A python class that acts like dict

Check the documentation on emulating container types. In your case, the first parameter to add should be self.

Here is an alternative solution:

class AttrDict(dict):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.__dict__ = self

a = AttrDict()
a.a = 1
a.b = 2

class Mapping(dict):

    def __setitem__(self, key, item):
        self.__dict__[key] = item

    def __getitem__(self, key):
        return self.__dict__[key]

    def __repr__(self):
        return repr(self.__dict__)

    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.__dict__)

    def __delitem__(self, key):
        del self.__dict__[key]

    def clear(self):
        return self.__dict__.clear()

    def copy(self):
        return self.__dict__.copy()

    def has_key(self, k):
        return k in self.__dict__

    def update(self, *args, **kwargs):
        return self.__dict__.update(*args, **kwargs)

    def keys(self):
        return self.__dict__.keys()

    def values(self):
        return self.__dict__.values()

    def items(self):
        return self.__dict__.items()

    def pop(self, *args):
        return self.__dict__.pop(*args)

    def __cmp__(self, dict_):
        return self.__cmp__(self.__dict__, dict_)

    def __contains__(self, item):
        return item in self.__dict__

    def __iter__(self):
        return iter(self.__dict__)

    def __unicode__(self):
        return unicode(repr(self.__dict__))


o = Mapping()
o.foo = "bar"
o['lumberjack'] = 'foo'
o.update({'a': 'b'}, c=44)
print 'lumberjack' in o
print o

In [187]: run mapping.py
True
{'a': 'b', 'lumberjack': 'foo', 'foo': 'bar', 'c': 44}

Like this

class CustomDictOne(dict):
   def __init__(self,*arg,**kw):
      super(CustomDictOne, self).__init__(*arg, **kw)

Now you can use the built-in functions, like dict.get() as self.get().

You do not need to wrap a hidden self._dict. Your class already is a dict.