Every dog is different. Some dogs need professional grooming help. Some dogs can just require bathing and nail trims at home. I would consult your veterinarian and your groomer for more advice.

Yes, you can bathe a dog too often. Dogs naturally have some oil production in their skin and their hair coat to keep them nice and healthy. If we strip that too frequently, you can cause dry skin, itching, and further problems. So I try to limit it every one week to two weeks for bathing.

Bonding comes through play. That's the best way I like to bond with my kids. Find what they love. Some cats will fetch. Perhaps they like the little laser pointer or a certain toy. Maybe it's just sitting down and petting them and interacting with them like that. You might have to learn what their love language is and foster that. You don't want to love them to death with food. Don't bond only on food, like when you're eating your potato chips or popcorn at night and watching TV, and you're giving them that—now they’re going to associate eating with socializing.

Punish just gives such a negative connotation, right? We like to say more redirect or appropriate discipline if needed. But if they are doing things that you don't want them to do, we don't want to hurt them or harm them, but we want to get their attention. I think that's our goal, along with placing them in the right place or redirecting. We feel that using a water bottle to squirt them will not hurt them, but it gets their attention. I've had one or two clients say their cats love it, but most of the time, they don't. Say they're on the kitchen table, and you don't want them there; you can squirt them with the water. That will sure get most of them down.

Or you can try making a loud noise—whether it's a rolled-up newspaper that you hit on a surface that makes a loud noise. Something to kind of redirect them from doing that. And then other things that they might be doing, you might need to investigate why they're doing that. Again, this goes back to the question about the litter box. If they're going outside the litter box, do you punish them for that? I don't think so because, one, they likely haven't been trained appropriately. Or two, something's going on that's making them behaviorally act that way. I would want to dig a little deeper and see why that behavior was occurring.

The other part would be: is that normal behavior? Are you punishing normal behavior? Is a cat scratching your couch, and you're punishing that when that's normal behavior for them to scratch and to shed those claws?

Let's say they are climbing on furniture that you don't want them on. Try a cat tree and play with them on that. Maybe you hide a little bit of their kibble for them to find. You don't want to overfeed them. But you can hide some of that to attract them to that area. Perhaps you have a toy that's their favorite toy that you put at the top, and you have the kitten go chase and find it. There is a product that has them scratch on surfaces that you want and not on surfaces that you don't. It's made by FeliWay called FeliAttract. And so you put that on the appropriate scratching area, and it attracts them to that.

Play with them. Play, play, play. Give kittens lots of things to do. Especially if it's an indoor kitty, you have to play with them because they don't have a lot of that natural environmental stimulation. If you think about all the sights, sounds, noises, and smells that an outdoor cat experiences, and then you've placed them inside, their senses aren't fully being stimulated. They can do things and behavior that you don't want. By playing with them a lot, that can give them natural endorphins when they exercise, and it makes them tired because you've played with them a lot.

I guess I would question: are they aggressive, or are they having normal behavior? Yes, some kittens are aggressive because they're scared. They're fearful. That's that fight or flight behavior, and so they may feel threatened. And that could be one reason they could be aggressive. They may be aggressive because that's their normal play and behavior. Biting and chewing can look like aggression or biting and scratching, but it's normal play that has not been directed in the right ways.

It's a great question. Often, kittens are vocal when they're attention-seeking, and that can be because, hey, they slept all day while you were at work, and they're ready to play. Why are you sleeping? That could be one thing. They could either be hungry or think that they're hungry. Depending on how you respond, you are actually reinforcing certain behaviors. As long as they are safe and not hurt, then probably ignoring that behavior would be the first and best thing. But if you get up, even if you don't think you are, you might be positively reinforcing that by interacting with them, and so they're getting attention. Or if you feed them, then be prepared to do that in the future.