How to Stop Your Cats From Scratching Furniture

All right. Fine, Jackson, fine. You told me all about
declawing and how terrible it. Is And fine, fine, I
won’t declaw my cat. My cat is still
wrecking my house. My cat is scratching
up my furniture. My cat is scratching me. I don’t want my cat to scratch. Now what do I do?Well, calm down Sleepless
in Scratchville. It’s time to get catified. If you watched episode
about declawing,you know exactly where
I fall on the matter. I mean, I made myself
pretty clear, right?Don’t do it. Don’t do it. It’s inhumane, it’s cruel,
it’s unusual, it’s unnecessary. And it rarely works in
solving behavioral problems. It usually makes
other ones crop up. And did I tell you it hurts?You said, find. And you said it in
loud, loud ways. I mean, thank you
by the way, people. The way you’re coming out,
team Cat Mojo in force, right?How do you live with
a cat and her claws?Well, I’m going to tell you it. There’s a few things we
have to bear in mind. Scratching is a
necessity for cats. It’s not a luxury. Cats need to, first
of all, exercisethe top part of their body. It’s a nice way to grab
something and pull down and getthat exercise. Also, it’s a really important
part of marking territory. Now remember, Cat Mojo 101. Cats need to own places. If they don’t own places, they
become very, very insecureand anxious, and they
act out in other ways. If it is a necessary, if cats
do need to scratch, well then,what are we going
to do about that?The first thing that we
do is trim their nails. You take either a nail trimmer
or a human nail clipper,or the ones that they
sell in the stores thatare more like systems,
whatever suits your fancy. You press the cat’s pad. And boink, out comes the nail. All you’ve got to do
is take off the tip. You don’t have to
take off that partwhere the red meets the white. You don’t have to worry
about hurting them that way. You don’t worry
about what we callquicking them, which is
hitting that blood supplyand making everyone unhappy. Just bump, and it’s done. It’s also the approach, folks. Just act as if you’re just
walking up and you’re say hi. And things will get
much, much easier. Also, catch them napping. I mean, when your cat’s
sleeping or just waking up,you’re having a lazy
moment together. You can have clippers
by the side of your bed. All you’re doing is getting
the nail out and clipping. If every time you
touch your cat’s paws,they’re going to get clipped?Then they’re not going
to let you do it. So associate it with positive
things, a nice quiet time. And then maybe you
only get one nailwhile you’re sitting there. That’s fine. Because over the course
of a couple days,you’ll get them all. The next thing that we want
to start thinking aboutis where they’re scratching. Remember, it’s
territorially important. There’s two human scent
soakers– your couchand your bed. Where do you spend the
most part of your timewhen you get home from work?Your couch and your bed. And that’s where
your scent is strong. It’s a scent soaker. And because of that,
your cat is goingto want to compliment
your scent with theirs. In the show, you’ve seen this,
I’m sure, a million times. I get redundant. The yes and the no. Behind every no,
there has to be a yes. If we don’t want them scratching
on the arm of the chair,we have to say, well, this
location is still important. Let’s say you use a
product like Sticky Paws. Sticky Paws is
double-sided sticky tapethat is actually designed not
to actually stick to your couch. But when your cat touches
it, it’s kind of tackyand they don’t like it. OK, we’ll say no, and put sticky
paws down the arm of the couch. But right next door, there
has to be a scratching post. There has to be a scratching
post that works for them sothat they can compliment
your scent with them,and leave a visual and scent
marker in a territoriallycrucial area. What makes a good
scratching post?All right, let’s
talk about that. The first thing is
a nice wide base,because if your cat goes to
scratch down and the thingwobbles, well then,
the couch wins. Does your cat prefer corrugated
cardboard or sisal ropeor carpeting or natural wood?What is it your cat likes?There are a lot
of nice scratchesout on the market there. But you’ve got to sometimes look
in different places, you know?You don’t want to just go
for the first one you see,and then get mad
when it doesn’t work. In a situation where
you have young children,or if you’re immune
compromised, thingslike that– which in the past
were kind of given reasonsto declaw a cat– you can think
of something like Soft Paws. And Soft Paws is a brand
name, but there are other onesout there. They’re basically
just vinyl nail tips. They go on. They don’t hurt,
nothing like that. And the only downside is
that after a month or so,they’re just going to pop
off as the nail grows. And then you trim the
nails and do it again. It is a way that there’s
no way that the nails cando any damage. I like that to be
sort of a last resort. Because why do it?Why go through all
the aggravationif you don’t have to?Plus. I like accommodating
the raw cat. We want cats to be confident
in the areas that they scratch. We want them to assert
themselves territorially. We just want them to
do it in the placethat we want them to do
it, and not in the placewe don’t want them to do it. Don’t forget, you can start
this when they’re young. I mean seriously, if you are
clipping your cat’s clawsand giving them the yes and the
no, and they’re a young kid,you will not have a
problem as they grow up. And there’s a lot
of people out therewho are like, why would
I compromise for my cat?You know, you’ve got children. You’ve got spouses and partners. And let me tell you
something, the compromiseinvolved with those guys
dwarfs the needs of your cat. So listen, if you’ve got
to go out there and geta scratching post, you’ve
got to put some sticky tapeon your couch, you’ve got
to go put Soft Paws on,you’ve got to clip
your cat’s nails. That’s the cost of having
a beautiful relationshipwith your cat. It is an invaluable
relationship,and beautiful in
every single way. Now you know everything
that you needto know– the basics,
anyway– on making surethat your furniture and
the people in your housestay safe while keeping
your cat’s claws intact. Now, in the meantime folks, you
can find me anywhere, right?Anywhere and everywhere. Find me Twitter, Facebook,
InstaGram, Google+. There’s no excuse. I am all over the place. Be sure to join me on
Wednesday, February 5. I’ll answer your questions. And we’re going to talk
more about declawing. So stay tuned for
more information. But man, get that on your
calendar and do it now. Hey, I’ve got to say
it one more time. Folks, thank you so
much for the supportthat you’re showing that last
video that I put out there. It’s getting circulated
far and wide. You are telling your friends. We are finally going to
get that message out. What’s the message?Declawing your cat is not OK. Anyhow folks, until
we talk next time. All light, all love,
all mojo to you. Muah.