Please help. I have 2 Jack Russells - a bitch of 20 months (spayed) and a dog of 16 months (not yet neutered). My dog has recently started barking at people in the street (primarily men), but now women and children on bikes. The other day I was speaking to my neighbour (whilst my dog was barking) and he bent over and put his hand out - Jake nipped his hand. This has never happened before and I was naturally mortified. My neighbour told me that it was his own fault for putting his hand out and leaning over him, but I was still upset and v. apologetic. I now feel that I need to rein this behaviour in and have gone back to basics and correct him firmly when he is barking at people. I did read that dogs often see not just their house as their territory but also their neighbourhood. Can anyone help?

Have you read "the bite stops here" and did you start bite inhibition training as a puppy?

Is your 16 month old well socialised with other dogs - do you take him to socialisation classes?

> have gone back to basics and correct him firmly when he is barking at people.

The problem with this is, if he is barking/nipping due to insecurity (having a stanger loom over them can be intimidating), then 'correcting him firmly' will make strangers even more of a nasty thing for him to be fearfull of or want to keep at bay. If the nipping is due to guarding (either you or each other dog) then you can confirm to the dog the fact the situation is a bad one by 'firm corrections', thus making things worse.

Here is an article on Managing Fear Aggression It is about how to help change your dogs feelings toward strangers.
A closing line in the article is:

Aggressing dogs are not "bad." All animals have a tendency to aggress; aggression is normal.

Dogs that are "inappropriately aggressive" have an illness. We treat an illness with an appropriate prescription, not punishment. We have to treat the disease and not the symptoms...to change the behavior, change the dog's feelings.

Well worth a read as it may give you a bit more of an insight. Also changing the dogs feelings (associating something it dislikes with something it likes) works wheater the dogs reaction is through fear or not.
If you are new to terms like counter conditioning, it really is worth doing a bit of research and if things still feel a little out of hand, find a good behaviourist that can assess exactly what your dogs triggers are and give a suitable programme of behaviour modification.

Praise & reward for good behaviour. Do all you can to make sure you manupulate any situation that would usually be a problem, into a set up for success for your dog, even if that means telling strangers to NOT approach them as they are in training.

I know it's not always that easy to tell but is your dog barking AT people or barking ABOUT people?  Terriers can be well inclined to do both and for different reasons.  For instance I have a terrier type mongrel who likes to tell me if someone 3 miles away has flushed their toilet!  He'll bark every time someone walks, cycles or rides past BUT crucially he doesn't bark when on the lead with me as I presume he realises I can see them too and his 'quick, look there's someone in our lane' is a bit pointless by then.  However it's worth knowing that when he is in this heightened state of alert, and barking, that he is more easily triggered to snappy behaviour.  Understandable really as he's, by then, a bit excited.

He's 8 now and still barks, we've never got him out of that BUT we can curb the barking by responding to his advice!  He's trying to tell us that there is something odd outside so we call him to us, say thank you (usually a small treat - dry biscuit etc - and praise) then give him something else to do.  Mind you we still yell 'quiet' from time to time, only to be ignored whilst he gets the last word.  However on the whole our strategy has always worked well, he barks - we say thanks for letting us know - he stops

There is a great site for terrier rescue here, have a read of their 10 top tips.  They are written for rescue terriers but it's a good read for anyone dealing with terrier type problems :)

It has to be said that your dogs are rather close in age and you may have sibling/litter mate types of behaviour between them.  (When was your bitch spayed?)  Do make sure you train them and walk them separately if you want to focus on Jake's behaviour, he needs to learn to cope without his pal.  Perhaps you could take him to classes?  I doubt that he needs correction (particularly if he's fearful of the object of his attention) but he does need to be taught the appropriate response.  A good trainer will help you find the best training methods and rewards for Jake.  Have a look at the APDT website.  Good luck :)

Thanks for getting back to me. No, I haven't read this one and yes, I did start bite inhibition training as a pup. Both my dogs are very well socialised and meet lots of other dogs every day. I think he is quite insecure and is displaying aggression due to fear.

Many thanks for the link - interesting. I definitely think the barking is due to insecurity (and possibly guarding me and his sister) - a couple of male family members (who didn't really know him that well as a pup) have loomed over him (but this has not been recently), which may well have been part of the trigger. However, he is fine with all other male family members and male friends. He has also been fine with other men not in the immediate local vicinity. I will be taking hot dogs out in future :)

Barking at particular people. Yes, I also say 'thank you' when mine bark! Pippa was spayed mid-April. Many thanks for the advice