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Originally Posted by Lolli_lah  Thanks for the input. I do give her treats when she's quiet (for about 20 seconds) after I've asked her to 'be quiet'. She doesn't usually listen but there has been a couple times. Most of the time she's too loud and cannot hear me, and screaming over her is not good. She doesn't seem too worried about water squirts, she loves it almost.
But she loves anyone who pets her. She only barks at people who are at a distance and not walking up to her to pet her. She gets quiet and friendly if you're petting her, and it doesn't matter whos doing it either. lol |
Mine do this too... they freak out when someone comes up to the door but then are friendly to the person once they come inside.
You need to figure out if she is barking because she wants them to pet her or she wants to show she's not scared (when she is) Sammy barks because she wants to be pet. We have a neighbor we share a driveway with who doesn't really like dogs but Sammy likes him and she will go out and demand he pet her and follow him up the driveway. Loki barks because he is freaked out. He calms down and he does let people pet him and he is super friendly once he gets to know someone, but his bark is definitely more "stay away" than "come pet me"
After all the training I have done with my dogs I am so in tune with them I can anticipate their emotions and their actions. Sam got a shot at the vet the other day and she flinched and so did the vet and the tech, but they both commented that i didn't. Why? cause that's what Sam does (groomer, nails, etc.) and I knew it 2 microseconds before she did it. I also know exactly when Loki is going to flip out after seeing a big dog. Once you get to that point you can distract them. If you get upset too, they will sense it and it will make it worse. I used to worry Loki was going to snap at a big dog (or get eaten) but I've been around him and other dogs long enough to know he barks at them, not bites, and they typically just ignore him because he's rude. We don't let him approach strange big dogs just because it stresses him out, but he has to deal with big goofy friendly neighbor dogs almost daily and we know exactly how the interaction is going to go, so we just work every single time to encourage him and improve his reaction. He actually has 2 doggie friends who hang out at our house and share his bed and water bowl and he does just fine.
