may i try this from anuther angle??

anyone have any suggestions on how to get my cat(shaggy) to stop scratching??ive tryed double stick tape,he has fun pulling it off,and playing with it and trying to eat it :? i clip his nails every week becuz they grow so fast,he has scratching posts and he loves them but it made scratching on other things worse :roll: ,ive also tryed throwing things like his toys at him to get his attention,he plays with my blue heeler and hes hocked her several times,its my dads idea to have him declawed he said and quote"get it taken care of either declawed or get ride of him"and i dont want to get ride of him. :cry: hes a really sweet kitten and just that hes only 7mos. old,so im hoping that will help my other cat(scooby) is no problem when it comes to that when his toes need trimming he will lye down next to me and roll other on his back with his paws in the air, he likes have them trimmed :mrgreen: ,and has absolutly no interest in scratching on anything.hes already fixed and is as happy as could be, but i dont know want to do now with shaggy,his still young.ive also tryed spraying him with water but i think his to smart for that becuz hes learnd were hes out of my reach,and most of the time he looks at me when hes doing it and when i look at him he'll stop with his paws right were they where,and stare at me,then if i act like i am going to get up he'll run or if i yell at him when he does it same thing he'll run.ive never had this much trouble with a cat before and ive had lots of cats,ive grown up with them and never had a cat do this,when i was still in a crib i had a cat that would sleep with me,ive just ran out of ideas and my dad is lossing his patients(sp).he doesnt know what they go through ive tryed to explain it to him but he wont listen to me. :? i dont want anyone to hate me becuz of the stupid post,i just get really touchy about the whole learning disabillity thing,ive been made fun of all my life and when people bring my pets into it it just boils my blood.im sorry for anything i said,and i hope we can start with a clean slate. :love_y_t_much: :m29: :m10:

 

Well let me be the first to say that it's awesome you decided to stick around! This really is a great board. I've gotten a lot out of it and i only registered in November The people here can be very helpful. Its because of this board that i got my kitty to stop going potty in the sink in just one night!
I feel for you on the squirt bottle thing. It only worked on Vianne the first time I tried it. After that she would just brace herself to get sprayed and ignore me. It was pretty frustrating. The aluminum foil trick doesn't work on her either, she just pushes it aside.
In the end, the best training tool I've used on her that consistantly works is, when i catch her in the middle of a naughty deed, i run up to her and grab her by the scruff and hiss in her face. Then i put her in her proper place. Also she has a pretty set routine everyday, so there are certain times of the day that she has opportunity to be mischieveous, and that's when i'm periodically checking on her. I will call her from the other room and if she doesn't come, then i know she is either sleeping or being naughty so i go check on her. She has a wooden scratch board with a rope around it that is sposed to hang on the door, but she only seems to like scratching it when its on the floor where she can roll on it. When she was a baby, i hung it on the door with a skinny loose rope strings hanging in front of it to attract her to play with the board. It is a totally different surface from anything else in my home, so maybe that helps. The only inappropriate scratching she does is occassionally she grabs at the trunk of a fake tree in my living room....but she knows when i hiss at her to cut it out and get away. I rarely have to hiss in her face anymore, which is nice. I'm currently in the process of teaching her "dog tricks", but the very first thing she learned was "get down" because the only furniture she is allowed on is chairs, beds and couches which are all about the same height. Maybe you could try on of those scat spray things that are used to keep kitties off of counters? Try to have regular play sessions with him where he is praised for appropriate scratching only. My kitty is pretty tolerant so i can grab her round the middle and drag her across her scratch board when i'm playing with her. I'm sure someone here can come up with a link to a site on bad scratching behavior. Good luck and thanx for giving us another chance! :y_the_best:

 

Hi. I'm glad we didn't run you off. I'm afraid we can get a bit pasasionate about animal welfare. It's only because we care so deeply.

I think you should stick with the waterbottle/spray trick. I bought a spray bottle from Petsmart in the horse section. The bottle has an image of a horse on it and it says State Line Tack. It's used for training and has a spray that can reach about 20 feet. So I don't even have to get up from my desk and the spray can reach my cat no matter where she is hehhe. If you can't find the Line Tack bottle, try getting a small supersoaker from a toy department. They have quite a good reach too.

Good luck with this. I'm glad you came back and further explained your situation. That makes all the difference in the world. And I'm sorry that your dad doesn't understand.

Keep us posted.

 

thanks, the only problem now is he knows that he can hind behind things and not get wet :? hes such a cute little cat and he knows it,i cant snik up on him becuz hes watchen for me and he ussually is watchig me when he does it kinda like hes doing it to irritate me :roll: ive been told to put vinigar in the water and spray them with that but i dont think i want to spray vinigar water all over the house

 

It's good to see you stick around.

Aside from the spray bottle, maybe you can try:

-Bitter Apple Spray (I've never tried it, but it supposedly detracts animals from whatever you spray it on)
-Double-sided sticky tape on certain areas the cat likes to scratch (they don't like to touch that stuff with their paws)
-I also think tin foil is something cats don't like to touch

I bought two very large cat condos that my cats scratch up. They don't use those little scratching posts for some reason. The like the 5 foot high furniture. The only problem is that it can be expensive and take up a lot of space.

My one cat still does go for the chair to scratch. I yell at her (I never have water handy) and try to distract her. I have found out that she does it when she wants something (like attention) - but she's the stubborn cat and she still does go for the chair from time to time. Maybe I should take some of my above advice!

Good luck!

