Cat Training

Do you want to train kitty not to scratch your expensive furniture? If yes, you need to train him to use the scratching post. But not just any one will do. It needs to be right for your cat. And you may need more than one.

Before you make your selection, you need to know why cats scratch furniture. There are 3 main reasons:

• Mark their territory
• Maintain their claws
• Stretch and tone their muscles

If your cat scratches your sofa to mark his territory, he probably also scratches some other pieces of furniture – like your wardrobe, or dining room table. In this case, you’ll need more than one scratching post. Before you faint at the thought of buying five $100 scratching posts, you need to know that buying the most expensive posts from your local pet shop is not the best idea. More than one cat owner has complained that his cat left the expensive scratching post alone, instead preferring to scratch the cardboard box it came in.

Maybe kitty scratched your carpet or the back of your dining room chair to maintain his claws. His claws are a lot more complex than our finger nails, and he can’t clip his claws, can he? This is one reason why many cat owners buy scratching posts made from sisal. Kitty can really dig his claws into the sisal, while it is tough and relatively long-lasting. But if you look at it, carpet is also quite tough, and you can buy small pieces cheap from Walmart or get left-over pieces for free from your local carpet shop. The thick cardboard used for packing cases also has the same properties. You can get these for free from your neighborhood shops.

Don’t forget that cats also scratch furniture to stretch and tone their muscles. You’ll understand when you see how they scratch your wardrobe – they reach up, dig their claws in, then drag them down. That means whatever you buy must be firm and stable, and high enough for kitty to scratch as usual. Look at the claw marks on your furniture now. If they are 3 feet up, then the scratching post must be at least 3 feet high. Not only that – when kitty leans his weight against it, it must not shake or topple over.

Here are some tips to make your own cheap scratching posts:

• Planks, crates and pieces from old furniture
• Logs and thick tree branches, especially with the bark still on them
• Thick cardboard, like the type used to make packing cases
• Carpet

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Cats are cute. Cats are loveable. Unfortunately, many cats love to scratch your furniture and carpets. If you do not want to replace your sofa every few months, you will need to train your cat to use cat scratching posts. Although this is not a difficult task, it can be time-consuming. It needs a lot of love, patience and understanding from you. If you cannot make this kind of commitment to your feline friend, you are better of giving him away.

Having said that, here is a shortcut which work for many cats. Catnip works wonders for training your cat to use the scratching post. For your convenience, modern science has created a catnip spray which you can use to spray the cat scratching post. You should place this post near the sofa or furniture where your cat likes to scratch. You should also get a cat repellant spray – to spray the places where he likes to scratch.

Many cats scratch furniture as a means of marking their territory. The scratching serves as a visible mark and also leaves behind a scent from the glands in his paws. This means your cat, or cats, probably have more than one favorite piece of furniture where they like to scratch. You will need to buy more than one scratching post.

Cats also scratch furniture as part of their exercise, as well as to shed the dead outer layers of their claws. You should not buy a cat scratching post just because it looks cool. You should buy a post which fits your cat best. One way is to find something which feels like your furniture or carpet. Do not limit your thoughts to just a scratching post. Cats which like to scratch carpets often respond well to something flat laid down flat on the ground. If your cat is like this, it may take longer to train him to use a vertical scratching post.

Given this fact, it is better if you only buy cat scratching posts from your local shops – where you can see and feel the material of the post. If it looks or feels different from the furniture which your cat is scratching now, he is unlikely to switch to the new post. This factor makes buying cat furniture online a bit chancy.

Cat scratching posts bought from the store can be expensive for some cat owners. Here are some ideas for cheap, homemade cat furniture:

• Cheap, square pieces of carpet which you can buy from WalMart, etc. Should cost you under $10. You may also be able to get some free from your local carpet shop.
• Cardboard cartons and boxes – you should be able to get these free from your local grocery shop.
• Wooden logs.
• Old furniture, or parts of old furniture. If you have some handy wood-working skills, you can turn a small cabinet into a cat house.
• Rough wooden planks.

Here is another shortcut to prevent your cat from damaging your furniture – regularly take him to the vet to get his nails clipped, either once or twice a month. The vet will clip the hooked part of the claw. This is the part which causes the most damage to your furniture and carpet. You may want the vet to teach you how to do it yourself. Please note that this is different from declawing your cat, which is cruel and inhumane. Declawing actually involves chopping off the tips of your cats toes. How would you feel if someone cut off the tips of your fingers?

Some cats appear intransigent, and refuse to use the cat scratching post. The fact is, you may just need to understand him better. And also use a different way of training him. You have to remember that shortcuts do not always work.

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Rip! Rip! Riiiip! Oh no, your cat is scratching the sofa again! Do you have this problem – kitty scratching and shredding your sofa, the legs of your expensive dining table, or your wall-to-wall carpet? Many people face this problem, and it frustrates them no end. Too many cat owners resort to scolding and punishment, and are frustrated and puzzled when it fails to do any good. Some owners confine kitty to a part of the house with less expensive furniture, or redecorate their home to remove cat scratching surfaces. A few buy scratching posts, and wonder why kitty still prefers that tattered sofa to the brand new expensive scratching posts. In the end, many people give up their cats, either throwing them out on the street to join the stray cat population, or surrender them to the animal shelter, where they will ultimately be put down.

The key problem is ignorance, not kitty. Too many cat owners are ignorant, and wilfully remain ignorant of why their cats scratch the furniture. They don’t know, don’t care and can’t be bothered to find out. Now, there are 5 reasons why cats scratch furniture:

• Claw maintenance – kitty is scratching to remove the dead outer layers of its claws


• Mark their territory – clawing and scratching your furniture leaves both a visual mark and a scent from the glands in their paws.


• Exercise – the motions involved in scratching stretch and tone their muscles.


• Too much energy


• To get your attention

As you can see from the list above, this is the reason that the usual deterrence measures do not work very well. For this reason, in many parts of the world, cat owners get their precious kitties declawed. Such a simple little word, yet it has such profound implications. Declawing your cat actually means that the vet is going to amputate the last joint of all kitty’s toes. Consider that the Japanese mafia’s infamous punishment for failure is chopping off the last joint of the little finger, and here you are chopping off the last joint of all of kitty’s toes. How horrible is that! Clearly, declawing is very traumatic and disfiguring to your cat. While it does resolve the scratching problem, it will actually cause potentially worse problems – spraying, urination, aggressive biting, etc.

As a cat lover, you need to learn how to use the scratching post correctly. Once again, we turn to animal behavioral science for help. You need to find out what kind of material your cat likes to scratch. The scratching post you buy needs to be of this material. You need to place the scratching post where kitty likes to scratch. And you need to patiently, lovingly and firmly redirect kitty’s scratching to the post. For this, you can use the usual reinforcement techniques. When your cat uses the scratching post, you reward it – praise kitty and give it a kitty treat.

Slowly, you will find this bad behavior of kitty fading away. You will no longer have to replace your sofa every few months. You can have tables with wooden legs again. Isn’t life so much better this way?

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