As an owner of a cat, one of your main priorities will be to train your cat to prevent it from scratching your furniture. This will not only prevent stress for you, it will enable you to form a better bond with your cat.
There is a reason your cat scratches the furniture and you will need to understand that reason. It's not a question of your cat not having a taste for your furniture, or that your cat wants to irritate you. Cats simply love to scratch. Scratching comes naturally for cats and they need to do it. It is not diificult to train your cat to stop scratching your furniture, all you have to do is to provide a substitue for scratching.
Scratching is important to a cats health. Scratching allows a cat to stretch and exercise their muscles. The paws of a cat contain scent glands, which leaves their scent on objects that they scratch. A cats claws are kept healthy and clean through scratching. As you can see, there are a few reasons as to why cat scratching takes place. Instead of preventing this type of behavior, it should be encouraged, although on your terms.
Punishing your cat because it scratches your furniture is not going to make it stop. Cats will not respond to punishment and will increase your cats problems. Punishing your cat will only result in your cat avoiding you in the future. Even if you chase your cat away when you catch it scratching furniture, all it will do is to wait until you have gone, and then continue to ruin your furniture behind your back. Only by using the right training techniques will you be able to solve your cats scratching problems.
Along with getting a cat, you should also buy a scratching post at the same time. Give your cat more options to scratch by buying more than 1 scratching post. Cats can be trained at any age, but the earlier you can start, the quicker and easier it will be.
The scratching posts should be in places that your cat likes to go. One of the best places to place a post is near where your cat sleeps. The first thing that a cat likes to do when it wakes up, is to stretch and have a good scratch. You could say that this is a trait that the rest of us share. Once your cat becomes used to using scratching posts, it becomes a habit, and cats are creatures of habit.
Another good place to put scratching post, is in an area where you and other members of the family sit. Although cats give the impression that they are not bothered about people, they secretly love spending time with their owners. If your cat chooses to have a nap on your lap, a nearby scratching post will come in handy.
The only way to train your cat to use a scratching post is to make your cat familiar with it. Get your cat to scratch the post by moving a toy or piece of string up and down it. Try tying some toys that your cat likes onto the scratching post, the enables your cat to touch the post with its paws and claws. These easy techniques will allow you to train your cat so that it no longer uses your furniture for scratching.
Make sure that the scratching post is not too short, and make sue that it is firmly in place. Cat training is not difficult if you use the right methods, and it is easy to train your cat to stop it from ruining your furniture.