My in-laws have an adorable great pyrenees who, true to his breed, barks and barks. My mother-in-law has taken to screaming at him when he barks and hits him with a rolled-up newspaper. This completely stresses me out. And of course, she hates any kind of criticism or being called-out on her behavior. Any idea what I can do? In advance, thank you! ER
Okay, the first realization is that it sounds like you mother-in-law has gotten to the point where she is beyond stressed out and doesn't know what to do to effectively manage the barking, so any criticism will make it worse. So, that requires a mind shift to helping her discover good solutions when cool heads prevail (i.e. both of you are not stressed about g.p.). How about sending her some links, maybe 1-3 at a time (your judgement there) - you can say you just read and thought they had good info that you didn't know and thought she might be interested too.
Here's a few I found that you may want to read first.
https://itsdogornothing.com/will-my-gre…
https://pethelpful.com/dogs/How-to-Deal…
https://www.forloveoflivestock.com/blog…
I'm certain there's more.
Training classes may help. Petsmart offers classes