Thanks everyone. I'll try and answer everyone's questions but I've had a long day (and the dogs are totally hyper and distracting me, lol) so I may miss a few!
I wish I could say my brother was joking, he so wasn't. He's just a jerk. He's one of those people who thinks they know it ALL and don't bother to ask you about anything before making up his mind about how a situation should go. I have no patience for people like that, and it definitely showed
I was so glad to see him go home.
I've had Oliver since March of 09. We DO live with a male for now (hopefully not much longer) - my dad. Oliver IS thankfully starting to come around with him, but the progress has been painfully slow. Mya is what has made the difference, she loves dad! So Oliver gets to see that dad really isn't so scary and is starting to show interest when they play. Dad also gives him a lot of treats and gets down on the floor with them all the time.
The water trick has only been recent, and a last resort! It's the ONLY thing that so far has even remotely worked for his barking. Last summer we had a personal training/behaviorist which really didn't help at all... $$$ down the drain for sure! I will definitely look into links posted, thanks so much for those... I am willing to try ANYTHING at this point.. Mya is helping, like I said.. but it breaks my heart to see Oliver not living like a dog. Before we got Mya he would sulk downstairs on the couch ALL day when I was at work, even though other people were home - even if it was just my mom! He'd refuse to go outside and just mope... now he plays with Mya and even sits on the couch with both mom and dad - is just careful about how close he gets to dad, lol.
I guess it would be hard for people who don't live here to see the progress he's made. Yes, it's slow, but it's happening. I just really didn't appreciate him saying that. I know he doesn't love him, but he knows that I DO, and should have kept his opinion to himself.