Our Chihuahua, Sunny is 9 months old. We got her when she was 2 months old. She is adorable and sweet in every way, potty trained, and listens well. The problem is that she barks at everything! When taking her for a walk, she won't bark at other dogs, but she will bark constantly at any person that she sees. When guests come over to our house, she barks at them the entire time they are here. Even our son, who is 15, will walk into the room where she is and she barks at him! She barks at every little sound, but mostly people. She doesn't bark at me, my husband, or our 2 daughters. But to her, everyone else is a victim!

Does anybody have any suggestions? We really need help. We are afraid to have people and friends over. We are even afraid to let our children have friends over because we know it will be a constant barking fest. Please help us!

Marissa

[Lara's mom]

Sorry. I've never had dogs; even small puppies who behaved like that. Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will be able to answer your question.

[sandyh]

It sounds to me like your little guy is fearful of everything, especially people. Do you walk your dogs? Does it ever get to play with other dogs? Does it ever go to dog parks. It sounds like it needs some socializing.

[german sheep]

sandyh said:

It sounds to me like your little guy is fearful of everything, especially people

yes indeed. Very often this little dogs have problems with people because it looks to them like the fight between David and Goliath.
People bend forward with no respect of the individual distance to the littlans instead of going on the knees and let the dog come to them with the allowance from the owner and so they feel threatened all the time.

If she barks the next time praise her, give her a treat and show her what you want her to do. Yes praise her, from her point of view she is reacting correctly. She only can show you through barking that she feels overstrained.
To that previous behaviour you have to give her an alternative to let her know, what she can do the next time to calm down.

Try to find out what happenes when you have her on the leash in the house.
How far is the distance between you and your dog outside?
When you are outside go on your knees let your dog come to you before she starts barking, give her food so that you dog can lower the stress level.
If you do this for three days your dog has learned to orientate on you in stressfull situations and will not start to find a solution for herself --> bark.

@sandyh
with the socializing surely you are right but that does not mean with other dogs.
dog-language.com Blog Archive Organised puppy groups verses Puppy play groups

LG
gs

[Berry_85]

Rather than go into details here, read my article