The scratching that a cat does actually has a purpose and they are not trying to just aggravate their owners. It conditions their claws, it serves as a marker both visual and scent wise. Cats also like to scratch on things to shed away ugly or sore claws and establishes a place for the new ones to grow. Although normal cat behaviour is not meant to be menacing it may still frustrate a cat owner. It can become even more of a nuisance when furniture and human skin get in the way.
What Makes Cats Scratch Every Thing in Sight
There are many steps that a cat owner may take without having to take their furry baby to the veterinarian for surgery to declaw. Most of the time cats may be subjected to intensive behavioural training to keep the car from scratching everything and just living a happy, loving life.
Isolating the cat from the problem area that tempts the cat to scratch may be very affective in correcting the cat’s scratching habits. Another method could also be letting the cat go around the problem area and simply just teaching self-control by making the area undesirable for the cat. Every cat has a need to scratch but given an alternative object to scratch may just be the simple solution. There are available objects such as scratching posts or boards. The easiest way to control a cat’s scratching is by teaching prevention before the action already occurs.
The most ideal object for a cat would be an upright position that will not topple over as they prefer something taller than themselves. Condos and Cat trees that have been carefully inspected for the ability to with stand the wear and tear of a cat’s scratches may even be more favourable to the cat since it will get the cat off the ground and above all to see.
How to Train Cats Not to Scratch
When you have a cat that will not stop scratching, you need to understand that this is their way of leaving their mark as much as staining with urine is. In the wild, cats recognize the path as well as the presence of the other animal by looking at the scratch marks. Although domestic cats are trying to maintain their place in the wild when they are indoors this leads to the unwanted scratching. You will be happy to know that there are many ways to be able to avoid that by giving them cat trees etc. However, you also need to make sure that when you see your cat carrying out a behaviour that is unwanted you pick it up and move it from the object and say no.
Do that repeatedly as many times as it takes as the cat will return to doing the same thing over and over again unless you show it exactly what it is that you do not want it to do. In the event that you are having a problem with the cat continually showing this form of behaviour, you can also consider the use of a water bottle. This practice is a bit controversial to some vets, if you are not sure about its deployment speak with your vet in advance.
What you can do is tell your cat no, then when you see your cat starting to be bad and do the behaviour of scratching pick it up first and tell it no again. If the cat returns, you then have the ability to spray the cat with a water bottle. If the cat then decides to flinch it will be able then to be discouraged from that behaviour. That also means that you will be able to teach your cat to fear the water bottle when there is any kind of behaviour that you are not on board with. Cats are very smart animals and they are able to adapt very quickly. For this reason you will be very happy with the amount of success that you will have with how quickly your cats can adapt. You will find that there are many new ways that you will be able to keep your cats happy by giving them kitty condos and the like, you should be happy that you will be able to keep all of them from scratching up your valuable house items and you will be able to have a new lease on life knowing that you have all of your cats trained in the right way.
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