Putting the "dis" in "discipline"

We recently started implementing timeouts for Jack. He's getting to an age where he is testing limits and knows when he's not supposed to do something. For the most part, we like to use logical consequences (e.g., if he throws food, no more food), but there are some behaviors where the logical consequences are either unacceptable or not immediate enough to teach him a lesson. Hence, timeouts.

Jack's biggest current behavioral challenge is pulling the cat's tail. The logical consequence, of course, would be to let the cat attack him. Obviously this is not an option. And unfortunately, our cat is so stupid that instead of running away, he comes back for more. So we put Jack in timeout. Sadly, he seems to think it's funny. When we tell him, "Timeout, Jack," he repeats, "Timeout" and laughs. He's supposed to stay in timeout for one minute (one minute for every year of his age), but we're lucky if he stays ten seconds before running off. If we (especially Tom) puts him back in the timeout spot, he just laughs and laughs. The only thing that kind of works is if I just hold him in place with my head turned so that I'm not looking at him. We then explain why we put him in timeout and make him apologize to Echo (with mixed results).

It is not working.

He still thinks it's fun to pull Echo's tail. I'm trying not to let visions of a cat with a cast on his tail color my dreams. I also try to ignore the little voice that reminds me that most psycho killers started out torturing animals as children.

It gets easier, right? Right??