# Help, 4 scratchers and new house keeping cats downstairs



## rx2man (Jun 20, 2009)

Hello, hope someone has some ideas. We are about to buy a new house, the downstairs is all tile, upstairs carpet. We have for heathen kitties that even with scratch posts still go at the carpet. We've sprayed them with water, yelled at them used claw protectors and sprays, nothing works, they look at us like we are stupid. Wife is determined that they will not destroy the new place. We need to keep them from going upstairs where they can get to the carpet. The house is large and they will have plenty of room downstairs. There are two stairway access points to go upstairs. We've thought of using a shock collar, a device that emits sound, and finally declawing. I'm not real excited about any of those options, especially declawing. We have no way of baracading them out of the stair area, its not as simple a putting up a door. The railing is open. Anyone out there smarter than me and got an idea on how to make this work?

Rob


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## rx2man (Jun 20, 2009)

Anyone used SOUND BARRIER, Wireless Indoor Dog & Cat Sonic Fence with success?


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## WhiteKitties (Dec 22, 2008)

Another thing with the scratchers - with the cardboard ones, you have to replace them every few months, because once the cats have torn it up really well they will look for other places to scratch. If you have horizontal scratchers, make sure they don't slide around as the cat is trying to scratch, or the cat won't use it. My girls figured out how to keep this kind from moving around, but before they did they would walk away from it the second it started to move, and then scratch at a chair.

Are your cats doing a lot of damage to the carpet? Fergie scratches our carpet regularly, but we keep her claws trimmed pretty short and I haven't noticed any damage to the carpet. We have very poor quality carpet, so I think damage would show pretty quick.

Also, what do you do when the cats scratch the carpet? If I see one of the cats start using a non-approved scratching surface, I will immediately pick up the cat and move her to an approved scratcher. Then the next time I see the cat using that scratcher, I give her a treat to reward the correct behavior. This helped a lot when we first got the girls, since they took a while to understand what was and wasn't okay to scratch.


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## Jack&Harley (Nov 2, 2008)

I think ultimately you have to remember that cats will always have a desire to scratch-even my neighbors declawed has a desire to scratch.

You must find what surface they like to scratch--texture wise and then offer it. If it truly is carpet, perhaps buying remnant pieces specifically for them to scratch is the way to save your carpet--when they use your carpet move them to their carpet. My cats prefer the rough backing of the carpet, so I made some scratchers with the carpet backing side out as well as sisal rope.

I also agree that simply telling them no when they scratch in the inappropriate place isn't enough you must take them to an appropriate place. We just brought home a new kitten, 8 weeks old and she went to scratch the couch, DH took her to the cat tree and showed her how to scratch there and she hasn't gone back to the couch since.

Leslie


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## rx2man (Jun 20, 2009)

I am familiar with declawing and would not want that to happen to me either, and I worry more if they were to get outside and not have a way to defend themselves. The problem with scratching is when we are not home and they are running amock, we cant tell them no. I will get some other scratchy surfaces though, it might help and work more on putting them where they are supposed to scratch. I also read on the sams Club page alot of good reviews on the noise barrier. We're going to try one and if it works like it says will get them for all the beasties.

thanks for the replies

Rob


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