Bananas for Bitters

You may recall (how could you forget) the blog post about my dog's recent destruction of the couch. A few days after I fixed it, he started to chew at the edges of the cover, so I finally decided it was time to invest in a bitter spray. I had read about them online and my friend told me they worked really well for her dog, but I just kept forgetting to buy one!

When I went to the store, there were actually multiple brands to choose from. I chose "Fooey" because it claimed to be made from the "most bitter stuff on Earth," and said it was safe for fabrics, while others said you had to test the surface first.

My friend told me to make sure I had my mouth covered when I sprayed it, so I wore one of those nose/mouth masks that I had left over from when my husband and I Boraxed our carpets when we first moved in to our apartment (It was full of fleas!) Despite wearing the mask, I could still taste it everywhere, and even after I sprayed it, it was disgusting to even be in the room where it was. The taste lingered in the back of my throat for hours and made me feel like I was going to throw up!

However, Apple loved it. He licked my hands after I sprayed it, he licked the couch, and yes, you guessed it, he chewed it up again!!! I couldn't sit on the couch without getting the awful taste in my mouth and he couldn't stop trying to eat it. Finally,  I sewed up the couch even better, fully whip-stitching the cover to the arm, and anchored his baby fence into the wall with those plastic screw holes. Now, Apple is back to spending his unsupervised hours locked in the hallway.

I am not going to use that spray again...I should have guessed that I had one of the freakish dogs that actually likes the taste of bitters. I still periodically get it on my hands or my body and taste it again. Just the other day, Apple gave me a kiss and had obviously been chewing something I sprayed, because his kisses tasted like it!!!! YUCK!

I was convinced that Apple would eat anything and everything under the sun, as I had not yet found a single food he would refuse to eat. But, just the other day, I tossed him a piece of a banana that had fallen on the floor. He licked it, he sniffed it, but he would not eat it, even when I held it up to him.

Apparently my dog doesn't like bananas! Maybe next time, I should just use bananas for bitters, and rub them all over the surfaces I don't want him to eat!