 

You can also try a tin can with marbles in it. Shake it when he's doing something bad. Cats hate being startled, so eventually he'll equate what he's doing (scratching the living room chair) with that loud noise. It works when the water bottle isn't within reach of you or spraying distance is too far.

Good luck!

 

That's a great advice Halaroo

Kelly: Have you consitered buying those claw caps I PM'ed you about? :y_the_best:

 

lols fairiedust...i laughed so hard out loud when i read that. cant say ive ever even heard of that approach, but it sounds funny...reminds me when my horse bit me when i was a kid....and i bit her ear back...someone told me to do that with a biting horse.... :0011: dont know how appropriate it was...but she never bit me again!!! lols

=P~ welcome back k.m.b.r. ! your post is a good one. and i admire how you turned it around and posed the question in another way. its hard when your father is giving you pressure...its a good learning lesson for us too...that we need to remember that there may be more information that we are not aware of when a person posts...that they have not included in the original post. like your father giving you an ultimatum about declaw or get rid of your kitty.

i hope one of these solutions works for you....
:wink:

 

I use the shake can with my dogs. I put a few pennies in an empty soda can and it can be lobbed across the room--just to scare them. But that would require you catching him, huh? What if you put him in a "safe room" with nothing but his scratching post to scratch on? Kinda like time out?

Also, I am still raving about the ssscat deterrent spray that I got. It has a motion detector on it and emits a beep and then a blast of harmless air when set off. Now I just set it to beep without the air or even just leave the can turned off where I don't want Copper to go. I also have a decoy--the spray starch bottle--in front of the Christmas presents. So far, so good!

 

Halaroo what a great suggestion! I would never have thought of that.

Feliway is also supposed to help deter scratching. I've never tried it so I don't know how well it works. There is actually quite a variety of deterant sprays which you could find at most pet supply stores.
I'm not sure if you already have a cardboard scratching board but that is the type that my cats prefer the most. You might also want to get some catnip spray to make her appropriate scratching areas more desirable.

 

ive tryed bitter apple it doesnt work on much of anything,and he likes playing with the double stick tape and foil(i think he likes the noise,he has a favorite toy that sounds like foil)and he also tryed eating the tape??i dont get him but hes happy and knows how to have fun.hes got scratching posts that he uses but still sratches on other things,but i think i will try the can with pennys or marbles,sounds like it will work he really doesnt like being starteled(sp).

 

First off Kelly welcome....we only have the kitties best interests in mind...and we definitly want to help you...

Another thing you can try is no scratch..they sell it at petco..here is a link

http://www.petco.com/product_info.asp?f ... ching&ct3=

another thing you can try ..is a hard plastic..that fits on the corners of furniture you cant see it and it protects the furniture

You also may want to try different types of surfaces for them to scratch...like my 2 boys...prefer the cheap corregated cardboard..but they also have carpet, and sisal....maybe he hasnt found one he likes yet..


Belive me it is a topic that hits home w/ me too..i have 2 seven month old boys...and one of them is deaf...so squirt guns, and loud noise dont work on him...i just try ot take them from the couch and bring them to the scratchin posts when they are doing it..

GOOD LUCK>..hope it all works well for you...and thanks for giving us a chance!!

 

I know that you said that you have several scratching posts, but do you have any of this kind? It's the horizontal kind made of corrugated cardboard pieces glued together, and it's the only kind that Luna will use:



You can rub catnip on it as a good way to get your kitty interested.

Another thought I had, is your cat an indoor only cat? If so, he could be bored and looking for excitement/attention from you, especially if he knows that when he scratches, you'll come running. You could try wearing him out a couple of times a day, for 15 minutes each, by having some interactive play sessions with him. Maybe he'll be too tired to scratch where he isn't supposed to. If you need some good suggestions for toys that he might like you to use with him, let me know and I'll tell you what Luna's favorites are.

Good luck!

 

In addition to the suggestion of wearing your kitty out with play time, i wanted to mention the easiest way that Vianne burns off her excess energy. I did a post about this several weeks ago, not sure if you saw it. I put one of those platic kitty ball toys with the bell inside into the bathtub and she bats it around in there for hours sometimes and totally wears herself out. The ball goes flippin and flyin up the sides of the tub and makes a wonderful racket! To get him going on it, just shake the ball back and forth so his eyes are following it then throw it hard at an angel against the side of the tub so it goes rollin all over the place and he can jump in and chase it around. You can see pics of Vianne doing it on my website. Please keep letting us know how things are going!

 

man...you guys are the best!!! :kiss_heart: there are so many good suggestions here. feels good to know that there is so much knowledge. im lucky. none of my three scratch too much. they sometimes start, but will stop if i talk loudly. usually its not even an issue. but...i do keep a throw on the one chair they seem to like...and that deters them.

i have a small scratching post..with sisal and carpet. but i think if i got one...it would be the corregated cardboard, a flat one....max puts his claws into the carpet...so he would like the horizontal (flat) one.

thanks for all the good suggestions you guys...

:wink:

 

the can is working

the seems to be working so far he tryed scrating on the pool table this morning and i shook it and it sent him running i didnt see him for about an hour,and he hasnt tryed scratching on anything again,yet,so i think it my have worked he doesnt like be startled,or snuck up on.thanks for all the suggestions,hopefully he doesnt try scratching in front of my dad though,he just doesnt understand cats,dogs hes fine with,but not cats.

 

That's great news

 

That's great! Just keep the can handy. He'll learn eventually, but it will take time. The key is to be consistent.

 

whew!!! hope he stays away from the furniture from now on....good luck!!! :wink:

 

Good luck, good luck!