How to Keep Cats From Scratching the Furniture

Scratching is a natural behavior that serves a whole lot of feline purposes, from stretching to territorial marking. Scratching is just a fact of cat life. The key to happy co-existence with cats is to get them to answer this call of nature in a way that doesn't destroy your property. Here are some ways to do that.

1. Give the cat something else to scratch - set up a scratching post. There are lots of commercial scratching posts available in every price range. If you choose an upright model be sure to get one that's tall enough to give the cat a good stretch and heavy enough to remain upright when being scratched.

Put your new scratching post right in front of whatever it is the cat has been scratching. If the cat really likes it, you can always gradually move it to a less conspicuous place. If you meet with a lot of resistance, try rubbing it with catnip.

If you've never tried a scratching post, you could be in for a really pleasant surprise ... a good scratching post can literally save the furniture. It's one of two items that I sincerely recommend that every cat owner try - the other is a self cleaning litter box.

2. Protect the no-scratch areas. Cover the area that's being scratched with wide smooth tape, like postal strapping tape. Duct tape works too, but it looks almost as bad as the scratched upholstery. Or try covering the area with aluminum foil taped in place. If none of those coverings work, try covering the area with double-sided tape. Cats hate sticky surfaces.

3. Use behavior modification. With patience, this is the most effective tool of all. Your goal is to get the cat to associate the scratching behavior with something it finds unpleasant, like a loud noise or a squirt from a water bottle. See below for how-to.

First and foremost: if you have the utterly misguided idea that "punishing" you cat for digging the furniture - or anything else - will work ... you couldn't be more wrong. Cats don't respond to punishment. Shouting, screaming, hitting, etc. might possibly work on humans, but it will never, ever work on cats.

However, that doesn't mean that you can't take action that will discourage the cat from doing what you don't want it to do. The key is to get the cat to associate the unwanted behavior with something they don't like - a squirt of water or a loud noise, for example. Behavior modification takes some time and patience, but it can be well worth the effort. Here's how it works:

1. Have your "tools" on hand. One of the best behavior modification tools is just a pair of tin pans that you can bang together (cats dislike loud, sudden noises); another excellent one is a kid's squirt gun, or a clean squirt bottle full of water.

2. When the cat approaches the furniture, bang the pans to make as loud a noise as possible, or give the cat a swift squirt. DON'T SHOUT. DON'T STOMP, SCREAM, OR HOLLER. DON'T TOUCH THE CAT. Just use the tool. The last thing you want is for your cat to associate upsetting or uncomfortable sensations with you - you goal here is to make them associate those things with the behavior you want to discourage.

3. Be consistent. Doing it once or twice may work with some cats, but in most cases consistency is a key to success.

4. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: keep firmly in mind, you're not playing a game of "I'll show you who's boss!" If that's your attitude, you shouldn't have a cat anyway. Your goal isn't to assert your dominance, it's to get the cat to associate an unwanted behavior with things that it finds unpleasant (like loud noises or getting squirted).