How to stop your cat from scratching the furniture

But don’t despair. There are methods to preserve your couch or rug protected. The key’s to redirect your lovable little destroyer to one other goal. Here’s how.

Declawing your cat is one Nineteen Nineties development that ought to by no means be resurrected. Turns out the process is kind of merciless. It entails amputating the knuckle from the finish of the cat’s paw, and it might trigger long-lasting ache, says Zazie Todd, an animal behavior expert and writer of “Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy.” “There is no benefit to the cat,” she says. “If you think of scratching as a normal behavior, you don’t want to prevent cats from being able to do something that’s normal for them.”

A rising variety of veterinary practices are refusing to declaw cats, says Sara Everett, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Others do so only in extreme cases (like if the owner might otherwise give up the animal).

More than a dozen U.S. cities, along with New York and Maryland, have passed bans on the procedure.

Design inspiration can come from wherever, together with your cat

The ideal place for your cat to use her claws is on a scratching post. But not all of them are created equally, and it might take some trial and error to find a post that your cat loves.

One critical factor to consider is texture. Some cats like the knobby feel of a carpet-covered scratching post, while others prefer cardboard or sisal. “You might just have to offer them a little scratching post cafeteria or buffet and see what they select,” says Amy Pike, a veterinary behaviorist and the owner of the Animal Behavior Wellness Center in Fairfax, Va.

There’s also the question of vertical versus horizontal. Most felines love tall scratching posts, but some prefer a surface flush with the ground. If you’re going vertical, make sure you get something sturdy. Jackson Galaxy, a cat behaviorist and author of “Total Cat Mojo,” says that part of the appeal of furniture is that it doesn’t tip over when cats pull down during a long stretch. If you’re looking to supplant a sofa or chair, then you’ll need to find a stable scratching post with some heft at the base.

Put the scratching submit in the proper location

Finding the perfect scratching post won’t matter if you hide it away. Your cat hasn’t been going to town on your favorite chair as an act of revenge, but because you spend a lot of quality time there. Busy areas of the house tend to be “areas where they get good attention from their owners, like petting and cuddling and playing,” says Everett, so cats want to mark those places as their territory. (When you put it that way, it’s kind of sweet.)

That means placing a scratching post in a rarely used space won’t work: “They don’t care about scratching areas of the home that aren’t valuable to them,” says Everett. Instead, put the post near the furniture that your cat is ruining so she’ll more readily see it as a substitute. You can add catnip to the post to make it even more appealing.

Some owners go to extraordinary lengths to accommodate their finicky cats

Don’t punish your cat for scratching

This section kind of sounds like it was written by a cat, but it’s true: Punishment doesn’t work very well for our feline friends. Your cat probably won’t connect your harsh words or tone with the scratching, so the only thing you’ll accomplish is making her anxious.

Instead, try rewarding your cat for the behavior you do want. “If you see them using their scratching post and you wait until they finish and then you very quickly get them a treat, that will make them more likely to use that post in the future,” says Todd.

Protect your furniture from cat scratching

There are several ways you can guard the sofa, though some methods are more aesthetically pleasing than others.

You can wrap your furniture with a product like Sticky Paws — essentially double-sided tape that makes scratching feel less-satisfying for many cats. Galaxy uses these types of products as a training tool: “It doesn’t mean for the rest of your life with this couch or cat you’re going to need to keep that stuff on there — they’re going to learn.” He also stresses that this tactic only works if you provide another outlet for scratching.

Other options include adding throw blankets to protect a scratch-prone area, or wrapping a material like sisal around the lower part of a chair or sofa to protect it.

If you’re shopping for new furniture, think about the textures your cat likes to scratch. If she loves bumpy fabrics, choose pieces upholstered with smoother materials, like velvet or leather. New furniture also provides a fresh opportunity to train your cat, says Todd, because it doesn’t have your pheromones on it yet. “If you’re bringing home something new, it’s going to smell different, and that would be a good point to make sure that you’ve got your scratching post lined up and in the right place,” she says.

They bought a blender. Three weeks later, their cats continue to hold it hostage.

Some cats are more tenacious and destructive than others. If you consistently come home to ruined furniture, you might want to consider a product such as Soft Paws — little caps that you put over a cat’s natural nails. These allow your cat to engage in normal scratching without causing so much destruction. They last about a month to six weeks, and while they can be a bit cumbersome to apply, Everett says some veterinary practices will put them on for owners. As a fun bonus, they come in a range of colors, so your cat will look like she’s had a bright manicure.

Sometimes you’ve gotten to let the cat win

On occasion, you just have to surrender. Pike, for instance, has one chair in her house that became a scratching post for her cat “and we leave it as such,” she says. When cats express such a strong preference for a piece of furniture, it’s kinder to leave it as an option for them than to get rid of it entirely, she says. (This is also true of a scratching post that you may think has reached the end of its life.) By ceding the chair, Pike has basically protected the rest of her furniture.

“When we have company, we take it away and we move it so it doesn’t look so disgusting,” she says, however in any other case the chair now belongs to the cat. “It’s become a cat scratching post that someone can sit on occasionally.”