How to wean a cat to tear wallpaper and furniture, the main reasons and what to do

The cat in the house is not only the joy of the presence of a gentle, purring creature nearby, but also untidy scratches in various places. Most owners do not know how to wean a cat to tear wallpaper and furniture, especially since this is really a difficult task. In fact, there are several rules that allow you to wean an animal from spoiling things.

Why do cats do this?

The cat does not tear furniture because it wants to annoy the owners. Even 2-3 thousand years ago, cats were wild animals and, after domestication, retained hunting skills and instincts necessary for survival in nature. The habit of tearing furniture for cats has several meanings:

charging - during scratching, the muscles of the legs and back tighten, as if sipping, and then relax. Such "gymnastics" allows animals to be constantly in good shape;
protection of the territory - on the paw pads in cats are glands that secrete, when releasing claws, a sharply smelling secret. Any extraneous cat, having sniffed the wounded furniture, will understand: the house already has a master, plus it will see the size of the “rival” in terms of scratch height;
manicure for cats there is no difference between a tree and an expensive sideboard. All this is great for sharpening claws. All cat-claw predators grow all their lives and, if they are not grinded, begin to bend in rings, digging into the delicate skin on their paws. Scratching dense, but not too hard objects allows you to keep the claws in the right shape. In the process, they are cleaned of dirt, dying scales, become sharper (this is especially important for those cats who were taken into the house as living mousetraps).

To demand that the cat does not tear furniture, you can only offer him an adequate replacement - a convenient scratching post.

Most often, damage to cat furniture is a kind of exercise

Convenient scratching post helps save furniture and wallpaper

Ways to wean an animal from spoiling wallpaper and furniture

Before weaning a cat to scratch furniture, you need to understand why a cat does it here. There can be many reasons for this:

upholstery or wallpaper material is most convenient for claws (it is not difficult to check this by covering the “problem zone” with a cloth of a different density);
the height and location of the item allows the cat to reach out for amenities (try rearranging the item and see if the animal continues to scratch it);
the item turned out to be closest to the place where the animal wants to stretch - for example, after waking up;
if the cat scratches the furniture on which the owner usually sits, this may be a manifestation of sympathy or desire to be closer to the person (in this case, it is often enough to set the claw tip closer to your favorite armchair or sofa).

Ripped corners can be covered

Scarlet Point

Material Anti-Claw

There are many ways to wean a cat from scratching furniture. The choice of method depends on the age of the animal, habits, breed. Maine Coons usually prefer to scratch vertical surfaces and, if they buy a rug, they will continue to clean their claws on cabinets and sofas. Siamese cats are so stubborn, vengeful in nature, that with the slightest cruelty on the part of the owners will begin to spoil things already in spite.

To prevent the cat from scratching the furniture, offer it an item that is convenient to sharpen its claws, and firmly suppress all attempts to encroach on the furniture. Be patient: it takes up to 2-3 months to develop a positive habit. There are a few simple steps you need to follow:

put the claw point in the chosen place. The first day, do not make the cat approach it. Let her get used to an unfamiliar thing. To make the process go faster, you can hang some clothes storing the smell of your beloved master on your scratching post. So the cat will quickly understand that a new piece of furniture is not a threat;
bring the animal to the claw-dog and, bending your fingers, scratch it with your nails, showing what this item is for;
place the cat’s paws on the claw’s point, press down a little so that the claws protrude from the pads, and make the animal make some characteristic movements. Be careful: cats do not like coercion, and at the slightest resistance the pet needs to be let go;
as soon as the animal does what is required of it, caress it, treat it with something tasty;
every time your pet is going to tear furniture, strictly shout it or gently slap it on the ears: it is harmless, but very unpleasant;
hang on your cat’s favorite pet toy so that it hangs freely. Most predators, caught in an attempt to catch a toy with their claws, begin to sharpen them, after which they quickly realize that it is more convenient to do it here than about the armrest of a chair.

There are several tricks to speed up the process of education. If the cat ignores the clawfish, you can sprinkle it with catnip or sprinkle with the infusion of this herb: this smell is pleasant to the animals, so they will spend more time with their manicure device.

You can discourage a cat from tearing wallpapers and furniture with the help of water. Prepare a spray gun, and when the animal lays down to sharpen its claws in the wrong place, spray it into the face. Immediately after that, you need to take him in his arms, put him in a claw-tip and caress. The conditioned reflex “unpleasantly impossible” and “pleasantly possible” should be fixed. Many animals have enough 3-4 times to remember that it is impossible to tear furniture.

