That did not seem to work

 

The instructions on the bottle do warn you to verify your dog's aversion to the bitter spray before leaving them unattended with your sprayed object.  Hmmm.  I expect that dogs like Ember, who seem to LIKE the bitter flavor might be why?

She got into the room and was licking the places I'd sprayed early in the day.  I distracted her out to other activities.  Later in the day, she got back there again and went to town before I caught up with her.  Sigh.

So much for "chew prevention through chemistry".

I sprayed some more and persuaded her away from it, but man, I did not expect the problem to get worse!

Pretty ugly, huh?  

This morning, she was back at it as soon as I started to brew my coffee.  I went out to the garage and got one of the baby gates thinking to block off (if I could manage to attach it) the family room.  However, since Ember was out in the house, she went after the baby gate.  I put it up atop the dining room table, pulled out the treats to play our IYC (ItsYerChoice) game, and she only got the treats when she calmed down and stopped going for the gate, sat down and played the game.  

Then I decided to try "crapper training".  This is where you take the puppy into a bathroom, where they have fewer distractions, and the choices become clearer.  Well, I didn't set it up ahead of time, so we had a pretty crazy time getting to "yes" moments, but we made some progress.  One tissue box was the only real victim of this session, and I rescued its contents.  As she went for various things, I waited for her to drop them, gave her a click and treat for the drop, and tucked the prize away in a cupboard or drawer.  We will use this training venue again.

After a successful morning walk, during which we found and retrieved her rabies tag (it went missing on Friday's adventures, but I didn't notice until this morning), I had a calm puppy on my hands, starting to snooze on the kitchen floor while I prepared and ate my own breakfast.  Then I put her into the crate for her puppy nap #1 while I did human stuff, including the task of reattaching said rabies tag to her collar.  While I was at it, I also attached the tag that says which brand and number of microchip she has.  I'm waiting for the mail to bring me her license.

This evening is the annual baseball outing sponsored by my financial guys.  I'm taking my son, his wife, and her parents along this year.  We all like baseball, and this is the local minor league team.  Ember will need to be tucked in by 4 or 4:15 p.m. for the timing to work, but that's not that far from her normal schedule.

Here's to a good Saturday!  A calm and confident Saturday.  Some good activity and training for my little fur-buddy.

Life is good.  Spark on!