Couch Scratcher

[Curlynn]

Alright, my chubby cat loves to scratch on my new couch and its driving me insane! Now my younger cat mimicks it because she sees me yell at chubbs and she enjoys making me angry (no lie, my fiance can confirm). How do i get my children to stop? They have two cat condos with scratching posts they use, nails get trimmed but they still do damage to the couch... Citrus doesnt effect the younger cat, shes very weird. Im running out of ideas! Halpppp!

 

[Columbine]

Couch scratching is such a common problem, and a frustrating one (especially when new furniture is involved). I doubt that they actually like getting you angry as such (cats dont think that way), but they could well be liking the attention they get for this behaviour.

There are several tricks you can try to get them to stop. One is Paws Off, or other similar products. These are sticky strips that you put on your furniture. Cats don't like the sticky/tacky feeling on their paws, so they effectively teach themseles to stop scratching. Another option that works on the same principle is to wrap tinfoil around the affected areas. Cats don't generally like scratching on that, either.

With either of these two options, make sure they have a scratcher in the same area as the couch, so they have somewhere appropriate to scratch nearby. Scratching is a healthy form of territory marking, so it's important that they have scratcher in the most socially significant areas of the home.

Another option, though more costly, is to get some corner scratchers that are designed to wrap or fit around the corners of your furniture. This option protects the furniture whilst allowing the cats to scratch in that area.

Lastly, you could try fitting them with claw covers (such as SoftPaws), which will help stop them causing any damage if they do scratch. These can be particularly helpful whilst you're retraining them, and are pretty easy to fit (especially if they're used to claw clipping).

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