If the cat is pulling the wallpaper, hang a thick wicker rug on the wall in the problem area. Or, if the pet is attracted by the paper coating, make a scratching post for it yourself by pasting old wallpaper in several layers onto a cardboard or plywood sheet.

It’s better to accustom to a claw-tip not when the cat has already begun to spoil the furniture, but much earlier, so as not to think later how to wean the kitten to tear sofas and wallpaper. The animal should get used to the fact that scratching the claws is allowed only on the claw point. Kids easily get used to the rules that the owners set for them, but it’s very difficult to retrain a grown-up kitten.

If the animal is not relearned

Some ignore the claws, using only cabinets, cabinets and wallpaper to sharpen their claws, how to wean a cat from scratching furniture and wallpaper in this case:

reconcile with the habit of a pet;
cover all the "problem areas" with dense covers;
buy several clawpaws and arrange them so that they completely overlap the places that he is used to scratching;
use a special aerosol spray that gives off an unpleasant odor to cats. Such drugs as "Api-San", "Bio Vax", "Mr. Fresh" fight off the desire to scratch your claws well. As a cheap alternative to a branded sprayer, lemon juice, onion triple cologne - in a word, any other substances that repel cats;
buy special pads for paws. They are made of silicone and are tight caps that adhere to the claws. They are used both to save expensive furniture from scratches, and in order to protect the claws of the animal. Cats often cling to soft upholstery and injure their paws in an attempt to free themselves;
and the most barbaric and inhumane way: a surgical operation, during which the cat's claws will be removed along with the fingertip. Furniture and wallpaper this will protect with a 100% guarantee. But the animal after that will become disabled, will constantly experience torment.

Anti-scratch

How to choose a scratching post and where to place it

Wallpaper and furniture for a cat - an excellent simulator for sharpening claws. They can only be replaced with a correctly selected claw grinder. Moreover, any similar item, whether it’s a product specially developed for pet stores or just a piece of a board, must meet a number of requirements:

in height or length, the claw sharpener must exceed the height of the animal with outstretched legs. You can measure this distance by beckoning the cat with a treat and looking, wherever it gets, standing on its hind legs;
the surface should be hard, but not too much, rather resembling the texture of wood bark. Hardwood, metal and plastic are not suitable for this purpose. The ideal option is wooden objects, covered in several layers of hemp, jute rope or dense sackcloth;
the outer coating of the claw point must be made of natural materials, otherwise the pet may be poisoned by licking.

Now there are many options for claws: posts, rugs, inclined and horizontal boards. Entire complexes are released, where the clawcloth is equipped with a basket for sleeping and a playground with many toys. You need to choose a claw tip in accordance with the height and weight of the animal. The larger the animal, the higher and more stable the claw sharpener should be.

Making a kitten for a pet is easy with your own hands. It is enough to wrap an object of suitable length with a rope. Dense natural fabric is well suited as a coating: tarpaulin, burlap, jeans.

Observe the animal and find out how often it sharpens its claws: standing on its hind legs or arching its back on a horizontal surface? The choice of the claw point will depend on this. Determine where your pet sharpen its claws most often, and place a claw point in this place. If there are a lot of scratched objects, they all have a different arrangement, it is better to put several "manicure sets" in several places. The thing that the cat can scratch its claws about must be at least one in each room.

Many cats combine sharpening claws with sipping. They usually do this after sleep to tone the muscles. In this case, it is better to place the clawcloth next to the cat bed. Then the animal will tear up the thing intended for this, and not an expensive carpet.

Common mistakes

Given that animals have an individual character, universal advice for owners to be developed. However, there are several methods that you can not resort to:

cruelty - beatings will not make the cat refuse to scratch the furniture, but will make her incredulous and aggressive;
loud screams - they scare the animal, thereby interfering with the formation of the conditioned reflex;
an attempt to wean the furniture from scratching without offering the cat an adequate replacement - a claw-claw convenient for the animal;
constant movement of the claw-claw around the apartment. Having positioned the item, try not to move it (alternative: purchase an additional claw point);
irregularity - having begun to accustom an animal to a claw-point, it is necessary to adhere to a single strategy. If you forbade the pet to tear off the sofa, you will have to drive it away and carry it to the scratching post every time he takes up his "manicure", even if it happens at night. Otherwise, you will not get a positive effect.

Remember that you can only punish an animal if you find it "at the crime scene." Even if you slap him a minute after he stops scratching the upholstery, the cat will not understand why they beat him. This will not produce an effect, but will make the furry purr incredulous.