Destructive behavior by pets is a common reaction to stress, but sometimes, well, it’s just normal.

New medications and treatments can help dogs and cats with urinary incontinence.

A large new study funded by the Morris Animal Foundation will follow 2,500 golden retrievers for life to identify the genetic, nutritional and environmental risk factors that make the breed so susceptible to cancer.

Those are just a few of the things I learned last week while covering the 83rd Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. I sat in on seminars and interviewed top veterinary experts on topics including puppy nutrition and the latest in genetic research to help breeders produce healthier puppies and kittens.

Below are a few tips that may help you better care for your pets, as well as information you may want to discuss with your veterinarian the next time you take Max or Molly in for an exam.

Want your cat to stop jumping up on the kitchen counter? The question isn’t how to get him to stop; it’s how to get him to jump on something else, said veterinarian and behavior specialist Gary Landsberg in his talk, “Destructive Behavior in Dogs and Cats: A Guide to Prevention and Treatment.”

Jumping up on things is a natural behavior for cats, and it’s not really one you can or should quash. It’s good exercise, after all. Instead of scolding your cat for getting up on the counter or dining room table, offer him an alternative place to perch, ideally one where he can still see what’s going on. Often, satisfaction of his curiosity is all a cat really wants.

For both cats and dogs, an enriched environment is an important part of preventing destructive scratching, chewing and marking behavior. The word "enrichment" is behaviorist-speak for providing an interesting, stimulating, species-appropriate lifestyle. Dogs gotta chew and dig, cats gotta scratch and climb. Puzzle toys that engage their brains, window perches and big scratching posts for cats, and regular playtime with people: These aren’t cure-alls, but they are a good first step to keeping pets happy, tired and out of trouble.

Kidney disease is a common problem in aging cats and dogs. A change in diet to a food with a special formulation can help failing kidneys function more effectively, but University of Tennessee professor of medicine and nutrition Joe Bartges advises making changes slowly. Introduce the new food gradually, mixing it in with the pet’s previous food over a period of a week to 10 days. Offer frequent small meals, especially for cats.

If the pet is reluctant to eat, lots of TLC, hand-feeding and the use of flavor enhancers or appetite stimulants can all help. If your dog or cat has been nauseated, don’t force a new food on him right away. If you have ever gotten food poisoning and associate it with a certain type of food, you know the inclination to avoid it for some time afterward. Pets are the same way. The takeaway: It’s more important for your dog or cat to eat and maintain his body condition than it is for him to switch immediately to a special diet.

Got a new puppy? Keep him lean. A roly-poly puppy is cute, but puppies that are allowed to get fat are predisposed to obesity and other health problems as adults. That’s the advice of both Bartges and Nestle Purina PetCare veterinary nutrition specialist Dorothy Laflamme. Keeping puppies lean while they grow programs their metabolism to maintain lean body condition as adults and makes them less likely to become fat. To prevent overeating and to aid in house-training, measure food and give it at specific mealtimes instead of leaving food out all the time.

The next time your cat is due for a rabies or other vaccination, ask your veterinarian to use a vaccine that doesn’t contain an adjuvant, a substance added to vaccines to increase the body’s immune response. Veterinary vaccine adjuvants are classified as class-3 carcinogens by the World Health Organization, and vaccines with adjuvants are associated with the development of vaccine-associated sarcomas in cats, said Alice Wolf, an internal medicine specialist and professor of small-animal medicine at Texas A&M University. Up to 20,000 cats per year are diagnosed with the malignant tumors. “Even one cat is too many if this is a problem we can avoid,” Wolf said.