Puppy barking

Hey all. Bella is 1yr old now. She is great on and off lead and has excellent recall, but!
When out and about and she sees another dog the barking starts and any kind of recall goes out the window. It's nothing aggressive and she isn't going mental on the lead or pulling. When off lead she will run over to a few metres having a wee bark and stop and if the dog challenges her she runs back to me but if the other dog wants to play they will.
I really want make sure she gets socialised well at this vital stage but as she's getting a big bigger now people are starting to take more offence to it compared to a few months ago when she still had the puppy look. I don't want to keep her on lead as I don't think she is going to learn that way and would rather she learned the natural way but ignoring it won't help. I was thinking of a bark collar? When she is on lead and does it I can correct it easy enough but the problem is when she is off lead. As I say, it's definitely not an aggression bark and it may be a puppy phase but would be good to hear what others are or have been doing.
Thanks in advance.

At a year old Bella is no longer a puppy she is an adolescent, the most vital socialization period for pups is up to 0-12 weeks. Of course any socialization from here is great but any bad or good experiences in that time tend to stick. Of course though you can still work with what appears to be excited/frustrated barking on lead it sounds like you may need to "unlearn" some behaviours that she has been carrying out for some time. I personally would not touch an anti-bark collar with a barge pole; they are aversive and a lazy way of training IMO, dogs should never learn through fear if at all possible...the last thing you want to be doing it creating a negative stimulus to dogs appearing (which if I'm reading the post right is the only time that she is barking/reactive?)

I'd try distraction techniques combined with positive obedience training. You can read up on the "watch me" command online, but ensure the reward you use is very high reward (such as chicken, or cheese if her tummy can tolerate it) When my dog is being reactive I distract with a food reward and ask her to "sit" and then "watch me" once her focus is on me and she's looking towards my face (I never ask for eye contact as some dogs find this uncomfortable) then I reward with a treat. Initially I give a "jackpot" (lots of treats in one go) when training the watch me, but eventually lessen the treats to just one or two depending on how big a distraction she's ignoring to focus on me. Fiesty fido by Patricia Mcconnell is a great book to read about on lead reactivity!

Also, wouldn't encourage her running up to unknown dogs, it could get her into trouble if the dog doesn't want to interact and is just general dog etiquette My dog is terrified of unknown dogs and it really sets her training back every time an off lead unknown dog approaches, some dogs are just old and grouchy and don't want to be harassed.. some just don't like other dogs! It's always best to ask before letting your dog approach

My wife loves you Rachel! She's always telling me off for referring to Bella as a puppy! Haha. She's glad to see someone else tell me. As I say, on lead isn't a problem cos she's beside me and the behaviour can easily be corrected. I think I definitely need to make a big focus on the off lead. Ideally I don't want to use a dog collar as I agree it seems a bit of a lazy way.
I've had/worked with aggressive dogs before and she isn't aggressive, she just hasn't learned doggy manners yet. Distraction is a good idea to try and see how we get on. She is very food orientated so should use that to my advantage. My other dog Bruno doesn't like other dogs approaching him so I should really know better. She doesn't go right up to them but still not on. I'm quick to think the worst of other people who let their dogs run up but time to realise I'm one of them! Ha
Thanks for getting back

Sounds like you've got all the basics covered and already know a lot of what you're doing just time to put them into practice! She doesn't sound aggressive at all, the barking from a distance may just be her being unsure, staffs can be quite a vocal breed!

All i'd say is just make yourself more interesting than the dogs, whether that's excited talking, the use of food or toys.. whatever she's motivated by! If I go all silly and high pitched with Biscuit she looks at me like i'm a lunatic and immediately goes back to the distraction.. however if I break out the cheese she's like putty in my hand! It does depend when you are I suppose, I don't know much of dog park ettiquete as Biscuit would have a break down if I took her somewhere that busy, but I do always recommend discouraging approaching unknown dogs for safety  more than anything! Good luck anyway Let us know how you get on!