I will not drink out of the toilet. I, Muttley, resolve to stop using the toilet as a punch bowl. (Or if I do, I promise to not regurgitate what I swallow on that carpet the Masters seem to be so fond of.)
I will not jump on guests. Or paw their legs under the dinner table in the hopes of food. Or get…um, romantic. I will not chase the Cat. Or eat his food.
I will not knock anything over as I roam indoors. I will think about waking everyone by slowly knocking the items off the night tables, especially the things that break.
I will stop clawing the Oriental rug. I will not stop clawing the table legs, but I will endeavor to scratch them in a manner that would be consistent with the bite marks from the Dog.
I vow to keep clean. Neatness counts, amigos! So I, Tweety, will refrain from splashing bathwater outside my cage and madly tossing seeds, blueberries, strawberries, and other wet, gloppy items on the floor. (Although, hey, what’s the diff? The Dog will eventually clean it up.)
I vow to keep the noise down. I will not do the crystal-shattering squawk thing just for the heck of it. When the Tall Unfeathered Ones are at home, I will not imitate the sound of the Dog’s howls or the Cat when he’s receiving a pill.
As with humans, support will help your pets keep their resolutions. Do your part to not tempt your best friend to do bad things, whether that means keeping the toilet lid down or changing the litter box more often. “Find ways to steer your animals toward appropriate behavior,” says Melissa Shyan-Norwalt, PhD, an animal behaviorist and the owner of Companion Animal Problem Solvers in the Cincinnati region. If the dog chews on your couch or the cat scratches it, spray it with an odor your pet won’t like–and also place bones, chew toys, or vertical and horizontal scratching posts nearby.
Reinforce the behavior when she does well, and don’t reward actions you don’t want repeated: When you scold a jumping dog or a howling cat, he simply interprets your chatter as positive attention.
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