I'm in agreement with the others responding to your post. I've had three cats and none of them have been declawed. I don't think it's cool to physically modify a cat simply to keep it from doing something which comes naturally to it. However, we must all live together and thus the key is to train the cat properly. Look again at what aabby757 said:
Quote:
Originally posted by aabby757
My suggestions are this, 1) you may not have a problem with your kitty scratching but DEFINITELY buy a scratching post for EACH level of your house. And, IF they start to scratch your furniture, either squirt them with a water bottle or put a soda can with some pennys in it and rattle it when they scratch. You need to be on top of your kitty to train him/her to not scratch your furniture.
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I take the approach that aabby757 details above. My first cat liked to try and scratch the corner of my couch below the armrest. Whenever she did, I would call out a sharp "Hey! Hey!!" and clap my hands about three times quickly and loudly. That would startle her and send her skidding away. The pennies in a taped up aluminum can works too, but I found that the sound isn't as sharp and effective. The short yell and clap worked better for me and was easier than trying to fumble for the can while my cat tore up the couch. Nonetheless, it's the same concept.
In addition, I used a second method to drive my point home with the cat. I happened to have an extra piece of scrap carpet. You know, the sample squares they always seem to be throwing out from carpet stores? Since she would sometimes scratch when I was in another room or not home, I leaned the carpet piece against the area of the couch she liked to scratch. That helped keep it safer.
If I was home and I saw her trying to scratch the couch, I would run over (or go chase her around the room), grab her front paws and put them on the carpet. I would then make her run her claws across the carpet piece. Yes, forcibly. Why? Because at the very moment she exhibits scratching behaviour, I need to take advantage of the current state of her kitty mind and demonstrate *where* to take out her scratching urges.
It didn't take long at all for her to associate scratching = carpet piece. As a matter of fact, I recall that she would go over to the carpet piece and then look at me before trying to scratch. When she would go right for the carpet piece and scratch, I did nothing (no yell and clap, nothing). After all, that's exactly what I want her to do. Once she got that down, I moved the carpet piece away from the couch and viola! no more scratching on my furniture. Whenever she wanted a scratch, she simply found the new location of the carpet and went there.
My second cat didn't scratch furniture at all. My third cat was a tiny kitten and so she did try. However, she didn't need all of the extra training the first did. A yell and clap was all it took for her to realize that "mommy doesn't like me to scratch on this."
The same thing goes for training your cat to go in the litterbox. If I saw my cat about to go, or going, I would immediately jump up, run over, *pick up the cat* (yes, while it's making piddle) and run over to the litter box and place her in it. I would then hold her feet and force her to paw at the litter. Why? Again, peeing is what's on the cat's mind. Their instinct after peeing/pooping is to paw at the "dirt." So, I tap into the cat's instinct by dragging it's feet through the litterbox. Yeah, it's not great having to pick up a dripping cat, but it's not great that the cat is peeing outside the box anyway.
With all pets, one has to make sure that you also give a lot of love and praise to the animal so it doesn't feel "got at" while you're training it.
I even retrained my friend's cat after she found herself practically ready to give it away because of it's bad behaviour. My friend had no clue how to raise an animal. When the kitten tried to pee on the carpet, my friend would scream at the kitten by yelling out the cat's name and then throwing a shoe at it.
After some time, my friend wondered why the cat was still peeing on the carpet, why it didn't seem to like her, and why it wouldn't come when you call her name. (Uhm... it won't come when you call it because it associates it's name with a flying shoe).
My methods may sound off beat, but they have been *extremely* effective for me. It only took about two weeks to get my cat to stop scratching the furniture, a couple of *days* to get my friend's cat to properly learn her name, and about two weeks to get both cats litterbox trained.
Dogs have a slightly different set of training but, again, hands on training is necessary, even with the "icky" or "irritating" behaviours. Declawing a cat is a relatively easy way out...just eliminate the claws and all is better, right? Training takes extra committment and effort. Then again, people who don't want to make any committment and effort shouldn't really own pets.
Just be patient and firm and your cat will come around soon enough. Best of luck to you!
.....Kelly
Declawing a cat....please help!
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