[quote=. He was however unsettled by this guy's tendency to look at him directly in the eyes. [/quote]
It looks like you have found a trigger and something you can work on, I have one most peaceable laid back mush hound that will not tollerate such behavior especially form hearding breeds in which it is prevelent.
Staring eye to eye in dog lanquage is taken as a serious threatening gester. you can work on this through desensitiving and counter-conditioning as you have started. You are aslo smart to recognise in dog, v dog agrression it takes two dogs, if one was willing to back down earlier the other would not react. This is not meant to diminish the role of a dog with a quick or hair triger just to point out there is a behavior on the part of the other dog that is a trigger finding that trigger is an imporant step in solving the problem. Keeping a note book to document incidents is a good way to pinpoint triggers as well.
Good luck. Just keep in mind it is a long term project and he may never be ready for adoption.
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