Has this been going on for the entire four months you have had her? Hopefully not and its something that she will get over, but meanwhile I would have your son-in-law be the one that feeds her. Would she go on a walk with him? If so he should do that with her too, but should not in any way force himself on her. Let her make the approaches.

 

Chihuahuas are known to be watchful and alert. She thinks she's doing her job as a watch dog. Just, agggh, not correctly identifying the threat in this case. Dogs are often scared of men. Men are big and deep voiced. She might not have been abused; she might just have been spooked during a fear period, or she might not have been correctly socialized. One of my puppies used to freak out and bark at the sight of boats and kayaks when he was four months old. He'd definitely never been abused by a boat. He just thought they were weird & creepy. How do they move with no legs? I've also had dogs bark at anyone in a uniform, anyone carrying bulky items, etc. It takes a while for a puppy to learn what is normal in the world.

One of the important things to do is model calm for her. I'm sure everyone currently gets tense in anticipation of her having a bark fest. This can be a self fulfilling prophecy. She senses everyone is upset, so obviously something is wrong. That will trigger more barking. Instead, ignore the barking and calmly greet your son in law. Then calmly thank the dog for telling you he's here, and ask her to come sit with you. Gently stroke her if that helps her to relax. Offer her a little treat, such as a piece of cheese, once she is paying attention to you rather than him. If she won't relax, calmly move her into a room where she can't see him and close the door.

He should not attempt to make eye contact with her or interact with her. Those friendly overtures will creep her out if she's not sure he's trustworthy. She wants distance, so let her have it. He can try leaving a treat for her, but he should move away, avoiding eye contact, while she decides whether she wants to accept the treat.

 

Has he tried giving her a dog treat? My son's new dog barked aggressively at any new person he encountered (mostly male), but when he met me for the first time I immediately gave him the best dog treats I had - and we got on fine from the first moment!

This may not work with your dog, but it's worth a try - if you haven't tried this before.

 

Has he tried giving her a dog treat?

This may not work with your dog, but it's worth a try - if you haven't tried this before.

I would not recommend this, as it may have the opposite effect from what you want. Having a person the dog is reactive to reach a hand out towards the dog is likely to be seen as a threatening gesture, and a treat in the hand won't change that. I do not think this is worth a try. If this worked for a dog, then I suspect the dog was really not afraid of that person.

Instead, I recommend taking the advice above from @Curls. As stated in that post the dog wants distance from that person, and should just be given that. The best thing is for that person to ignore the dog unless the dog makes the first move and approaches him. He might just drop a treat on the floor as he walks through the room, while avoiding any eye contact with the dog.

Let the dog settle down and accept this person in her own time and do not do anything to try to rush it or to change her mind. If your son in law is just there, not looking at her, is calm and quiet, she will in her own time learn that he is not dangerous.

 

Thank you all for the positive comments. I appreciate them. Tonight we tried having my son in-law sit next to me on the couch, petting my other dog. Maggie kept pacing back and forth mumbling under her breath. She kept her eyes on him. We’re going to do this everyday when he comes home. I’ll try the treat tomorrow having him drop it on the floor in front of her. Hopefully she’ll see he’s no threat. Thank you all again. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Have your son-in-law feed Maggie, mainly just have him be the one that puts the bowl down for her.

 

I have a chi mix and she will bark voraciously at anyone who she meets that won’t get down to her level and talk to her in baby talk. Just trying to pet her doesn’t work, just talking to her doesn’t work. It has to be a high pitched sing-songy voice and laying flat on the floor is the best portion to get her to trust / love you forever. After a few interactions like that (it takes time) she turns into your best friend and won’t bark at you! I hope this helps.

 

Sounds like Trump syndrome to me..
Wouldn't incourage this..
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Although this is your dog and if this is what you like to do then that's fine for you, @e.a.moses. However, I don't think most people want to train their dogs to bark continuously until someone gets down on the floor with them and talks to them in baby talk.

In the case of the OP, doing this with the fearful dog would probably exacerbate the situation, because this would be seen by the fearful dog as strange behavior and would be very likely to make the dog more fearful of the person doing it.

 

Respectfully, I’ve brought her to four different trainers and all of them came to the conclusion that this is the best way to handle her behavior. She isn’t a dog that you can train barking out of by ignoring.

 

As I said, I think if this is how you want to handle your dog, then that's fine. But I would never encourage someone else to follow that method. Most especially if the dog in question is barking out of fear.

 

@e.a.moses Your suggestion is here for the OP to see. And of course they can try that, and train the dog to only stop barking at the son in law if the son in law gets down lying flat on the floor and talks baby talk.
If that is what they want to do.

What I am saying, and I am saying this for the last time, is that I would never recommend this to anyone as a way of getting their dog to stop barking.

Many people would be unwilling and many also would be unable to get flat on the floor and talk baby talk to a dog. I personally would not be willing to do that.

And I don't think it's a helpful thing to train your dog in this way. There are many ways to help a dog who is fearful of a person learn to trust that person. And there are many ways to train a dog not to bark at people ( whether it is out of fear or not) besides ignoring the dog or getting down flat on the floor and talking baby talk.

I did not, of course, say your dog was fearful. I suggested that the rescue dog in question here probably is.

The advice given above, for the person being barked at simply to ignore the dog, maybe toss a treat far from their body, avoiding eye contact, is sound advice and I stand by what @Curls said. The OP is putting these suggestions into practice.

Just as putting a hand out to offer a treat could be an unwanted approach, so even more so could getting down on the floor lying flat and talking baby talk, which is very likely to be seen as weird behavior and trigger more barking and be frightening to the dog unless, as in the case of your dog, the dog has been trained to bark until a person does this. I don't think this is a helpful thing to train a dog to do.

As I said twice now, you do what you like to do with your dog. I suggest this particular suggestion and discussion of it has more than run its course, and more of it would only be repetitive. Let's let it stop here.

 

OP, another way I have handled my rescue chihuahua mix is if I know she's going to bark at someone coming into my house, I will plan to have a high value treat on me and when we greet the person at the door I will expect some barking (because she's excited and wants to play) but I will say her name and a specific command she's been trained to understand that she has to sit for a treat for. It works every time. It will take many repetitions to get them to understand what is being asked of them, for sure, but it works with anyone coming thru my door, even maintenance guys!

In a crowded public setting, if a friend approaches me, and my chi mix is getting excited, I would pick my dog up and let her sniff the person she's barking at, at "human height" - once she has properly sniffed, I can put her back on the ground and she's fine. It really depends on the dog, and the scenario, of how to handle this.

I think the main determination for you is to figure out if your chihuahua is barking out of fear or aggression (maybe because of its past), or just out of "give me attention/I want to figure this person out and sniff/I want to play" because that would warrant different solutions, I believe.