Keeping your cat from ruining your furniture is a common goal for all cat owners alike. Cats are very independent and strong-willed. In case you have not noticed, they are not quite as easy as a dog to train. But unfortunately, cats will destroy your furniture unless you do something about it. Over the next few minutes, we are going to go over a few of your basic options.
Keeping your cat from ruining your furniture by scratching it is one of the most difficult things to do. Cats naturally have a desire to scratch and for other reasons besides just sharpening their claws. So, you will never be able to keep them from scratching, you will only be able to divert the behavior to another area. One thing you can do is declaw your kitty. Not all pet owners prefer this method because they may think it is inhumane or because they like to let their cat outdoors. Outdoor cats need their claws for climbing and protection among many other things.
A gentler method to use when keeping your cat from ruining your furniture is plastic claw covers. All you have to do with these is cut the nail, put a drop inside the cover and then cover the nail. It is similar to fake nails for people. You do have to replace these because the cover will fall off as the nail grows.
Next, you can try the defense approach. When keeping your cat from ruining your furniture, you can try and protect the furniture with a sticky plastic adhesive type material. This protects your couch from cat scratching and should not harm most types of furniture.
Another method for keeping your cat from ruining your furniture is to buy scratching posts. They have these posts in all sizes and shapes, ranging from a simple carpet pole to a maze or tree house looking structure. You may have to teach your cat to go to the scratching pole but eventually they should get the point and stay away from your furniture.
Lastly, the most difficult method is teaching your cat not to get on the furniture at all. Make the furniture off limits. But this is difficult because you are not always there to enforce it. And as I mentioned above cats are strong willed but with persistence, you may have better luck keeping your cat from ruining your couch with the above methods.
