If you have a cat you will know what good company they can be. A [1] cat makes a wonderful companion. It’s the ideal pet for both adults and children. However cats do have some annoying habits and one of them is scratching.

At some time or another all cat owners find that their cat is scratching. I don’t mean that they’re scratching you, it’s much more likely that they’re scratching the legs of your furniture.

It is so common for a cat owner to discover one day that the legs of the furniture are covered in scratch marks. So why do cats love to scratch? And why would providing a [2] cat scratching pole help with the problem?

Scratching is a normal behaviour for a cat. They do it to sharpen their claws. Chances are you’re not likely to stop your cat from scratching. It’s much better to direct their attention to a much more suitable place to scratch, namely a cat scratching post.

How do you do that? You do that by making sure that it is unpleasant for him to scratch the furniture and much more pleasant to scratch the scratching post. A cat scratching post is a piece of cat furniture specifically designed to be scratched so that your favourite feline can relieve his need to sharpen his claws in an appropriate place.

A scratching post isn’t complicated They consist of a simple pole covered in a common material such as carpet or sisal, something that cats love to dig their claws into.

So how do you redirect his attention away from the furniture and towards his scratching pole? Firstly it’s important to remember that cats respond to positive reinforcement, not negative, so don’t punish him. Try a more lateral approach, for example wrapping something around the legs of the furniture to make it less attractive to him whilst providing him with a good scratching post. If he takes the hint and uses the post that’s fine, if not then try rubbing some Catnip on it to attract him to the post.

It’s not always quite so simple, it all depends on your particular cat. But if he is heading purposely towards your furniture legs then pick him up and put him next to a [3] scratching pole , and if you do this regularly should get the idea.

Don’t ever consider de-clawing your cat. Declawing should be outlawed. But it’s fine to trim his claws from time to time just to make sure they’re not so sharp. Once you’ve learned more about those annoying little habits of cats, like scratching, you can redirect his attention quite successfully, keep your cat happy and make him a lifetime companion.