Never. I know that sounds crazy, but punishment is never a good option. When we're looking at our relationship with our cat, punishment really damages the relationship. When cats see us, they should see that we are a source of comfort and stability and food. If we inflict pain on our cat in any way, it's going to damage that relationship. Furthermore, studies have shown that aversive types of reinforcement, so spray bottles, making the scary noise, and those sorts of things don't work over the long term. Unless you can guarantee that that negative thing will happen every time your cat exhibits a behavior, it's just not going to work.

Whereas if we reinforce the behaviors we want, so say, for example, your cat’s getting on the counter, and it's driving you nuts. Why is your kitten doing that? Or why is your cat doing that? They're doing that for a couple of reasons. One, cats like to have vertical spaces. They want to be above things. They like to "look down on us" in some ways. And so we need to give them a place that they can do that. If you don't want them on your counters, give them somewhere else to be. Say, it's a cat tree or a shelf built for them. And when they use those sorts of resources, reinforce that behavior by giving them a treat or praise or whatever you need.

Training can be beneficial for this teaching. A cat command or targeting with touch can be constructive to redirect them to the location you want. Another reason cats get on a counter is that there's often food up there. And so we need to avoid allowing them to find food on counters. So rather than spraying your cat with a spray bottle, the times you catch them on the counter, just make sure they don't have a good reason to get on the counter and give them other opportunities for that vertical space they're looking for.

That kind of goes into some of the stuff that we already talked about, setting them up for success by not ever allowing your hand or other body parts to be seen as toys. Use things that they're allowed to play with whenever you're interacting with them. And that doesn't have to be anything complicated or fancy from the store. It can be a string or a ball, or an old stuffy or something like that, but just set them up for success by giving them good play options.

That can be challenging. I think the best way to have calm moments with your kitten is to make sure they're getting the stimulation that they need both mentally and physically. That can be somewhat challenging sometimes because it doesn't come naturally to us to play with a kitten or interact with a kitten the way they need. I think it's a great idea when you're considering getting a kitten to get more than one kitten at a time. Get one to two kittens, ideally from different litters, so there is a little bit of a distinct personality, so they learn to interact appropriately. Ensure they are relatively close in age because they can get some of that craziness out on each other versus on your arms and legs. But if you’re not going to do that for whatever reason and you’re going to have a solitary kitten, you must have different stimulation for them.

At least once or twice a day, plan for some interactive play. And that should be with a toy or some sort of instrument, not your hands or your feet, even if it's adorable when they're a tiny little fluff ball chewing on your toe. It won’t be cute in about a month and a half when they have the talons and the fangs. So we must never use our body parts to play with the kittens because that tends to cause problems later on.

Use a wand or some other sort of toy, stuffed toy, or even paper balls. Fulfill that need for your kitten to chase or grab or chew on something that doesn't involve your body. I want to bring up the idea of laser pointers, as a lot of stores advocate using laser pointers, and you see them on TV as a way to get your cat exercise. I don't like to use laser pointers with dogs or cats. It can sometimes lead to frustration because they never physically get to catch or bite or grab anything. And in some rare situations, they can lead to obsessive or compulsive behaviors and turn into a behavior problem. So I would stick to toys that they can give some physical satisfaction from grabbing or chewing on.

In general, kittens bite and scratch and get into any kind of trouble that they can. The kitten stage is really about learning how to be a cat in a wild-type situation. They're learning how to catch and subdue prey. And a lot of that comes out as anything that's fast-moving or super interesting they're going to pounce on and try and hold, or even do that silly little bunny kick that they do with their back legs. Biting and scratching are normal. We just need to teach the kitten how we want them to interact with us throughout our life together. When these sorts of behaviors happen, we need to redirect them to something that we want them to do or avoid these situations overall in managing how we play with our cats.

That's certainly an option, but from my perspective, it's not the best option. I think it's less expensive to prevent problems than deal with them as they come up for a couple of reasons. One reason is there can be long-term effects of things that we can prevent. These illnesses are sometimes not fixable, which can mean chronic care and chronic medications, which obviously can add up and be more expensive.

For example, if we can start that Lyme vaccine at eight weeks and keep it up to date year to year, it will keep your dog protected. The vast majority of dogs are very well protected by that vaccine. The company also guarantees the vaccine. So if God forbid, your dog gets Lyme disease even though they're vaccinated, their care is going to be covered by that company.

If we didn't do the Lyme vaccine and your dog contracts Lyme, we recommend regular monitoring of protein levels in the urine, Lyme C6 titers. Often they need several rounds of medications because Lyme can become a lifelong disease. In a tiny percentage of dogs, it can lead to kidney failure.

So when you think about the small things that you can do each year or each month, like a flea and tick preventative to keep these problems from occurring, it ends up being a lot cheaper than dealing with a problem as it comes up.