What are the best ways to keep your cat from scratching your furniture?

Catching your cat scratching your furniture can be so frustrating, especially if you’re not sure how to stop the behaviour.  I think the best way to figure out how to make it stop, you must first understand why your cat scratches in the first place.  Because of that you should be able to easily modify scratching the couch to scratching the cat scratching post. 

There are various reasons why scratching is important for them such as:

• They scratch to express stress
• They scratch as a way to maintain their nails
• They scratch to mark their territory since their paws have scent glands

The one thing to take away here is that this behaviour is done by instinct.  Because of that you, should be able to easily modify where your cat scratches, but you’ll never be able to stop them from doing it. 

Here are some of the best strategies to keep Kitty from scratching your furniture:

Get a few scratching posts and place them strategically:

To give you an idea of what I mean by a few, I live in an apartment and I have about 5 different scratching options for my one cat. Cats scratch all day long, so the posts get worn out quickly.  I’m due to “restring” one of them.  I’ll make sure to create a tutorial post on how to do that. 

From observing my cat, there are times she scratches my couch to get my attention.  I think by nature I tend to react immediately and pay attention to her so mission accomplished.  So that leads me to where to place all those scratching posts.  The best way to get your cat to scratch the post rather than the couch is to put a post around that area.  The lesson here is that for anything you take away from your cat, you have to provide them with an alternative. 

Keep your cat’s nails trimmed:

I know that trimming your cat’s nails is not always an easy task but the more you do it and get comfortable with it, the less your cat will fight you on it.  You’ll likely get better at it over time too.  I give my cat her favourite treats when I’m done so sometimes, she doesn’t even fight to get away from the clippers.  She just waits for it to be over so she can have her treat. 

All that to say, if you keep your pet’s nails trimmed, the damage won’t be as bad if they do scratch the couch once in a while. 

Apply double-sided tape or furniture protectors just in case:

As I said earlier, although my cat uses her scratching posts most of the time, she still scratches the couch to get my attention.  To be fair, she doesn’t necessarily take out her nails completely.  Just enough to let me know it could happen. 

It’s for those moments that applying some double-sided tape to your couch to try and stop the behaviour.  The stickiness is sure to keep your cat away but remember to give them an alternative option. 

Reward your cat for using the scratching posts:

Cats do not understand punishment.  You may have heard of or seen people spray their cat with water to stop them from scratching the furniture or using some sort of loud noise to scare them away.  They will automatically associate the water or noise with you and instead of being scared of what happens when you scratch the couch, they will be scared of you because you created the stressful situation. 

What you should do instead when you get a new scratching post is to reward your furry friend with either a treat or a pet whenever they use it.  Most cats are food motivated so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince them that the post is better because they get a treat. 

If nothing works, go to the vet:

If you’ve tried everything to modify the behaviour but they’re still scratching your furniture, it could be that your feline friend is trying to tell you there’s some sort of health issue.  Booking an appointment with your vet could be the answer to this frustrating situation. 

The one thing you should never ever consider is getting your cat declawed.  It is a horrible thing to do to your cat.  If that is something you’re seriously considering; you should just give your cat away.  A piece of furniture is not a reason to amputate a pet. 

This tall scratching post is sure to keep your cat away from your couch

(paid ad) Luckily, if you follow the strategies I’ve suggested to help modify your pet’s scratching behaviour, you shouldn’t need to resort to such an extreme way of dealing with the issue.  The key is to have good treats.  As I said, most cats learn very quickly what they need to do to get a treat and they will never turn a treat down.