Turn Your Cat Into Your Friend And Save Your Furniture. Give Him A Cat Scratching Post
One of the best companions you will ever have is a cat. A cat makes a good pet, both for adults as well as children. But one annoying habit that all cats have is that they love to scratch the furniture.
At some time or another all cat owners find that their cat is scratching. I don’t mean that they’re scratching you, it’s much more likely that they’re scratching the legs of your furniture.
It’s a question asked by so many cat owners. Why do cats scratch and can a cat scratching post help protect the legs of my furniture from all those claw marks?
It’s perfectly normal for cats to scratch. It’s an instinctive habit for cats, it helps to sharpen their claws. In fact it’s pretty unlikely that you will stop your cat from scratching. Instead direct their attention to scratching a dedicated cat scratching post, and this will preserve the legs of your furniture.
The way you do that is by making it less pleasant for the cat to scratch your furniture and more pleasant for him to scratch something that can be damaged at no cost to you. His scratching pole is specifically designed so that it can be torn to shreds and it doesn’t matter, and it keeps your cat happy.
Scratching poles are really very simple. They are usually covered with a simple material such as carpet so that your feline can dig his claws into it and pull away to his heart’s content.
So how do you redirect his attention away from the furniture and towards his scratching pole? Cats respond to positive behaviour from their owners, so don’t punish him for doing what comes naturally. Try a more lateral approach, for example wrapping something around the legs of the furniture to make it less attractive to him whilst providing him with a good scratching post. If he takes the hint and uses the post that’s fine, if not then try rubbing some Catnip on it to attract him to the post.
It’s not always smooth sailing training him to redirect his attention from your furniture to his post, but if you persevere it’s usually quite achievable. If he still insists on using the furniture then when you see him heading towards the furniture just gently pick him up and take him to the scratching tree and put him there.
Don’t ever consider de-clawing your cat. It’s a nasty process and something you should never consider. But it’s fine to trim his claws from time to time just to make sure they’re not so sharp. A cat makes a wonderful pet, but they do have annoying little idiosyncrasies. Learn what they are, learn how to deal with them and your cat will be a friend for life. Just make sure he scratches the cat scratching post rather than the furniture.
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