Our kitten is easier to train than our dog

Having lived with Cricket (a kitten) and Zora (a young sheltie) for over a month now, I can safely say Cricket is much, much easier to train. Why? With a puppy, you have to train him to do things. With a kitten, you only have to train him NOT to do things. We've been teaching Zora how to pick up her chew toy and put it in our hands, and to do that, we have to make her do it over and over and over again. When we want to train Cricket to do something, we just have to smack him every time he does something else. I've found that a simple five-across-the-eyes or even a thrice-pimp-slap carries with it a pretty clear message. Controlled violence, it seems, is an effective vehicle of communication that transcends all language barriers.