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.

First of all you need to have an understanding as to why cats scratch. It's not a question of your cat not having a taste for your furniture, or that your cat wants to irritate you. The simple fact is that cats love to scratch. You can't stop a cat from scratching because it is a natural behavior for it. It is not diificult to train your cat to stop scratching your furniture, all you have to do is to provide a substitue for scratching.

It is healthy for a cat to scratch. Scratching is neccessary for a cat so that it can keep its muscles in good shape. Cats mark their territiory through scratching as their paws contain scent glands. A cats claws are kept healthy and clean through scratching. Obviuosly there are reasons as to why a cat needs to scratch. Rather than trying to limit this cat behavior, you should encourage it, but on your terms.

Punishing your cat because it scratches your furniture is not going to make it stop. Cats will not respond to punishment and will increase your cats problems. When you punish a cat, its mind will just connect you with punishment, and it will start keeping away from you. 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.

The first thing that you must do when you get a cat is to buy a scratching post. It will even better if you can get hold of a few scratching posts, as this will allow your cat to have more options to scratch. Cats can be trained at any age, but the earlier you can start, the quicker and easier it will be.

You should place the scratching posts in your cat's favourite places. Try putting a post near the place your cat sleeps on a regular basis. A good scratch and a good stretch is cat's first port of call after it wakes up. I think we all share this particular trait. Using a scratching post soon becomes a habit, and your cat will happily continue to use the post in the future.

The area of the house where your family sits is also a good place for a scratching post. Cats do want to spend time with their owners, even though at times it seems that they are not really bothered. 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. Try playing with your cat by moving string up and down the post, so your cats claws come in contact with it. Try tying some toys that your cat likes onto the scratching post, the enables your cat to touch the post with its paws and claws. 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.