Why does Freckles Bark at Dukesmom?

One day I'm going to stop trying to figure out the little toot.
Our morning routine has Dukesmom feeding the boys then I take over and fix their Kongs then let them out in the back yard. I leave for work first.
Dukesmom then lets them in and both boys automatically go into their crates. After giving them both a treat Dukesmom shuts the door. Freckles then growls and barks at her. Every morning the same. He never barks at me when I crate him. She wonders why he would bark at the hand that just gave him a treat. There is really no real aggression so it's more like he is just cursingat her.
Now for the weird part. When we are sitting on the couch in the evening Freckles absolutley dotes on Dukesmom. He'll flop into her lap for a belly rub and award her with his prized tennis ball, over and over again, and kisses.
Guess we'll just add this behavior to his exensive list of weird behavior.

 

Hi:
It sounds like it may be dominance and she should be working on NILIF with him.
Dogs you gotta love them!

 

I second that. It sounds like a dominance issue. Dukesmom might start making Freckles earn his treat (reward)AFTER he has been crated. Let Freckles know that Dukesmom is the (top dog) and the only way to get a reward is with silence.

Sounds good anyway. :wink:

 

Didnt you say a while ago that there some dominance/aggression problems with Freckles and Dukesmom??

It sounds most likely what has already been mentioned in the 2 posts.

Couple of questions though (cover all bases), what 'exactly' is the routine? Like does Dukesmom say anything as she is closing the door/after giving the treat? Does she make a fuss of them? Does she just walk away quietly?

What often happens is with any negative behaviour is the response to it the first time it happened....i.e Freckles growled and barked one day after getting his treat in the crate and Dukesmom responded by wondering what was wrong and so opened the door to the crate to see if he was okay (just an example)....hes just learned that the growl and bark method is an attention getter.

If it is something like that she needs to change the routine, maybe something like having the treat already in the crate, it sounds as though they are conditioned to go straight in there, Freckles goes in, finds the treat, Dukesmom closes the door and walks away while Freckles is still enjoying his treat and before he has chance to respond the way he has been doing. She needs to not say anything at all while doing this and if he does growl and bark after she has walked away then dont go back to him.