I haven't been on here in quite a while until just recently. My friend had an OBE and I was trying to help them as best as I could so I ended up coming back here to reference some of my posts. I figured I'd try again to have an OBE since my interest went up again.
The way I exit is through lucid dreaming. Once I'm lucid I tell myself to go to my body and I end up exiting. Everything went just fine, no exit symptoms like when I first started years ago (voices, wind, etc.). It felt real of course so to test it out I "jumped" down the small set of stairs that lead to the bedroom. It feel like I was floating so I knew at that point it was an OBE. I didn't plan on doing a lot the first time out and didn't have any expectations so I just stayed in my living room for a minute looking around. The OBE changed as there is normally another set of stairs that go down to more bedrooms, it was almost an indoor balcony where I could see part of the neighborhood.
To take a second, I do associate a lot of things in dreams/lucid dreams/OBEs with dogs. I have no idea why but beings I've met or things that have attacked me are typically dogs.
Anyway, I looked through the "glass" and right away this one tiny dog with bull horns started coming towards the glass I was looking through and started ramming it to come towards me (it wasn't breaking however). Then I scanned the rest of the neighborhood and saw probably a dozen other dogs (all smaller sized) looking up at me and barking. They all looked pretty strange and had big underbites. A couple of dogs did come behind me but they were friendly. I remember one of them, again smaller sized, had just one eye so I thought that was interesting. There was a small indent where the other one should have been making him look a little haggard. It stated to fade and I felt myself being tugged back towards my body.
Anyway, that was it I just thought I'd share. This time around I'm not going to try to have as many expectations or over analyze anything. Just enjoy it for what it is. I'm not sure if the above has any meaning but it was entertaining.
Looks like you actually had a whole pack of helpers trying to help you break through a barrier. The ones on the outside were only attacking the barrier. While the ones inside with you were offering friendship and encouragement. The variety in the dogs is likely a way of showing you the variations that are possible once you do get through that barrier.
Now those are just my immediate thoughts upon reading. Seems you are actually very capable and experienced but perhaps not so much on a conscious level. All that means is there might still be a bit of a trust issue, as in trusting yourself.
Lucid dreams in general are actually my own favorite way to go as well although an instant phase does beat that.