please help.. yorkie is becoming territorial
 

the townhome that i live in is split between and upstairs and a downstairs area.. and i share the home with two roommates and two cats. recently miles has starting taking to this bad behavior that, whenever we are upstairs together and someone else comes up the stairs - be it one of the cats or one of my roommates, he will bark and growl at them until they go back downstairs. and it's not even just the roommates and cats, he will do this whenever he hears an unfamiliar noise, and sometimes he even does it for no particular reason that i can pinpoint.. he also does it all hours of the night. needless to say mommy is frustrated and sleep deprived. when he starts barking i try to correct him with a firm "no!", but to no avail. the "no!" command has corrected every bad behavior he's taken on, except this one. once he starts barking i cannot get him to stop until the "threat" goes away. i have tried grabbing the cats and bringing them into the bedroom with me (luckily they are both dog friendly) and holding them and petting them while miles is present to show him that them being in the room isn't a threat to him, but i don't know how much that's really helping. he also does not bark at them while we are in the living room together..it's only while we're in my room. so i'm not really sure if he's territorial of me, or just the room. either way i'm at my wits end and i'm have no idea how to correct this behavior. i've even considered taking him to the vet and seeing what his advice is, but i have a feeling the best he can do is offer me a sedative for him, which i definitely don't want. how do i correct this bad behavior?

Dexter is trying to be the same, he's very protective over me now and would bark constantly at 'danger'. I say 'no' and it doesn't always work as well, so I tried 'shh' nice and sharp and then softer until he shuts up.

Do you give him a treat if he stops barking? Or try a short tap to the backside (not too hard obviously, before anyone jumps at me) just to distract him long enough to get a treat in his mouth lol

Someone else will probably give you a real answer (which I wil steal Mwahaha), but that's just what I have done so far.

i've thought about using treats, but i just worry that i'll end up rewarding the barking behavior more than the quiet behavior.. i have noticed that some nights are better than others. last night i actually got a (mostly) full nights sleep

My previous roommate had 2 Yorkers and she/we would squirt them with a water bottle to stop barking. One squirt they would look at you menacingly and stop. Might give that a try.