Since Rhea (a Kerry Blue Terrier) was about six month, she has developed very annoying repetitive barking habit.  I find it unusual for terriers, as my past experience has been that they bark when there's something to bark about.  She is also quite nervous, jumps high at little noises and is wary of strangers (sometimes barks, sometimes hides but never bites).  Also posted comment re rude habit she has of mounting legs!  Any help, ideas on any would be much appreciated thanks.

Hi claireliscoe, do you know why and when Rhea barks? Is it when she is alone? Does it seem to be an over-enthusiastic guarding response? Is she looking for attention, or to get something (food/out/petting) when she barks? If it is the last you need to put in your ear plugs and refuse to give her what she wants until she is quiet. That won't get rid of the problem, but at least it will stop reinforcing it. Whatever the cause, my next move would be to teach her to bark on command. This takes good timing. You need to do something that sets her off and give the command to bark a millisecond before you do it. Once she will bark to command, then begin to teach her to 'Quiet' to command. Tell her to 'Bark' and have a treat ready (food, a favourite toy, whatever will distract her best) ready. Give your command 'Quiet' and then give her the treat the moment she stops barking. Once she has that right, gradually lenghten the time she must be quiet before she gets the treat.I find excessive barking one of the most difficult things to correct and you really have to work hard at this but if you are very patient and make it all a game it is possible to turn a barker into a dog that's bark can be turned on and off fairly well.

Her nervousness may well be part of the barking problem and you should work at that too. Unfortunately Rhea is past the 'socialisation period' but that doesn't mean she can't be habituated to things that make her nervous, it just makes it harder. Introduce the things that scare her slowly - eg noises at a distance, then getting closer and louder as she stops reacting to them at the present level. When she does react, don't comfort or pet her. Jolly her along instead, talking to her cheerfully showing that you aren't worried about them at all.

When strangers come in ask them to ignore her at first ('borrowed' strangers are handy) and let her maintain her distance. Eventually she should see that as YOU aren't afriad of the person, and curiousity should overcome fear. Take it all slowly is tiny stages. This is probably more important than any of your other problems. A dog can only choose to flee from or fight a percieved danger, and someday if she feels cornered by a stranger there is the possibility that she might feel forced to bite.

Bitches do mount other dogs and some raise their hind leg to urinate (I once had one that sometimes tried to raise both!), but you don't want her mounting your leg, so you should never laugh at the behaviour and always say 'NO!', push her away and offer a toy or other distraction. If she tries again, remove the tempting leg (leave the room or curl your legs under you) for a bit. At least you don't have the problem of putting her off the whole business as owners of over-enthusiastic potential stud dogs do. :)