How do you keep cats from clawing the couch?

I may buy them 'caps' for their claws (Dina - what is that website again?)


what can I do at least for when we are work all week?

positive reinforcement - my cat eats my moms plants - iso to stop him whenver i see he is about to I'll squirt him with a little water - it helps because he knows he should be doing it. (he knows hte word NO he just likes to ignore me! )

WHy dont you provide him with another place to scratch like a scratching post.

There is a good pet website for purchasing products -

www.kvvet.com

From the beginning, we provided a clawing post for our kitty. I had read somewhere that the best place for it was by a doorway .. so we put it just inside a room, right along the wall .. and he's been great about it. Anytime we would see him going to claw something he shouldn't, we picked him up, and placed him at his clawing post, with his front paws on it. We also would encourage him to claw on the post by pretending we were clawing at it. I know it sounds silly .. but it's really worked. I almost never see him clawing where he shouldn't be .. and if he is .. it's basically just because he wants attention.

By the way .. we tried the squirt bottle with water for any time he misbehaved .. but it didn't work for him. He just ignored it.

As for clawing posts .. I really do think it's important to get the right kind. My cat has one that is made of carpet and sisel rope .. the rope is the part he claws. It's the kind he can sit at and reach up to dig his claws into .. I had read those are the best to get.

If your cat is bored .. you might want to try getting a TurboScratcher. My cat doesn't use the middle piece to scratch on much at all ... but he loves hitting the ball and watching it go 'round and 'round. It's the only toy that he's continued to play with over the years.

Petsmart.com has it on sale for $9.99. It is definitely worth the price!! I tried including the link here, but it doesn't work.

PetsMart.com

Click on Cat, then (along the left) under 'Containment' click on Home, Furniture & Scratching Posts, then click Scratching Posts, and scroll about half-way down the page.

This is the clawing post our kitty has .. in this same color!

Purchase it here:
Clawing Post

thanks

we've had scratching posts before - they ignore them! they prefer expensive furniture instead.

i'll take a look at the websites!

edited to say: we use the squirt bottle too but i'm just worried about what the little maniacs will do while we're at work!

We have 2 cats. One perfers to stretch and scratch (like on my speakers ) the other scratches by just reaching in front of her.

We taught the one to use a scratching post, which he is now in love with. Since then, if I've found him scratching something else once, it would be a lot.

The other one that scratches by just reaching in front of her has been more difficult. I use the carboard scratchers with cat nip for her and the double sided tape on one particular chair and ottoman that she 'prefers'.

Have you tried the cardboard scratchers that have catnip in them? If you haven't tried these, this is where I get mine....
Cat Claws. They are also sold in petstores.
I would use the double sided tape while you are trying to train your cat to use some kind of scratcher.

Good luck.

I think the website is www.softpaws.com or softclaws.com.

FYI- these last a really long time- like a month at least, often longer.

Whether vets agree or not- I don't believe in declawing- there's a reason why it's outlawed in certain parts of CA and Europe.

thank you thank you!!

what size do you normally get? And how do I clip their nails - with what?? I can only imagine the squirming. Tom will have to hold them down.

I get the medium... There is a special cat claw clipper- but I don't do it- I do it @ the vet because my cats will claw my eyes out!!!