[Vivianne]

Thanks for all your comments.

I don't intend to use the bottle to replace any training or correction methods I've used so far. Madison responds to me 95% of the time when I speak or tell her no, leave it, or off, whatever the case may be. It's mainly my roommate that I was asking this question for. She does me a favor by watching Madison till I get home from work, and she's definitely not the type to deal with the rotty personality. But, Madison is slowly bringing her around by doing things that make my roommate mad enough to raise her voice to Madison.

I've printed material from this forum over and over again to help her with different methods to deal with Madison's dominance display towards her. And she's coming around, thank God. My idea for the bottle came as perhaps a way for my roommate to get the upper hand (dominance wise), but now I see it's not good for us.

The reason it's not good for us is that I think it's too risky to use. While the bottle did seem to get her attention after about three tries with it, she now thinks it's a toy. She stops her bad behavior, because she thinks I'm holding a toy for her to play with. I never used the bottle to threaten or intimidate her with it. That part of it I consider bad in all respects.

I've used it from a distance; never thrown it at her or near her; or acted like a maniac (throwing arms in the air) while I shook it.

I didn't want her to fear it because if I taught her that loud things were bad or something to fear, then what about the day some child has a loud toy he's playing with? Will she run from the child or bite from fear aggression?

Too risky in my reasoning, so since she thinks the bottle is a toy right now, it's time for the bottle to disappear.

Thanks again for helping me reason this out. Praise be to this forum and the help offered here.