Cats can be wonderful company and offer great companionship. They make a fine pet for children and adults. However cats scratch everything from instinct.

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’s a question asked by so many cat owners. Why do cats scratch and can a cat scratching post help protect the legs of my furniture from all those claw marks?

All cats love to scratch, it’s perfectly normal. It’s an instinctive habit for cats, it helps 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.

The way you do that is by making it less pleasant for the cat to scratch your furniture and more pleasant for him to scratch something that can be damaged at no cost to you. 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.

Scratching poles are really very simple. They are usually covered with a simple material such as carpet so that your feline can dig his claws into it and pull away to his heart’s content.

So what do you do to make sure he scratches his pole and not the furniture? Firstly it’s important to remember that cats respond to positive reinforcement, not negative, so don’t punish him. It’s usually quite easy to do. You can use catnip on his post to attract him to it and then reinforce his behaviour when he uses it by providing him with treats or attention.

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 scratching pole , and if you do this regularly should get the idea.

Don’t even think about de-clawing your cat. It’s a nasty process and something you should never consider. 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.