that we have to focus on but we also need to work on desensitising him because he frightens easily too.  Having him drag something around is a good idea.  The prong collar wouldn't be for socializing him so much as just walking him.  It is possible to walk here without encountering anyone.

I wish I could afford to just turn him over to a good trainer for a few months.  That would get him out of the house so we could get our license and get him trained.  He is a sweet dog when he is in the house with just us. 

animal waitress,
i've been training dogs for a long time. you can't change the dogs temperament or character. Again, without seeing the dog, I can only be general in my statements. your goal is to keep him under control in any and all situations.the socialization period for a dog ends well before 5 months of age! he is who he is. can it be masked? maybe, but you are never going to change "him". the pinch collar , when taught correctly, is the collar to use FOR OBEDIENCE TRAINING, NOT TO CORRECT FOR AGGRESSION!!!!! Remember, you dont correct dogs for things that they are not clear on. example, you put your dog in a sit(stay) he breaks the sit, to lunge for something. the correction comes for breaking the sit, not for lunging. point is, if you correct a dog for a reason he is not clear on, you are playing with fire...thus. obedience training and clarity.without causing damage to the dogs neck as stated by Mal. again, i dont know your dog, so i cant tell how he acts when being controlled. get him obedience trained before expecting ANY behavioural changes.Private lesswons by a trainer that understands your needs is better than bringing him to someone. The dog needs to work for you and hubby, not just the trainer.

The prong collar is just for walking him.  The muzzle is for aggression.  He wears it in any situation where I am not 100% certain that he will be okay.  This means when anyone comes over, he wears the muzzle.  If he goes outside, he wears the muzzle.  When he was a puppy, he played nicely with our chickens but as he got older, he started pulling feathers out.  Now he will pounce on them so the muzzle is essential.  He has never caused serious injury and I'm going to make sure it stays that way.  He went thru a period of getting hysterical about one of our goats butting the glass door when he was on the other side.  I think she did it deliberately.  He would go into a squealing frenzy at the door.  We have completely stopped that behavior.  Now we are working on people coming to the door.  We can go in and out of doors and he does a great sit/stay, which he has learned in the past couple of months.  We are making progress.  My husband has never trained a dog before.  He did take Oliver thru obedience training.  He just wants to give lots of affection and it has been difficult for him to learn discipline.  I still can't get him to do a daily walk with the dog, which was the reason for the prong collar.  I've kind of been forced into taking over the training.  I'm finding that if I demonstrate something  that eventually he picks up on it and will do it too.  I don't pull him backwards when he is trying to lunge at something.  I step in front of him and come at him so he backs up on his own.  It stops him dead in his tracks and breaks his focus.  Most people who come in and sit down have Oliver sitting next to them asking to be petted.  He is not always aggressive.  There have been three different men who have come here that he just doesn't like. Anyone who has any experience with dogs can see the tenseness in his body language and knows that he is not comfortable with the person.  One of them kept insisting on trying to pet Oliver anyway and that is why I bought the muzzle in the first place.