Like so many of you, my wife and I are meticulous shoppers. Whether it be online or in-person, we tend to put a lot of research into the things we purchase so that we know we're putting our hard-earned money on the proper products. There are so many options for even basic items like leashes and collars that it's easy to get lost in what we're buying.

We will be writing reviews as we purchase and use these items ourselves. As you do your research for products you're planning to buy, our goal is to add another layer to that research.

In the early days of adopting Markus, we went over to a friend's house so that our dogs could meet. Their dogs were trained very well and whenever they misbehaved, I noticed that they would pull out a bottle of something and the dogs would quickly fall back in line. I was surprised at how much the dogs responded to just the sight of the bottle without it being sprayed, so I asked them what the stuff was. That was the first time I had heard of Grannick's Bitter Apple Spray and it would become a training tool for us.

As Markus got comfortable living with us and started to expand his territory to the rest of the house including our furniture and belongings, we needed something to teach what's his and what's ours. Markus had a pretty good sense of what was his to begin with, but there were some items of ours that he would love to take when we weren't looking, so we picked up a bottle of Grannick’s Bitter Apple Spray to help us out. 

Bitter Apple is an alcohol-based solution that leaves behind a very bitter taste which acts as a deterrent for dogs trying to chew things. The alcohol rapidly evaporates, so it is safe for your dog. The effectiveness of the spray will largely depend on your dog. While some owners swear by it, others have also said that their dog will just wait until the smell goes away and they go right back to chewing the item. Luckily, our experience using it with Markus has been very positive.

One morning, Markus was the first to wake up and get out of bed. Fresh off of sleeping through the night, he had a bit of energy and started to move around. While the rest of us were still sleeping, he had roamed his way to the couches and gotten to one of the cushions. Playing the way he usually does, he started to destroy the cushion and managed to chew a hole into it. When we came out to the noise, we saw him with the cushion and cotton pulled out around him, so we used this as an opportunity to try out the Bitter Apple.

While Markus was still fresh from pulling cotton out of the cushion, we sprayed the open area and got Markus to smell it. He took a good sniff and immediately blew outwards to try and get the smell out of his nose. We tried to hand the cushion to him again, but he didn't want it anymore. And that was it. It's been a few weeks since that incident and Markus has never gone for the cushion (or any of the other ones) again.

Markus is a very intelligent dog. His mixed breed (Shiba and Jindo) are both known for their intelligence, so this is defiitely part of the reason why he's picked it up so quickly. I also want to make it clear that for us, we don't use the Bitter Apple spray as a threat or punishment for misbehaving. We use it as a way for us to associate what's his and what's ours. Not all dogs will respond the same and we're lucky to have been able to build this type of association with him where we only have to spray something once and he seems to pick up on it already.

We're lucky that Markus only seems to go for fabric or cloth items. Everything else like wires, wood or plastics, he doesn't seem to care for. We're lucky in that regard and since we don't leave fabric items exposed and lying around, we've really only had to use the Bitter Apple Spray a handful of times (on things like the cushions, kitchen towels, bath mats, etc. - things we can't really place elsewhere). The fabric does tend to absorb the spray very well, so I'm not sure how it works on harder surfaces.

I know that our success rate and use-case for Bitter Apple spray is more in the extreme. I've read of too many cases where the spray doesn't work, but I can say for certain that it's worked incredibly effectively for us. For the cost of a bottle, it is worth a try to see how your dog will respond to it because in our case. At its best, when it works, it works really well and you've managed to save some items from being destroyed.

We’re so grateful for your support of The Markus Project. We mostly choose our locations through searching and word of mouth. If you know of a park, trail or location you think we should check out, please share it with us. We’d love to know!