This walking to get fit thing is great, does anyone know how to get my dog to stop licking my toes at night? What could be so darn tasty?

You need something stronger than a leash and stronger than food. Your dog is not listening to you. He will give you "signals" that he is getting overly excited.

He will start to pull, whine, shake, focus eye attention on the other dog before he's gone into "focusland". At the moment he begins interest in anything other than you and walking, you give the correction. I prefer a pinch collar to a choke collar.

A dog will NOT choke itself (usually) with a pinch collar. Also, the "force" that you need to use with a pinch collar is usually substantially less than what is needed with a choke collar. Also, you need to get yourself into obedience class.

Puppy socialization classes are a far cry from dog obedience classes. This is necessary especially with such a large dog that - if he wanted to, could pull you across the street. You really need to consider negative reinforcement AND positive reinforcement in your training techniques.

BTW: my dog wriggled out of the gentle leader three times. And THAT my friend is a scary situation to be hanging onto your dog by a thin thread of nylon. I do not recommend them.