Is my Autumn retarded?

catlover67

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
498
Purraise
1
Honestly, I swear!! I have been trying to train her since Nov. to not scratch my recliner or the padding and back of my area rug (I have to flip the rug to make room when I sit at the computer so the chair can roll around on the floor). I have a huge scratching post which she usually uses, but sometimes when the rug is flipped, she will causally stroll over to it and start scratching away. I have yelled at her, shown her her post and praised her for using it and given her treats, I have used a squirt gun and she STILL will look at me with a "what did I do wrong?" expression on her face. She also likes to take the occassional stab at the recliner (which has a quilt strapped to it) mostly in the middle of the night. I will bolt up out of a sound sleep to hear the snag,rip, sound and yell NO!! It stops her for awhile, but she always goes back to it.

Part of the trouble (I think) is because she and my four paw declaw tussle around on the furniture and Lily(the declawed one) can scratch anywhere she pleases and makes no noise and no damage. I think Autumn thinks it is o.k for her to do the same.Obviously I cannot continue to "correct" Autumn for every little infraction with her claws, because that will only confuse and scare her. She will start to dislike me.

WHAT do I do? HELP!!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #2

catlover67

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
498
Purraise
1
BTW, soft paws are absolutely out of the question as Autumn is VERY intolerant of anyone messing with her claws. She tries to bite me when I clip the nails once a month. It is a two person ordeal.
 

yayi

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Oct 9, 2003
Messages
12,110
Purraise
91
Location
W/ the best cats
No, Autumn is not retarded, she's just loves to scratch.Cats are like that.

My personal suggestion is that from now one you will have to discipline both cats equally whenever they start going after your recliner and rug.
In my experience I am the loser in this battle of teaching my cats not to scratch the furniture. I've tried chasing them off, keeping them in a time out room at night, tried spraying once but I damaged the furniture instead, the usual firm NO and clapping loudly...all only temporary successes. It's even strange that even if they have toys, and they are outdoor cats (they have all the trees and stuff to scratch there) they still need to go after the furniture.So, all I do now is that I cover the furniture with tarplike plastic. It even makes this funny crunchy sound the cats hate and so far they have left the furniture alone. I remove the covers when I have guests, and during the day when the kitties are busy outside or sleeping.
The others here may have more suggestions and I hope I helped a little. Good luck!
 

rosiemac

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
54,358
Purraise
100
Location
ENGLAND... LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY!
Rosie is nearly 2 and she STILL trys to scratch at the leather couch!.

I bought a spray from the pet shop that cats hate the smell of, it smells of citrus. You spray the area(NO WHERE NEAR THE CAT)of where they love to scratch , and as soon as they take a sniff, they soon move.

I just have to show her the bottle and she runs!
 

tulip2454

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 16, 2003
Messages
1,208
Purraise
1
Location
still practising the Dharma
I have already lost this battle with Katy. She scratches the book case. This is the only piece of furniture she uses. We have numerous cat scratch posts around the place, even one NEXT to the book case. None of the others do this - only Katy. Five years and a lot of orange spray, a lot of NO's and a lot of picking up and moving away have done NOTHING. So I'm afraid I conceded defeat on this one a while back.
Good luck with your battle!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

catlover67

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
498
Purraise
1
I guess I mean by "retarded" is that I have trained two other cats to leave my furniture alone within two weeks. They NEVER once bothered it after they were taught with positive methods (treats and catnip) with negative reinforment (squirt bottle).

This is the first time I have had a declawed and clawed cat together and it has posed problems with the scratching issue.

Yayi, I had thought of the tarp idea too!! My dad has these big green plastic tarps which I might use on the bed and recliner.

Thanks for the suggestions!!!
 
Top