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

Do you want to learn how to stop kitty from scratching your expensive furniture? Click here to buy Cat Secrets Revealed.

Sometimes, your cat attacks your feet when you sit down for a rest. Or he may bite and scratch your feet as you walk around the house. Does your cat hate you? On the contrary, he is playing with you, and showing that he loves you. Nevertheless, all this biting and scratching can hurt, and is not fun for you.

There are several reasons why your cat will attack your feet and legs (besides the fact that he is short and can’t reach your face when he swipes those claws of his). First of all, when he stalks and pounces on your feet, he is just playing – enacting a hunting game. He is pretending that your feet are his prey, like a mouse or bird. He is just following his natural instincts. If you have ever seen a litter of kittens play with each other, you will understand. They tumble around, roughhousing. But there will also be one or two of them who will be stalking their playmates, bellies low to the ground, ready to jump and pounce on their target.

This leads to the second reason – kitty is just playing and wants the attention of his favorite human being – YOU! He has excess energy, and wants you to play with him. Although your little tiger is just doing all this to show you his affection, you want him to stop biting and clawing your feet and legs. After all, it hurts. But you also don’t want to punish him. After all, he is just doing this because he loves you.

The first thing you can do is to play with kitty regularly. You should do this two or three times everyday. Depending on how active your cat is, ten or twenty minutes of playtime in the morning and at night should keep him happy and satisfied. This will bleed off his excess energy and at the same time show him that he is Number One in your life. If he bites or scratches too hard, you may want to play with him using cat toys. A toy mouse which squeaks when your little tiger pounces on it will work well. Just drag the rubber mouse along the ground for him to chase.

Besides playing with him, brushing his fur, bathing him when necessary and trimming his claws are also important activities. All these cat grooming activities provide more opportunities to spend quality time with kitty. And there is a side benefit of trimming his claws – it hurts less when he scratches you.

Another thing you can do is to put a collar with a bell on your cat. This will help to give you a few moments warning when kitty pounces on you from ambush. At the very least, it will keep you from being surprised and tripping over him. If you carry a spray bottle of water, you can squirt him with a little bit of cold water just as he leaps on your feet. This won’t hurt him, but will surprise him and he won’t like it. You want to catch him in the act to discourage him, so do not spray him after he finishes pouncing on you. Remember: Only squirt him with water as he is pouncing on your feet!

Your cat attacks your feet because he is playing out his natural instincts as a hunter. He is also playing with you, just as he played with his litter mates as a small kitten. You can never really stop this behavior, but you can keep in under control. Regular scheduled playtimes, using cat toys instead of your hands and feet – these are just some of the ways you can use.

Do you want to learn how to tame your naughty cat? Click here to buy Cat Secrets Revealed.

Is your little tiger driving you up the wall with one of the following cat problems?

Biting And Scratching You

Cats naturally have a lot of energy. If you keep kitty indoors, he may not be getting enough stimulation and may be overly enthusiastic when playing with you. It is best if you can schedule some regular playtimes with your cat to bleed off some of this excess energy. Often, you will find that he will stop biting and scratching you too hard all on his own.

You probably don’t want to bleed while waiting for kitty to calm down. Instead of rough-housing with him, play with him using some kitty toys instead. Try a squeeking rubber mouse, or a ball. You can also dangle something on a toy fishing pole for him to chase.

Don’t punish your cat if he plays too rough. Just immediately stop playing with him and don’t pay any more attention to him until he calms down. If he chases after you, you may need to confine him in a room on his own.

Fighting With Another Cat

What looks like fighting to you may be just playing to your cats! The fine line between playing and fighting is this: are they hurting each other?

Very often, the fighting is started by one cat. If you observe carefully, you will find that one of your cats frequently tries to ambush the other cat. A simple way to stop this problem is to hang a bell on the collar of this cat. This makes it harder for him to ambush the other cat, and will help to reduce the fights.

One more thing you can do is to trim the nails of the more aggressive cat. You can ask your vet to show you how to do this. With shorter nails, he won’t be able to hurt the other cat as much.

Scratching Your Furniture

Unfortunately, this problem behavior is not possible to stop. What you can do is redirect kitty’s attention to something else more acceptable to scratch, like a scratching post. You will need to experiment to discover which type of scratching posts your cat likes best. At the same time, you need to make it unpleasant for kitty to scratch your furniture. One way is to apply a kind of sticky pad to the surfaces which he likes to scratch. You can buy this sticky pad from your local pet shop. Keep scratching posts near all the surfaces which kitty likes to scratch, and he will quickly shift his attentions to these posts.

Spraying And Marking Territory

This is sometimes the toughest behavior to deal with, because there can be many reasons for cat spraying. The first step is to make sure all your cats are spayed or neutered. Spayed and neutered cats are less territorial, and rarely spray.

Sometimes your cats spray because they feel stressed. This could be caused by a change in your schedule, or the introduction of a new cat, or even by extra noise from road repairs outside your home.

Other times, if you have too many cats in your home, one or more of your cats will spray.

So, how can you stop this problem? First, you need to identify the reason for spraying, then eliminate that reason. Unfortunately, this is easier to say than to do. In May 2004, the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists published a case study where they took 3 or 4 years to stop this cat spraying and urination problem.

You may want to get some help from your vet. In some cases, he might prescribe some kind of cat Prozac which could help reduce the stress your cat is feeling. This would reduce the spraying problem.

Dealing with cat problems is tough unless you know kitty well. Sometimes, it can be very helpful to ask a third party like your vet for some help and advice.

Do you want to learn how to tame your naughty cat? Click here to buy Cat Secrets Revealed.