Any tips on persuading Irene to stop clawing the new carpet?

[Mushroomwithaview]

In our old house she used to do her claws on the carpet and it didn't affect the carpet at all. Genuinely couldn't see any signs of wear after 7 years of her clawing away at them.

New house - rental - and it's causing damage. Cheaper carpet, maybe?

Need to fix asap - LL will not be impressed.

I'm thinking... scratching post? And one of the cardboard floor scratching things? Maybe a big lump of old carpet over the place where she does it on the LL's fitted carpet? And stop her when we see her do it? Do we move her to the thing we DO want her to scratch? How do I go about communicating to her that scratching is okay, but not that particular bit of carpet? (She doesn't speak English, and has never thus far shown any inclination to follow instructions.)

It's going to be a challenge.

Any tips? Advice? What worked for you?

I sprayed where they were scratching with felliway and sprayed their actual scratching posts with cat nip. I know when to respray the feliway because they start scratching again (usually after 2-3 weeks). The felliway spread is expensive but we don't need to use that much for it to work. We buy it maybe once every year or two. Probably closer to two. It's a LOT cheaper than new carpets and sofas.

Our boy walks past two scratch post/cat towers to get to the sofa .
We say "No" when he reaches up with the claws out and he does jump down .

DH and I changed the sofa cover yesterday . that will put him off for a couple of days (he doesn't like changes)

He's fond of attacking feet too !

The hall carpet (ancient) is all fuzzy at the bottom stair where they claw .

I've bought a few sisal mats for my reprobates. Not as messy as the cardboard scratchers and longer lasting.
Irene is gorgeous! 😻