A dog is the friendliest pet one could have. When he looks into your eyes with nothing but pure love, you can’t help but embrace him. However, if he switches sides and starts barking at you, he looks like the deadliest creature on this planet, ready to gulp you ALIVE! In other situations, a dog could be treating one person nicely and the other quite the opposite. Ever wondered why your dog barks at you and not your husband?
You could be treating fluffy ball with all the love in this world, but once he hears your car horn, he starts barking. Such a situation can be so frustrating that you want to move out of it almost instantly. What’s the reason for the dog’s aggressiveness? Why does the dog bark at me and not my husband?
Reasons “Why does my Dog bark at me and not my husband”
To find out the answer, you’ll have to come out with a magnifying glass and notice the smallest details to reach the conclusion.
Either one or more than one reason mentioned below could be the cause. Dive into details to find out!
Dog’s Guarding Nature
Are you familiar with the word Resource guarding?
Dogs have a natural quality to guard anything that belongs to them. This could include food, toys, their personal space, and more importantly the OWNER.
Guarding dogs are often very emotional. So if a dog is barking at you and not your husband, it could be because he considers him the owner.
He doesn’t like it when you physically come close to his possession. Instead of you taking the space beside your husband, he would like himself to be there and petted.
Some people refer to resource guarding as positive aggression. Thus, resource guarding is the commonest cause your dog is barking at you and not your husband.
Trying to grab attention from the wife
With time dogs grow affection for every member of the house. Anyone who plays or feeds with the dog becomes more than dear to them.
However, sometimes with the workload you stop playing with the dog or give the food responsibility to someone else. Well, that’s the exact point where the emotionally vulnerable dog would notice the difference in your actions.
Maybe through barking, he is asking back for the lost love and interest?
Getting Attention through barking
When the dog starts barking at the sight of you, do you and your husband give him a shut-up call?
Well, if you do that the answer is right there. When he starts to bark you pull all your attention towards him and react instantly. That’s what he wants! A dog would take that rather than being ignored.
Without any doubt, dogs are attention-seeking creatures. An attention deficit can drive them crazy!
Dog getting jealous
You may have heard dogs love hard. Let me tell you they also get jealous hard.
Does your older kid start getting aggressive when you give the little one more time? Same is the case with dogs.
If your doggo takes your husband as his parent, there is a high chance he is going to get jealous when he sees you around him.
Some dogs also consider owners as their mates. If they witness you hugging or kissing your husband, they’ll consider you as a threat. And a threat can be scared by barking right? That’s the reason why a dog barks at you and not your husband
Therefore, the dog gets mad at you because he wants to kick you out of the square.
Are you showing your dog appreciation?
When your husband first took you in his arms in front of the pet, did the pet bark? Did you and your husband laugh it off, finding it cute? Did you guys show appreciation for his barking quite a few times?
Well, that’s exactly where the problem lies! Since you two cheered up when he first showed signs of jealousy, the dog now thinks it brightens up your mood. I know the barking is irritating now but the fluffy ball doesn’t understand this.
Little does the little fellow know that he has been trained in the wrong way.
Interpreting hugs incorrectly
Dogs interpret signs differently than humans do. In the canine world, hugging is interpreted as a conflicting language.
If a dog sees a husband hugging his wife and barks on the sight, maybe he recognizes her as a potential enemy.
Thus, dogs show aggressiveness in the behavior as they want to protect the owner.
The dog is afraid of you
There is a high chance that the doggo has some unpleasant memories with you. You might have shouted at him a few times, or shut the door on his face.
Are you the only female in the house?
The dog might be afraid of women in general. If you adopted the dog recently, he could have had a bad experience with some other woman before.
Hence, the dog might be showing aggressiveness because he now fears you. He finds barking as a protective mechanism for itself. After all in Dog World, ‘Best defense is an offense’.
Foreign Device
Are you on a wheelchair? Do you use a walking stick? Are you vacuum cleaning all the time?
Chances are that if you use something foreign in front of the doggo, he’s going to get scared and bark in reaction. After all, animals don’t have many ways to show how they are feeling. Do they?
Adopted Dogs
If you rescued a pup or got it from another owner, there is much you’d be missing from his past.
Maybe he hasn’t been able to socialize and having to see more than one person just scares him off?
An adopted dog shows more hostile behavior to a family member than someone who was born and raised at the same place.
Dog breed
This might be difficult to believe but some dogs only bond with one person. Bonding with more than one person is out of their league. A popular example is, Basenji.
With all the causes stated above, I hope it becomes easy for you to find out why your dog barks at you and not your husband.
What to do, if the dog is barking at me and not my husband?
Picking out the reasons for the fluffball’s aggressive behavior was pretty tough. Be aware! Trying to find out how to deal with it is another hurdle. Well, this is the part where you need to put in more brains than earlier.
Here are a handful of tips that can help you cope with the problem.
- Start taking care of the dog as a second owner. Play with him, get him treats, and try taking him for walks. In short, build a positive relationship.
- Treats are a good distraction if he’s food motivated
- Dogs are full of energy, taking them out to exercise for one hour every day can turn this energy into positive output. As they get exhausted, their energy levels go down and anxiousness resolves.
- If you think he is doing this to gain attention, it is best to ignore him. Notice, if he stops barking even for as less as 3 seconds, Now give him attention. That way he gets trained that if he wants your attention, he should get quiet.
- Tell the dog to lie down, in such a position he is unable to bark
- If all of this still does not resolve the aggressive behavior, hire some professional help.
By reaching the end of this article, you’ll have figured out why the dog is barking at you and not your husband. Moreover, adopting these strategies can help cope up with his abnormal behavior.
