Annoying Barking Dog

[Annick]

Hello Everyone,

Please help me, I have a little Husky Mix. It's a weird mix but she's real cute, by weird I mean Lhasa Apso and Husky. But she's been spoiled rotten by my parents. Whenever they have company over and they all sit in the dinning room she will sit or lie on the floor and bark. It's as if she doesn't like my parents giving all the attention to other people. And what makes it worst is that to shut her up my mom will give her a cookie. So she's now gain the habit of knowing that if she barks she'll get something so she just keeps doing it. But whenever my friends are over she behaves great and doesn't bark at any of them when we are sitting in the dinning room mostly because she knows she won't get anything from me with that kind of behaviour. Unfortunately, I have been unable to stop her from barking at my parents' friends. I've tried picking her up and locking her up for a bit but it'll only work for so long cause she's now learned that when she's barking I'll come to scoop her up she'll roll on her back and when I try to pick her up she opens her mouth and tries to bite me. She doesn't but she will show her teeth. I don't know how to stop this behaviour. Can someone please help me!?!

Thank You Annick

[sarbh21]

Have you tried shaping beh,vior by rewarding her when she is quiet. If she is barking tell her no and once she becomes quiet for a min tell her good girl, and give her a cookie then... let me know how that works

[DogExpert]

It is not unknown for a dog to use a fear reaction as an attention-getter. If a dog learns that barking at an object, any object, will result in his owner giving him all sorts of comforting attention, he will very quickly realize that if he wants attention, he should bark, and preferably in an alarmed fashion for an instant response. Another thing, the fact that your parents are giving your dog cookies isn't very healthy, if he stops barking after you say 'no' then you should decide on giving him something else instead of a cookie, for instance, try dog treats.