Stop Your Cat From Scratching Furniture

One of the trickiest parts of trying to train a cat is stopping furniture scratching. This is because, by and large, a cat scratches at furniture purely for enjoyment purposes. They like the feeling, and as scratching stimulates their scent glands, it has a pleasurable mix of marking an area and a pleasant physical sensation. Stopping an animal from doing something they love is the most difficult thing to stop; but with cats scratching furniture, it isn’t impossible.

The first and most important weapon in the war against furniture scratching is a designated scratching post. These can be found from almost all pet stores, but you need to be careful about what you buy. The most seen, and often cheapest, scratching posts are largely utterly pointless – they aren’t high enough, nor are they sturdy enough. Study your cat when he scratches at the furniture; he will lean his body against it and arch his back as far down as possible. The small, unstable scratching posts that populate most pet stores make this impossible. As distressed owners purchase them and the furniture scratching continues, the myth of not being able to stop a cat from scratching continues.

A good scratching post actually need not even be a post at all. Try and buy a rectangle of solid but flexible material, or a specific hard-wearing cork board from a pet store. Then, see how tall your cat is and nail the board to the floor at a point they will have to stretch to reach. The wall provides the stability the cat craves, and the height means they can fully extend and get that pleasure boost.

With a replacement scratching place secure, you can move on to transferring your cats affection from furniture to designated scratching place. Try rubbing a citrus fruit or vinegar lightly on the most attacked areas of furniture; all cats intensely dislike both of these smells, and will go away from the area if they sense it. Couple this with aversion tactics; if your cat moves to scratch the furniture, move them to the scratching post. Keep this up for a few weeks, and before long your furniture will become tear free. Cats are creatures of habit, so when the routine of using the designated scratching post is established, you probably won’t have to deal with the issue again.

The Benefits of a Second Cat

If you are having problems training and controlling your cat, it may be worth considering a second cat addition to the household to naturally aid this process.

There are problems that can arise from trying to introduce a new cat, but with a slow and gentle introduction process that lets the resident cat and the new cat meet and greet when they are comfortable and ready, these problems can usually be managed. A new cat will bring with them teething problems, as you and the cats try and establish a way of living and even a hierarchy, but eventually the benefits will outweigh the good.

This is particularly true if one of the main problems you have with your current pet is hyperactivity. Cats like to play, chase, hunt and run around; they are replicating behaviours that are natural to their species, and the experience is usually extremely pleasurable for them, too. If a cat lives alone, all of their playful tendencies will be focused on their owner. While this is wonderful for creating a bond and enjoying your cat, it is less than perfect at 3am when your cat is feeling playful and all you want is a decent nights sleep as you have work in the morning. While toys and activity centres can go someway to alleviating this problem, nothing will do it like the introduction of a second cat and a playmate.

All cats have similar sleeping patterns, with most sleeping for around 18 hours a day and wanting to play and interact the rest of the time. Unfortunately, this period of desired activity often occurs at night – naturally a cats most wakeful time. With the introduction of a second cat, you not only have a new pet to enjoy and love, but they can play together during the dark hours and leave you in peace.

Be careful and considerate of both cats when trying to introduce them for the first time, and don’t expect them to become playmates immediately. They may need a couple of weeks to scope each other out and become comfortable around one another, but soon enough they will most likely be interacting and playing together, stimulating both of them mentally and physically. There is also a companionship factor, which is particularly important for cats that don’t like to be left alone. As long as the process of introduction and initial settling in is done carefully, the addition of a second cat to a household will delight your cat and allow you to get some much needed sleep!