How to Stop a Cat from Scratching the Sofa? A Method That Works in One Day
You buy tape and covers, but by morning your sofa looks like a battlefield again?
A study in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery found that 80% of cats ignore scratching posts if they are not positioned correctly.
But the secret that veterinarians are keeping quiet about does not require the purchase of expensive accessories.
“Cats don’t scratch furniture out of spite, but because of their owners’ mistakes,” says zoopsychologist Jackson Galaxy on the Cat Chat podcast.
His method, tested at Tufts University, is simple: wrap your couch in foil for a day.
The sound and texture will scare your pet away, and place a vertical scratching post sprayed with catnip oil nearby.
Reddit user SofaSavior confirms: "Cat switched to scratching post within 6 hours after foil."
Why does it work? An experiment in Applied Animal Behaviour Science showed that cats hate the feeling of foil under their paws. One day is enough to create a negative association with the sofa. At the same time, mint attracts to the right object.
"It's like resetting a cat's GPS," animal behavior expert Pam Johnson-Bennett explains in The Washington Post .
But the main trick is time. Do not remove the foil earlier than after 24 hours.
"Cats are testing boundaries. If the couch comes alive too soon, they'll come back," warns veterinarian Lisa Radusky in Prevention .
A Houzz forum member wrote: "The cat was angry at first, but by the evening she had accepted the new scratching post."
If your sofa is still intact tomorrow, you did everything right. Don't waste the day - or accept that your guests will admire the "avant-garde design" of your furniture.
