Barking at son moving from place to another in house

Question
We have a very sweet, mostly obedient part sheltie rescue dog named Lady.  She's 7 years old and we've had her 6 years. Our biggest problem with her is that she barks at our 26 years old son when he moves in the house from one room to another.  Our son has moved in and out a couple of times and I think she considers him a stranger when he moves back home, because she'll do that to people the come in the house.  How can we get her to stop barking at our son and our friends that come in? I like that she'll bark at strangers at the door but how do we get her to know that it's time to stop? Thanks,
Sandy Blake


Answer
Sandy,

First, apologies because I just found your question.

Second: I wonder what the cut-off is for your Sheltie's memory of who is safe in the house?  The visitors are always going to be a big problem with any high strung herding dog.  The son thing really stumps me.  It seems like she would remember him longer than that.

As for strangers, we always tell our dogs "Thank you, good dog" and calm them down.  We do want our dogs to let us know if there are strangers in the yard.  Mine caught a theif stealing from a construction site next door one day and that has changed my tune a little on how they act.  One thief doesn't make up for the 654 squirrel alerts but we take the good with the bad.  

Just try to calm your dog when you aren't worried.  If you know someone is coming over then crate her before they arrive and bring her out under supervision.  

Try the calming and attention and see if that works.  If not, time to try the bark collar.

'sneezes
Dave