Kitty Q&A

Tips for ending cat scratching

Q: May I share how I trained our cats to use the scratching post instead of the furniture?

You’re right in your recent column: Yelling at the cat and punishing him won’t work when it comes to destructive scratching. You have use motivations that mean something to the cat. And you have to teach him where to scratch. Otherwise, how is he to know you want him to scratch the post?

I use the cat’s favorite treats, a scratching post, a squirt bottle and some wide, double-sided sticky tape.

The tape goes on the spots where the cat prefers to scratch, and the sticky feel discourages scratching. I begin training by rubbing their paws on the post, so their paw-scent is left on it. I immediately give the cat a treat for having his paws on the post.

Usually it takes only a few tries for the cat to get the message that scratching the post would get food — a reward all cats understand. My oldest cat still goes through an evening routine where he trots up to the post, scratches it, and looks at me with a “Well, where’s my treat?” expression. He also scratches and stares at me when he knows it’s dinnertime.

The squirt bottle is for when I catch them scratching elsewhere. One brief squirt is all it takes to convince them to stop. Then I can redirect their attention to scratching the post.

We have three indoor kitties (one is a feral kitten that we took in), and our furniture is still mostly unscathed. Understanding the feline mind really does work!

— K.B., via e-mail

A: Thank you for sharing your tips. They’re excellent! I wish more people would understand that reward-based training is really the way to go with cats. Punishment often stresses out the cat more and not only damages the bond with the animal, but often leads to other stress-related behaviors, such as urine-spraying.

Working with a cat’s natural tendencies and rewarding him for good behavior is the best way to train these pets. Potty where?

Q: Until a month ago, we spent weekends in a different home with our dog and cat. In the weekend home, our cat would spend time outside, but

he would always come in to use the litter box. At our home, it is just the opposite: He spends time outside but never uses the litter box inside. We provide the same box and same litter. Can you explain this?

— A.H., via e-mail

A: When you are dealing with litter box questions, you have to remember always that cats may seem mysterious in their ways, but their choices are not at all mysterious to them.

Each cat will prefer one kind of area to potty over another. Factors that go into the preference may include box and filler type, location, past illness and so on. Without knowing the complete history of your cat in both houses, and without observing the cat for signs of unhappiness with the box in the weekday home, I’d guess there’s a difference that’s quite obvious to your cat but not to you.

It could be as simple as this: At the weekday home, there’s a potty area outside that’s more appealing than the litter box, and at the weekend home, the situation is reversed. For example, there may be a kind of soil in the beds at one home that your cat likes. Or maybe at the home where your cat chooses to use the box, there could be a neighborhood bullycat who’s driving your cat inside. 