How You Can Train Your Cat to use a Scratching Post

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.

There is a reason your cat scratches the furniture and you will need to understand that reason. 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. Not only do cats like to scratch, they have to scratch. Scratching is a natural cat behavior, and you cannot prevent your cat from doing this. You can train your cat not to scratch your furniture by giving it something else to scratch instead.

Scratching is part of a cats health regime. When a cat scratches, it is exercising its muscles. Cats mark their territiory through scratching as their paws contain scent glands. A cats claws are kept healthy and clean through scratching. As you can see, there are a few reasons as to why cat scratching takes place. Rather than trying to limit this cat behavior, you should encourage it, but on your terms.

The one thing that you should never do is to punish your cat if you catch it scratching the furniture. Cats will not respond to punishment and will increase your cats problems. If you try to punish your cat, all you will do is show the cat that you are someone who must be avoided. If you shoo your cat away if you see it scratching your furniture, it will only carry on doing the same thing when you are not around. Only by using the right training techniques will you be able to solve your cats scratching problems.

Along with getting a cat, you should also buy a scratching post at the same time. 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.

Try to place the posts in areas that your cat likes hanging out. Placing a post near where your cat sleeps is advisable. There is nothing better a cat likes than a good scratch and a good stretch after waking up. I think we all share this particular trait. 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. Cats do like to socialize with members of the family, even though at sometimes seems not to be the case. 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. You could tie some of your pet's favourite toys onto the post, this will encourage your cat to make contact with the post with its paws. These easy techniques will allow you to train your cat so that it no longer uses your furniture for scratching.

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.