Your pet may look like he understands why you're mad at him, but more than likely all he understands is that he doesn't want you to be mad.

To change your pet's behavior you must remember that the two of you are not the same species. Too many ofus think of our pets as humans when it comes to modifying behavior problems, but your pets do not think or communicate the same way that you do.

This means that you need to understand how your pet thinks so you can change his bad habits with a minimum amount of confusion, frustration, or damage.

Punishing your dog when he sniffs or licks at your baby can teach the dog to:

• Be afraid of the baby because bad things happen when the baby is around.

• Become aggressive to the baby because he fears the baby.

• Do something, like barking, to get your attention away from the baby and directed at him.

Instead of punishment, try:

• Teaching your dog to sit and lie down using food rewards.
• Telling him to obey these commands around the baby in return for a chew bone, snack, and/or petting.

• Chew on the plants when you are not home.

• Chew on something else you do not want chewed.

• Run away whenever you find her near the plants whether she is chewing or not.

• Making the leaves taste bad with a commercial spray made to taste bad to cats.

• Giving her some "kitty greens" of her own and rewarding her with a special food treat whenever you see her chewing on them.

• Placing a harmless "Scatmat" (available at pet stores), near the plant.

Many "bad' behaviors start because a dog is left alone and becomes bored. By offering your dog something to do that you find acceptable, he will not be tempted to investigate or destroy your valuables.

Your dog tips over the kitchen trash can whenever he is left alone. You try scolding and shaking him in front of the mess, but he continues to dump the trash. Only now he cowers down and has that "guilty" look when you arrive home. Well obviously he knows he is doing wrong, right? Wrong.

His "guilty" looks are only submissive postures to show you that he knows you're angry, but he does not know why. If you dumped the garbage yourself and then left the house, your dog would have that same guilty" look when you returned.

Your dog only understands that if there is trash on the floor when you get home, he gets yelled at. He does not understand that it is the actual act of dumping the garbage that upsets you. The same applies to chewing, scratching, or house soiling.

That is why punishment is such an impractical and sometimes damaging way of training your pets. Punishment tends to make your pet fear you or become aggressive, but not necessarily obedient.

For punishment to be effective, you have to catch your pet in the act every single time he does it with a punishment severe enough to make him stop after only a few times. If you do not catch him every time, he will continue misbehaving when you are not around, because nothing happens to him then.

How to Change Your Pet's Behavior

Even though pets are not people, we do share a preference for pleasant things. Humans and animals alike catch on very quickly when rewarded. If you stop scaring or hurting your pet when he does something wrong and start rewarding him every time he does something right, you will see a definite difference.

However be careful not to make the behavior worse by using positive reinforcement in the wrong situation. If you console your pet while he is acting afraid of people or noises, he will think you are rewarding him for being scared.

As with most pet-and-owner problems, your pet is probably doing a perfectly normal behavior, like urinating or barking, but in the wrong place or at the wrong time. So you first have to find out why your pet is doing it and encourage him to do something else or do it somewhere else.

For instance, if your cat scratches the arm of the couch, you know three important preferences: the texture (whatever your couch is made of), the location (by your couch), and the orientation (the length, the width, the shape, and that she likes the surface horizontal). So copy it. Just offer her a scratching surface with those criteria and reward her (most pets like food rewards) whenever she uses it.

Next, change the environment so that the unwanted behavior is no longer fun. This means that the environment, not you, deters your pet from doing the wrong thing. To make the couch arm undesirable, change the texture (if it is rough, put something smooth over it) or make it smell bad to your cat with muscle rubs or perfumes.

These techniques of modifying unwanted behavior apply to most problems you will have with your pet. As for the trash dumping, start by asking why. Your dog probably smelled something good and wanted it. After that, it just became something to do.

So take the fun out of the old behavior by booby-trapping or covering the trash or placing it where your dog cannot get to it. Also give your dog something to do while you are gone, like playing with a toy, searching for treats hidden around the room, or chewing a rawhide bone.

Safe booby traps
Through noise or movement, these booby traps painlessly scare your pets while they are doing the "bad" behavior.
 

• Balloons laid in the area or tied to the item.

• Empty aluminum cans set up to fall.

• Devices resembling mouse traps that make a loud snap when jostled.

• Bitter, pet-safe liquid to spray onto surfaces.

• Motion detectors.

• [Editor's Note: Scatmats, or if outside, a motion-activated sprinkler. You may find more information at www.scatmat.com. If cats are digging up your flowerbeds, a piece of vinyl-coated mesh chicken-wire is unobtrusive, yet effective. When kitty finds he cannot dig through the mesh, he will leave for more productive locales.]

Just remember that punishment alone rarely works, stresses you and your pet, and never teaches your pet the desirable behavior. Quit thinking about how to stop the "bad" behaviors and start thinking about how to get your pet to do what you want her to do so you can reward her.

If you are not sure how to modify your pet's current behavior, call your local shelter and ask for someone trained in resolving pet behavior problems.

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