Another excessive barker upon owner's arrival

[hh5131]

My mother has 2 Bichons and she lives alone with them. They get very excited when she comes home and one of them is the yappiest things I've ever encountered. In fact, his bark is so loud and high pitched, it hurts my ears and my children always cover their ears with a grimace on their face. Whenever we are all together and we come home to her house, they start their jumping and excessive barking. My mother says, "Get them a treat, get them a treat, you have to give them a treat, quickly and they'll stop" etc.. She has to yell over the dogs obviously. I told her the dogs have her trained and she's not their leader. If you saw all the behavior you'd know she's not their leader. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to break this obnoxious behavior. I know it's because of my mother not being the leader.

[Deuce]

You've hit the nail on the head. She's rewarding and reinforcing the wrong behavior with those cookies. Unfortunately the place to start is by getting your mom to change the way she behaves with the dogs.

If you and your family ignore them when you come in and she doesn't undermine the plan by giving them cookies, then you might see them change their behavior. However, if they see you only once in a while and she rewards them on a daily basis, the odds are that they'll keep on yapping.

Personally, I'd request that your mom put them in another room when she knows you're coming over. Let them calm down in there while you guys settle in.

I think you know what should be done with the dogs, but getting it to happen is another issue. Maybe this article could help? It gives tips and a framework for what dogs are thinking when the rules change.
Building Relationships with Your Dog