James,

I think sometimes people get confused because they look at some of our abstractions and assume that they have to use them. The answer in many cases is to sometimes drop down one level of abstraction and see what the "raw" code looks like.  If you look at the ExecuteScalar in the default SqlDataProvider, you will find that it looks like this:

        public override T ExecuteScalar<T>(string procedureName, params object[] commandParameters)
        {
            return PetaPocoHelper.ExecuteScalar<T>(ConnectionString, CommandType.StoredProcedure, DatabaseOwner + ObjectQualifier + procedureName, commandParameters);
        }

Instead of calling DataProvider.Instance().ExecuteScalar, just use the PetaPocoHelper to make the call.  As you can see, the core SqlDataProvider is where the "DBO" is getting prepended, since that is the value that is defined in web.config for the default SqlDataProvider.

James,

The PetaPocoHelper is part of the Public API.  You are safe to use this helper within your own DataProviders.