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Question:

How do I get my spoiled siamese cat to scratch scratching post and not the sofa?

My cat keeps scratching the sofa but not the scratching post! She doesn't even touch the post but she always scratches the sofa. If I put catnip on the post she just snifs it for a minute or two and walks away! If I show her she won't listen. What should I do to get her to scratch the darn post!

Answer:

Our siamese wanted to scratch the furniture, then one day I brought home from work a square piece of plastic, that was used in a box for shipping, it is about 3/4 of an inch thick, and sort of honeycombed inside. I thought it was interesting so I brought it home, laid it on the floor, the cat immediately went to it and started scratching. Never once has she scratched any sofa since. It lays on the floor next to her bed. She scratches when she gets up, and scratches when she lays down. You just need to try different things. Each cat has their own preference, our other cat has never scratched this plastic board. Good luck
Whenever your cat scratches the sofa, punish her, perhaps with a squirt of water from a squirt bottle and an angry tone of voice. Then move her to the scratching post so she knows thats where she should be. This may take a while to become effective since it is a habit to scratch on the sofa.
what i do is put tape on my sofa so it sticks to my cat and he gets negative experience. i also say no and chase him away when i see him in the act. A squirt bottle of water works good too as negative reinforecement. I put the scracth post down and PRAISE him around it saying GOOD BOY!!! and give him a treat everytime he gets on the post. positive reinforcement. a way to get them to stop scratching as much is to trim the nails regularly. when they are short-- they do not want to groom them as much. every 2-3 weeks is good. do NOT declaw him-- this is inhumane as it is amputaing about a quarter of his finger or the first digit. just trim the nails and do positive reinforcement.
I just said this to someone else a few minutes ago. I tried having a half dozen scratching post and cat still used the sofa. I de-clawed.
Siamese are dumb. Trust me, mine will 6 years old, and if he still had claws, the couch would be in ribbons by now. Squirt bottles will only work if your cat hates water. Carpet tape is good training, but depends on the kind of material the furniture is. They make a kind of spray to keep pets away from places you don't want then to be. I never had anything for my cats to sctatch on, but the cardboard kind might do the trick. I had a friend who has a hymalayian (part persian, part siamese) and that cat loves cardboard!

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