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Train Your Cat So it Stops Ruining Your Furniture
By Dog Lover | May 10, 2009
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.
The first step is to try and understand why a cat will scratch your furniture. Your cat doesn't do this because it wants to annoy you, nor does it purposely set out to do this because it dislikes the furniture you have. The simple fact is that cats 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 part of a cats health regime. A cat requires scratching as it helps their muscles. Cats paws have scent glands and scratching helps them to leave a scent in order to mark their territory. A cats claws are kept healthy and clean through scratching. So you can see that a cat has its reasons to scratch. You need to encourage this behavior in the correct manner instead of preventing it.
When your cat scratches your furniture, don't even think about punishing it. Cats will not respond to punishment and will increase your cats problems. Your cat will try to stay out of your way all the time if you try to punish it in any way. 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. The one way to prevent a cat from scratching furniture is through the use of effective training methods.
The first thing that you must do when you get a cat is to buy a scratching post. Even better would be to have more than 1 scratching post, as this gives your cat plenty of options. Cats can be trained at any age, but the earlier you can start, the quicker and easier it will be.
You should place the scratching posts in your cat's favourite places. 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.
The room where everybody sits together is another great place to position a scratching post. 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.
Making a scratching post familiar to a cat is the best way to get it to use 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. Just by using these simple methods you will easily be able to teach your cat to use the post instead of your furniture.
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.
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Topics: Cats Big Cats and Home Cats | No Comments »