I Put that Sh*t on Everything

So the major issue I've been having with Lucy in daily life (other than her tendency to be slightly more vocal than I would like) is that she grabs Ryan's tail when he runs. This is especially annoying because Ryan wasn't blessed with the floofiest tail, so the fact that it is being systematically de-haired by a small terrier is becoming more and more obvious. Ryan holds his tail up when he runs, so the only spot Lucy can grab it is at the base - she jumps up, grabs the base of it, pulls his tail down and hangs on. He just keeps running and never tells her off. I can call her off when I see she is about to do it but most of the time they're up in the trees and I can't tell it's happening until Ryan comes running back down with a Lucy attached to him (or Lucy comes running back with a mouth full of Ryan fluff). 

After an especially bad hike yesterday (snow makes Ryan get excited - excited Ryan's tail is even more enticing to a bad little terrier), I had had enough. This morning I put Plan Frank into operation. I let Lucy taste some hot sauce off my finger. She licked it and then backed up quickly and didn't want any more when I let her sniff it again...perfect, part 1: bad hot sauce association complete. Then, before letting Ryan out of the car, I put some hot sauce just around the hair at the base of his tail (he didn't even notice). The effect was almost a miracle - Lucy went for his tail twice on the entire hike and both times she barely started to grab it before letting go. I think even Ryan was confused about the sudden ability to run with a Lucy-less tail! I'm going to hot sauce his tail for the next few hikes and hopefully her bad habit will end...