Homemade Bitter Spray?

Someone here must have a home recipe for a bitter spray knockoff. I can't believe I cannot find one on the internet?

[Black Labbies]

Here are Bitter Apple's ingredients:

Ingredients include water, isopropanol 20%, bitter principles and extracts.

http://www.petsafestore.com/grbiaptadetr.html
I would try a combo of apple cider vinegar and water and see if that works.

[JaggersMom]

Bitter spray - Is that for you pup not to eat wood and things??

If so I took an old make-up brush and spread around cayanne pepper around all my wood moldings. And Jagger hated it.

[happyhomer]

homer was never much of a chewer, but we had pretty good luck detering a past dog from chewing by dabbing tabasco sauce. it will stain some materials, so be careful. mostly used it for table legs, etc.

[Heather]

Best thing I have tried is a paste mixed of Listerine (regular *YUCK*) and baking soda powder. Rylie left my deck alone for a month after I applied it- a major accomplishment, LOL! Plus, its cheap.

Although, I would not recommend it for application on the dog...

Even after three years, it doesn't appear that anyone has solved this dilemma. A Google search here in 2009 still doesn't turn up a recipe. I've been looking for a bitter apple spray recipe as well, and haven't found a single one.

I've got a dog that was getting into the habit of licking his skin in one area too often until the fur was all gone and he was actually licking the top layer of skin off, causing some little exposed "under-skin" pink spots.

After pouring out the last little bit of the bottle of the bitter apply spray I had bought, I took a sniff of it and noticed the unmistakeable smell of the isopropyl alcohol. (I didn't put two-and-two together to realize isopropanol and isopropyl alcohol were the same until that moment.)

My suggestion would be to take some of your typical rubbing alcohol (which is about 60-70%, while the bitter apple spray I had bought was 20%) and dilute it further with water and whatever else you might want to use (I'm going to give concentrated lemon juice a try). Just remember, your dog's sense of smell is so much better than yours that what you might find offensive would most definitely turn them off from giving it more than one taste or smell (unless they're freaks ). I'm not sure of the exact water-to-alcohol mix there should be, but I'll get it right.

If you really care about your dog, spray some of this on yourself and give it a lick to make sure there won't be any risk to your dog.

[ImWithThePyr]

A friend of mine just sprayed regular Gold Listerine all over the chair legs (her dog was a little Min Pin puppy, he couldn't really reach to chew anything else) and it did a really good job. You can get it fairly cheap at the dollar store.

I never had success with bitter spray... I tried a few different brands and Maxwell either didn't care or actually liked them. Every time I sprayed a bitter spray on the furniture, it would get in my mouth and it tastes HORRIBLE.

[Coopspuppy]

Our trainer suggested alum (it's a pickling spice) mixed in a spray bottle with water. I accidently got some on my fingers......ick! It worked for us but we didn't have a real problem....just a few items once in a while.

Coopspuppy

Well, what I finally ended up with as the first try at my "secret recipe" was:

2 oz rubbing alcohol (70%)
4 oz water
2 oz lemon juice

That didn't cause any ill effects on my arm when I sprayed it on, and it tasted nasty. I just don't think it tasted nasty enough for my dog to ignore it (seeing as how there are some pretty nasty-smelling things they'll tend to eat normally). So I filled up the rest of the spray bottle (probably another ounce worth) with the rubbing alcohol, sprayed some on my arm, and licked a bit off (either that or drink some, and that wasn't going to happen). I'm still here to type this, so it must not have been that bad.

I even went so far as to spray a good little puddle in my hand and offer it to my dog. He did the I-can't-back-up-fast-enough-to-get-away-from-you dance when he took a sniff.

After the test on myself, I have since sprayed some on the area my dog likes to lick at and I haven't seen any problems.

So, the final recipe:

3 oz rubbing alcohol
4 oz water
2 oz lemon juice

I doubt that the lemon juice does anything other than give it a slightly less-annoying smell for us humans.