A Simple Way To Get Your
Cat From Scratching
The Furniture

By Teri Champigny

Every cat will paw and scratch at furniture unless there is an alternative area for him to use as a scratch pad. Unfortunately, that is just the way it is, cats must scratch something! When they are on the lookout for something to scratch, they will choose something sturdy that has an appealing texture to the surface. It must also be in convenient location for the cat. Chairs, couches, and carpeted staircases are great locations because a cat can get a real good stretch and the material allows him to dig his nails deep into the surface.

Cat scratching is an innate behavior and because of this, you cannot get your cat to stop the scratching by chasing him away, squirting water, hitting or scolding. Regardless of what you do, they will still need to scratch. Nothing will stop your cat. If you work to prevent it, your cat will find other convenient locations to use as his scratching post. He will also become more and more anxious.

Although your scolding actions to try stop the cat from scratching may work temporarily – because he scurries away – this is not the case. You may even be convinced that your cat “understands that he is being bad”, but unfortunately what is happening is that he now associates you as something to fear and creates anxiety. He runs away from you because your relationship is being damaged, and becoming “dysfunctional”, so to speak. Now what is happening is that every time your cat needs to scratch he will start to feel nervous and scared because this natural instinct is now connected with something “bad”.

What To Do

While you cannot stop your cat from scratching (why would you, it's natural), you can indeed work to keep him from scratching furniture and other important areas. However, it takes two-fold approach to changing the behavior. You need an effective deterrent as well as a better alternative to training (as opposed to scolding techniques mentioned above). This way, you will be able to turn a negative into a positive while at the same time allowing your pet cats to partake in this very instinctual and satisfying behavior.

The deterrent should be in the form of a product called “Sticky Paws”. This training deterrent is a great way to keep cats off of counters, furniture, and other areas. It is a double sided transparent tape that is specifically made for this type of cat behavior.

The alternative scratching tool should be a cat-post that you can find in most pet stores. They come in all shapes and sizes so just choose one that would best suit your home. Once you have your scratching post and your deterrent tape covering the areas that you want your cat to stop scratching, simply place the post right next to the taped area.

The rest is up to your cat. You will be amazed that how little training is involved once this is set up. The first place your cat will go to scratching will be the tape-covered furniture area. When he gets turned off from the tape, he will immediately be drawn to the scratching post. Eventually, after he associates the couch with a poor scratching surface, he will only go to the post in order to scratch. Easy, isn't it? And a lot better than harshly scolding him!