Monday, September 20, 2010

Biters

I know a girl who bites. It is a problem because it hurts other people and makes them not want to be around her. Crazy to think that people don't want to be in close proximity to someone who bites. 

In a discussion about how to alleviate this problem, I came up with a few strategies that I was pretty sure would work. I've never necessarily been exposed to a person that bites, but I have been exposed to Shea. Shea as a puppy with sharp, pointy teeth, and an evil spell. He literally would jump up, jam his teeth into my arm, and hang off of my arm. After I was bruised from head to toe for many months, I began researching how to make it stop. 

My first suggestion, just like my first attempt to wain Shea off of biting was to spray something awful tasting on your arms. I used Bitter Apple spray, made specifically for this purpose. Completely edible, nontoxic, nasty tasting spray. It was definitely a deterrent for a while. Then, one day, Shea grew immune to it and I walked in the room to find him biting the top of the spray off and drinking the liquid. So much for that! 

Well, apparently it is slightly inhumane to do this to a person. I always thought biting was, but lately, I have been proven wrong. My next suggestion was hot sauce, because, well, that is an actual kind of food. A food some people (Jeff) like, but most people have awful reactions too (me). 

Again, this was viewed as inhumane. Not sure why, but I think negative consequences may be frowned upon. So, I threw out my last idea. The idea that I found worked the best with Shea. An idea using positive reenforcement. I began rubbing peanut butter on my arms. With this, rather than biting my arms, Shea would lick my arms. Since everybody loves peanut butter, I had no doubt this would work! 

After the discussion was over, I came home to find that I probably need to have this discussion again with a cousin of mine. For, she happened to spear her teeth into a friend's leg:
I'm guessing if this friend had had peanut butter smeared all over her legs, my cousin wouldn't have bit her. Maybe licked, but not bit! 




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