Hello,

I have a question about the training for bitter apple.....I watched the Leerburg DVD on Puppies 8weeks to 8 months and it said to train your dog with bitter apple is to soak a cotton ball and hold it in his mouth for a period of time, so many times for 3 days.....

My question is....I have a GSD Puppy of 15week old that I have build a bond with the last 8 weeks and if I was to use this method at this point with it destroy at of the trust and respect or the bold that I have built with him?

Thanks Bob

I can't comment on the DVD, and I don't pretend to be an expert. All I have is my own experience.

I would put the Bitter Apple on anything I wanted the puppy to not teeth on. I think the taste of the product is enough to divert the puppy to something more tasty. To reinforce the desired aversion, I would try to watch the puppy and time a correction with the moment the pups tongue touched the item with the Bitter Apple on it. The correction may be a shake can, a strong "No" or a shake by the scruff of the neck.

I think the bad taste along with the audible and physical correction is enough to keep the puppy on track and reinforce that he wants to chew on something else.

Eric-

I do not recommend shake cans. Especially not for puppies. My reasons are as follows: A dog may not react to this at all

A dog may react at first, but quickly begins to ignore the sound and continue what it is doing.

A dog may be sensitive to loud noises/nervy, I never want to encourage nervousness or provoke a nervous response from a dog simply to get it's attention. Shaking a can full of rocks or pennies could be frightening to a dog with weaker nerves, and you are essentially the source of the sound, the cause of the fearful object/sound etc.

To me, teaching a dog that when it does something a human finds indesirable, it will be frightened or startled, is not a good approach, it may stop them from continueing the bad behavior but every time a dog hears a loud noise or similar sound it will think it is being corrected and become even more nervous.

I don't have the DVD, but here is my take on it: Sensitizing to bitter apple is done because in smaller amounts like the very thin layer applied by spraying, bitter apple is not much of a deterrent alone. I have known dogs that love bitter apple. The point is to make sure the bitter apple is unpleasant, a deterrent based on scent so that the pup doesn't want to chew on the item scented with bitter apple.

In regards to the bond being effected by holding the mouth.. yes and no.. the pup should bounce back quite fast. Just don't talk or look at the pup in eye, just quietly calmly hold the mouth and when you let go act like nothing happened, allow the pup to spit it out and walk around a bit, then distract with a toy or attention.

Don't scruff, it is unneccessary for such a young pup, redirect to a toy. The best way to keep pups from chewing things they are not supposed to is by tethering them to you. This way they are always supervised and it helps with the bond and house training as well.

Thanks.....

And yes my dog has no problem with licking bitter apple straight up.......the idea with the leerburg way is that after hoilding the unpleasent taste in his mouth a number of times and that because their sence of smell is so stong that it only will take 2 drops of bitter in a full spray bottle of water sprayed on any item and they will smell that and leave it alone....And right now he is enjoying our brick wall by the fire place....

And why to GSDs love rock and metal to chew on so much.....

It's crazy...

Thanks again

Bob