dog barks at people who are scared- need advice please

Hello all

Just need some help with this if possible. My rescue staffy is about 2.5 years old, neutered and well socialised. However when people are fearful of him- which happens a lot in my area- he barks and lunges. It is worsening if anything and is making life difficult locally. He's fine in dog friendly areas and ok off lead generally. His recall is not 100% but Im pretty good at predicting situations and get him back when there's nothing too exciting going on.

Some have suggested I need to be more alpha with him? I feel like im going round in circles and the stress is increasing- for me that is, he's fine, quite happy.

Any thoughts?

First thing I would do is work on distraction , high value treats and the "watch me" command could work wonders in a situation like this , basically you have to get your dog to look at you rather then the people , I do this by a finger to the eye and "watch me" rewarding at the same time . You can start practising this just whilst in a sit at home and build up to walks

thanks. will have a go, its never simple though is it, but if I keep a treat in my hand it has a chance of working. will start practising tomorrow. I think he could be quite biddable but im inexperienced and have made a few mistakes. Hope to rectify them

It was something I used very successfully with Tilly to get her in a situation where we could just move her to one side on a walk to let dogs, people , cyclists etc go pas without her showing an interest ad still work if she's alone , little more difficult with Tommy but he is learning  ,

Same advice with the watch me command, its worked for me since day one, just make sure you have some really tasty treats. Why don't you come and introduce yourself here.  
https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

We use treats to get Tip attention rather on other people too. It works like Inez and Dave said. We also taught her (or rather am in the proses of teaching her) to "Ignore" which mean I'm asking her not to react to barky dogs or people or in my case sheep.if she ignore them she gets the treat in our hand.

Thanks the advice. Im getting there, with high quality treats and constant vigilence. However he seems to like barking for the sake of it, so some way yet to go. Any other ideas gratefully received