Scratching!!

[iggy155]

Hi bit of advice would be great. I have a 2 year old female crossbreed. Her mum was a siamese and she has a lot of siamese traits! Anyway her scratching is out of control. She has scratching posts etc but prefers the sofa, the furniture, me .Has anyone any advice on how to stop her or have I just got to put up with it?

[iggy155]

Forgot to say she hasn't always been this bad. definitely been worse over the last 6 to 8 months.

[cozietoesie]

I've found that my Siamese boys like to choose one particular piece of furniture (often a chair with tight upholstery) or a piece of carpet to scratch and that if allowed that, they'll leave everything else alone. Is there anything which she prefers above all else and which you could bear to sacrifice?

[iggy155]

Could be worth a try. She seems to love scratching! !

[cozietoesie]

In my experience, they like to have a special place to scratch so if everything seems to be off limits, they'll go for anything and be pretty unhappy while they're doing it because they know they're sinning and they don't like that knowledge. (And all my boys have despised scratching posts of any description. Other people have been luckier but I've failed on that one.)

Your big advantage here is that if she has strong Siamese traits, she'll actually be pretty easy to train. Decide which piece of furniture or piece of carpet to sacrifice (this may involve buying a cheap throw for when visitors come because it could get pretty disreputable) and start to lay down the law - firm NOs and exclusion if she tries to use something not allowed, lots of praise if she uses the right thing. It should take about 2-3 days to work in properly in my experience.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

(Oh - if she turns out to be a horizontal/carpet scratcher as some are, you can get a cheap carpet offcut/carpet sample from a local carpet shop. The samples are usually free because they have those big books of them which they generally throw in the bin every so often. Anchor it in some way -eg by wedging a whole edge under a piece of furniture - and then train as usual.)