Tips to Discipline Your Pets

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Your pets are a part of your family. They sleep with you, they dine with you, they share your happiness and your sadness. If you ask anyone what they think about their pets, everyone will say the same thing. They will say that they have the best pet ever. Animal behavior experts have time and time again talked about how there are no aggressive dogs, but just bad owners. The same goes for cats, they can be taught how to be gentle with people if their owner puts in the right amount of training and effort. Your pet is going to behave in a manner that comes naturally to them. It is up to you to manage their behavior in a manner that keeps them and everyone else away from harm. 

However, before employing any tips for discipline, you first need to make sure that your pet’s bad behavior is not stemming me from any health issues that the pet is experiencing. Often times, the root cause of an aggressive pet is that the pet is in pain or is ill. Aggressive behavior is your pet’s way of acting out so you give them attention. To make sure that your pet has a behavioral issue and not health-related one, take them to a trustworthy vet at https://veterinarianfriscotx.com/, so your pet can continue to live a healthy and happy life that is full of socializing with other humans and animals. 

Here are some tips to discipline any wayward behavior. 

How to keep bad-dog-behavior in check?

Dogs are not all fun and games as movies and tv shows lead you to believe. Dogs can be rambunctious and rowdy creatures that need to be told who the alpha is. If the dog starts thinking that it is the alpha, then no matter what you do, you won’t be able to control its behavior. Here are some ways through which you discipline your dog. 

1. Never try to discipline them with a physical assertion. By hitting your dog when they act out, you are teaching them to associate you with pain. You will have a dog who is constantly going to be scared of your presence as they know that any wrong action will result in pain for them. Not only does it fall under animal cruelty to mistreat your dog by hitting him, but it also results in your dog not developing a happy bond with you.
2. The main part of correcting your dog’s behavior is by fixing it immediately after it happens. If you wait for too long after a wayward behavior has already occurred, your dog won’t understand what behavior he needs to correct. You need to catch your dog in the act of his bad behavior.
3. The best way to make sure that your pet does not do something that you don’t like is by redirecting their behavior into doing something that you approve of. By redirecting your dog’s behavior towards something else, like stopping him from eating a shoe to giving him a toy to play with, you are telling him what behavior you approve of.
4. What dogs want most in the world is attention and love from humans. So when you are teaching your dog something like play-biting or how to play with toys, you can ignore them if they act out. Dogs are social beings and if you ignore them, they tend to notice it and correct their behavior so you can resume playing with them again. 

How to fix bratty cat behavior 

When it comes to cats, disciplining them falls under a different league than dogs. Cats are of a completely different temperament than dogs and praise from their humans does not mean as much to them. So here are some tips to correct problematic cat behavior like, constantly knocking over stuff, peeing outside the litter box, etc. 

1. Use things that the cat has never experienced before for positive reinforcement. If you want to reward good behavior like peeing inside the litter, then you need to use items that will grab your cat’s attention. Items like tuna, catnip, and new toys are generally known to do the trick.
2. Use loud noises to deter your cat from bad behavior. Cats get unnerved by loud noises. So if you see your cat doing something that you would not like a repeat of, then enact a loud noise like shaking pennies in a can to scare it off. Repeating this activity twice or thrice would make your cat understand that you don’t like this behavior.
3. Use time-outs to deter cats from extreme bad behavior like biting. If saying ouch repeatedly does not deter your cat from attacking you, go for a different route instead. Put your cat into time-out sessions of 10-15 minutes after it attacks you to let it know that you are displeased. 

How to manage bad bird behavior?

The thing with birds is that if they decide to get rowdy, that means that you are gonna get hurt. Birds can do a lot with their beaks if they decide to rely upon their natural behavior. So if you want your avian friend to live peacefully and happily with you, here are some ways to make it happen. 

1. No matter what happens, you are not supposed to raise your hands on your birds. Birds are extremely fragile and delicate creatures. You may think that you are hitting them lightly, but even the lightest slap can prove fatal for them. Furthermore, hitting a bird can cause it to be more aggressive instead of calming it down. 
2. Don’t stretch your disciplinary action for a long period of time. If you are ignoring or isolating your pet for bad behavior, make sure that the lesson is short and sweet. Dragging on a punishment lesson can cause your bird to develop behavioral problems.
   
3. Make sure that your correctional actions are not interfering with the health of your bird. You cannot expect to correct behavior by withholding food from your pet. Not only does it fall under animal cruelty but it can also lead to the development of physical and mental problems. 

The main thing to remember is that there are countless ways to fix pets’ behavior that does not involve resorting to cruelty or meanness. Your pet should be like your child, You should learn to fix their behavior like you would fix your own child’s behavior. Letting their behavior go unchecked would only prove detrimental to you as, after a certain time, pets refuse to learn new things as they settle into a routine. So, learn how to do this all from the start.