Lemon Discipline

It's hard to imagine that Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley would try to sass us, but for the last couple of nights, that's exactly what has been happening. We've stopped holding her muzzle when we say, "No Noise," because Fred noticed her little tail was wagging.

Negative attention. Not goood.

So we asked Marcy when we were at the meeting on Saturday. She said to try a little lemon juice on the inside of her cheek. That most dogs really disliked that and coupled with No Noise, that should bring her round.

The sassing usually begins at night and is usually directed at me. HRH will walk to the end of her lead as close to my chair as she can get and catch my eye. Then she snaps her jaws together.

"Don't do it." I point a finger at her.

"ARF!"

Aargh! Fred runs to get the lemon juice. We don't have any. He brings back lime juice. I smear some on my thumb and wait for the next sassing. "ARF!" Swish! I swoop in with my limey thumb and coat the inside of her cheek with limey tartness. She jumps back and stares at me. Then she licks her chops and lolls her tongue. I glance at Fred. "I think she likes it."

Fred runs back to the kitchen and returns with half a lemon. We wait. The sassing never ends on a mere two sasses. Sure enough, she winds up for number three. I jam my thumb down into the fresh and juicy lemon. As she finishes the bark, I am finishing the No Noise and starting to work my lemony thumb into her mouth. This time the results are inconclusive.

She walks over the the coffee table and grabs the lemon.




This video shows her before things got out of control. She's merely licking the lemon. Lemony goodness! Then things went off the hook!



As the video shows, the lemon sets off puppy crazies. Maybe we'll try a time out.