just a little spritz

Apollo is generally a good dog. He doesn't urinate indoors anymore, he sits on command most of the time and he's just darn cute. However, despite all those reasons to like him, he's a barker. (I'm kidding, we like him anyway.) He doesn't bark like most dogs, who woof at stuff out the window, or at sounds, or lap desks. No no, he just barks at us...or nothing. I'm guessing it's to get our attention, but he usually ends up in puppy time out. That doesn't deter his efforts though. Our obedience teacher told us we should just leave the room without paying him any attention, once he's done we come back in without giving him any eye contact. We tried that...it didn't work. He'd just wait until we came back and barked at us again. We tried to use a spray bottle when he barked, unfortunately that made matters worse. He just thought it was a game, and just barked more. So, our instructor then showed us an anti-bark collar. Don't get upset, it's not a shock collar! It sprays an unscented substance when he barks to discourage the yapping. It's pretty amusing to watch, especially since it also goes off when he flaps his ears. Poor thing. He can't figure out where the spray comes from, so he just gets confused and sniffs the floor looking for the source. I think he thinks it comes out of the speakers, because he keeps eyeing them suspiciously. That spray comes out with a vengence though! It just sprays under their nose, so it doesn't do too much. However, the instructions say to test the collar everytime you refill it by blowing into the trigger hole. Of course, being me, I did this and got sprayed in the face, and up the nose, resulting in a great long laugh for Brandon. The things I do for a laugh... Unfortunately, Po is beginning to think this is just a game too. will the barking ever stop?!