Steffy cross border collie seven month old pup worrying behaviour

So I got a seven month old puppy for an companion for my four year old dog collie cross. She's a border collie cross staffy. She came from a lady who absolutely adored her and broke her heart giving her up but had no choice due to health reasons.
She is fantastic with my other dog and cats(although over excitable at times with the cat) but at almost eight months old she is almost completely untrained. She was pretty much allowed to do what she pleased and spent most her time running wild around the house and garden with the lady's seven year old twins.
She has no boundaries, and gets so over excited and pushy when she wants attention.
She knows one command "sit" and she thinks it means lie down . You tell her to sit she drops to the floor. She still pees in the house if not keeping a close watch on her although she does poop outside.
It's on walks that her behaviour is really worrying me. She barks and growls excessively at every person she sees. The barking sounds so aggressive that I fear walking her closer to let her meet people just in case she snaps. She's particularly bad with barking at men but doesn't react at all when we walk past children apart from to wag her tail.
She goes crazy when she hears the neighbours outside barking.
She's a sweetheart in the house with just me and loves cuddles and follows me everywhere. She is great with my dog and cat and when out she is fine with big dogs but she seems to have a major problem with small dogs. She immediately wants to play with large dogs but with small dogs she stiffens her tail and growls and barks.

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Hello and welcome. What a lovely girl.

First impression is that she’s not been socialized at all and external behavior sounds like fear rather than agression. Have you thought about going to canine school in your area to seek help ? Make sure you always apply positive training methods

Nifty staffy wrote:Hello and welcome. What a lovely girl.

First impression is that she’s not been socialized at all and external behavior sounds like fear rather than agression. Have you thought about going to canine school in your area to seek help ? Make sure you always apply positive training methods

Hi she is a lovely girl. She has picked up on clicker training very fast and loves to learn. We're keeping training all positive and fun. She's a sweetheart I definitely think she's fearful and not aggressive because when she's off the lead she doesn't bark she goes a distance away from approaching people and lies down and watches them intently until they move away.

I have being teaching her the "watch me" command and she has caught on very quickly. Now when we see people if she barks I ask her to watch me and she mostly stops unless they get too close. I've being trying to respect her need for space from strangers and create a safe space while we work on her comfort levels. If I see people in the distance I use it as a training exercise to get her as close as she allows wait until she sees them and then refocus her with sit or watch me.

I'm going to enroll her in an adolescent dog class that starts in April in my local town.

Hi & welcome to the forum.

Sounds to me that you are already doing everything right!

Her behaviour sounds very like my first dogs - both border collies. They can be quite fearful of strange things around them & will bark at things they are worried about. The laying down & watching is very typical!

Wow, definitely does sound as if you’re doing everything you need.
You don’t say how long you’ve had her but I’m sure you’ll be making huge progress in a short lapse of time.
Well done

Hi from me & Katy Sounds like you are doing great with the training! Both staffies & collies love to learn & to please so she will learn fast