Spritzing your pooch with 'pig perfume' can stop them from behaving badly

Washington: A new study has revealed that squirting " pig perfume" on your pet dog helps prevent them from barking incessantly, jumping frantically on house guests and from engaging in other unwanted behaviors.

The eau de oink, aka "Boar Mate" or "Stop That," which has been formulated by Texas Tech scientist John McGlone, has a key ingredient androstenone, a steroid and pheromone produced by male pigs and released in their saliva and fat, Discovery News reported.

McGlone said that androstenone smells pungent and is not very appealing to humans, but it can have an effect on mammal behavior.The researchers tested the product on four different groups of barking dogs in separate kennels. The researchers were looking at not only the possible effectiveness of the key ingredient, but also if the spritzing itself (sound and liquid around face) dumbfounded the dogs.

For the study, the first group of dogs simply had a person with another dog stand in front of the kennels. The second group of dogs was sprayed with a placebo that made a startling spritz noise. The third group of dogs was sprayed with the noise and a lower concentration of androstenone in isopropyl alcohol. The fourth group was sprayed with a higher concentration of androstenone in isopropyl alcohol that also made the spritz sound.

The findings show that in the first group 3 out of 12 dogs stopped barking, in the second, 4 out of 9 dogs stopped barking, while in the third group, sprayed with the lower concentration of the pheromone, 7 of 9 dogs stopped barking and in the fourth group, sprayed with the higher concentration of androstenone, 6 of 6 dogs stopped barking.