How to Stop your Cat from Scratching Furniture: Do NOT Declaw
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How to Stop your Cat from Scratching Furniture: Do NOT Declaw
A ruined expensive sofa is a good reason to look for an effective solution to your cat’s ‘scratching problem’. However, you should always remember that the easiest way isn’t always the best. There are many methods that can teach your pet not to scratch the furniture, and declawing isn’t the way to go on this.
Declawing is a dangerous and invasive procedure that deals an extensive amount of harm to the animal, both physically and emotionally. It may be described in fancy terms, but this surgical procedure is, in fact, an amputation of the cat’s fingers up to the first joint. It causes the animal a great deal of pain it will suffer for the rest of its life, which often leads to numerous behavioural problems. The surgery itself comes with a huge risk of secondary complications.
How to Teach Your Cat to Scratch the Right Way
There are effective and humane methods to teach your cat not to scratch the furniture. The secret to this lies in training it to claw the right things. It’s imperative for you to understand that scratching is a natural behaviour for cats, so breaking them out of the habit completely is as harmful as forbidding other natural instincts.
The solution is to provide your precious pet with specialized scratching surfaces and encourage using them. Remember that cats aren’t children, so you should never ‘guide’ them towards the acceptable scratching post. This will only offend the animal and might motivate it to ignore the post entirely in the future.
The placement of the scratch post matters greatly, because scratching is a way cats use to mark their territory. This means that when your little kitty ‘redecorates’ the sofa, they are letting everyone know that it’s a part of their territory. Thus, putting a scratch post out of the way will reduce the animal’s desire to mark it. Start with placing the post where your pet goes to scratch now, and when it gets used to the tool, you can start moving it out of the way.
The type of the post also matters. Look for options with rough surfaces as cats like them most. It must also be tall enough for the animal to fully extend its body. Be sure to buy a secure post as the cat will be frightened of it if it topples even once.
Petmate Lean On Me cat scratcher is a great choice as it’s stylish and stable, as well as supplied with useful extras, like catnip reservoirs and a toy attachment – Buy Now
