Opinions on what this behavior is and if/how to change

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

Missie has one behavior that I'd like to change, if possible (ok, two, but one at a time lol). When we're around my 4 year old cousin, Luke, she does ok for awhile, but after a couple/several hours, she pretty much loses it and barks and lunges at him like she's going to eat him. Missie has absolutely NO other aggression problems. She's submissive to other dogs (but holds her own), and loves all people. There are a couple reasons I can think of that may cause this behavior:

1. I don't remember having her around many kids when she was a puppy. I took her many, many places and let all kinds of people pet and play with her, but I'm not sure I was consistent with that throughout the first several years of her life.

2. My cousin has a high-pitched little voice, and very abrupt movements. He can set her off barking and lunging if he squeals/makes a high-pitched noise suddenly. She either scratched or bit him one time (after being perfectly calm with him) when he burst in a door and tripped on a bag once. He was across the room when it happened and she went running to him and lunged (I wasn't quick enough to see, but I believe she scratched him). The day before yesterday we were with him, and she was fine with him for awhile (would go to him for pets and attention), and then we were in the backyard and he made some sort of high-pitched noise and she ran and lunged at him. She calmed down again after a minute and was normal with him again. Then later we were all in the livingroom opening gifts, and about halfway through she lost it and constantly barked and lunged towards him when he came anywhere near.

3. My family has (stupidly but innocently) trained her to "attack" when we are rough-housing. The first time we were rough housing and she barked we thought it was cute (that she was "protecting" me or one of them), but then we encouraged her to attack (and when I say attack, obviously she's not biting. Just jumping and barking excessively) every time we were rough housing, and now you can't slap someone's arm without her freaking out. My cousin is, of course, a hyper little boy who engages in all sorts of behaviors that appear like rough housing, and she freaks out when he even hugs someone once she's lost it.

So... Obviously it could be a combination of these factors, but with the goal of coming up with a plan to re-train (is it possible?), which would you guess is the primary cause, and how would you address the issue to stop her from freaking out when people rough house (or even hug! lol)? She also needs to stop acting like my cousin is prey.

Thanks for all input! Sorry this is so long.

[Fuzz Puppy]

Ok, with biting, try yelping (or using a command) and ending the play session or stop any attention she is getting at all while you try this don't pet her and correct her. Also, I garutee it will takwe a while. I can't promise how long, but it isn't going to be really fast. Good luck.

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

The human child yelping is what STARTS her lunging. Also, I should've mentioned, Missie is not a puppy. She'll be 8 years old in Feb., so this is not typical play biting.

[Pearlulm]

Maybe she is trying to tell him to calm down. We had a mini schnauzer once who was very good with children but when they continued to misbehave (after being told to stop running around several times) she would nip their shirt tales and spin them around. (Schnauzers are very bossy!) I think that Missie proably has a very strong sense of right and wrong. I would just pick her up and take her out of the room for some quite time. I think the kid is the problem not Missie. tee hee

[oc_spirit]

I would not pick her up as raising her above the kid could enforce the behaviour. I would keep her on a leash and anytime she reacts towards him give her a firm "enough!" and have her sit. if she sits quietly, reward. If she ignores you give a sterner"enough!" and a very light tug on the lead just enough to grab her attention. If she still ignores you, use the lead to take her into a romm away from everyone and leave her in there for some time. Try again after she has settled down some. Also when she reacts it is important that the kid or whoever is roughhouse stops for a moment but ignores the dog. You could also try having the person she is going out turn to her full front and say "enough!" sternly.

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

Pearl- LOL, you're totally right, but there's not much I can do about the kid, so I work with what I've got. Hahaha!

OC- I basically do all of the above except removing her from the situation consistently. I do try to take her outside away from him at regular intervals, but it doesn't do much. Unfortunately, my cousin SHOULD be able to follow my directives, but he doesn't or will and then quickly forgets to. She startles him too much when she does it, so he's never able to tell her "no!" when she first does it. He waits until she backs away and stops barking and then goes, "no Missie!" when she's not paying attention. lol We don't seem to have the problem with the majority of kids, and she doesn't come in contact with them real often, so we may just have to wait for my cousin to outgrow himself. lol

Thanks for all the input!