A few years back, I was working with someone’s cat that, while not the main problem I was helping with, involved the cat scratching at a closed door. They intended to use a piece of hard plastic to prevent their cat from scratching at the door. To their surprise, I advised against using a deterrent and offered an alternative that involved letting the cat scratch at the door while still protecting the door.
As counter intuitive as it seems, trying to block your cat from scratching isn’t the best way to protect your furniture, walls, or carpet from being scratched (and neither is declawing). In fact, much like if you were to try using aluminum foil to stop your cat from peeing on your couch, it’s actually likely to backfire on you.
What “Training” Tape Doesn’t Do
Double sided sticky tape (and similar products) is often marketed as “training tape” for cats, but it doesn’t really do much training. What it actually does is frustrate the cat. Even if we don’t like it, the cat scratching that furniture in that particular location serves a function for the cat. In the case of the cat I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the cat was frustrated and stressed. The cat was attempting to communicate that they were frustrated and reduce stress.
The cat’s frustration wasn’t going to be addressed with the hard plastic barrier. In other situations, cats scratch things in our home as a way for them to engage in a normal and natural cat behavior even though we don’t like that. Stopping the cat from scratching part of the couch doesn’t allow them to meet a behavioral need they have. You want to have all your cat’s behavioral needs met.
It Can Easily Backfire
Unfortunately, double sided sticky taper or hard anti-scratching barriers can backfire on you. The cat’s need to scratch isn’t met and they’ll become frustrated. That frustration will come out either by scratching somewhere else or it may show up in a different unwanted behavior. If your cat can’t scratch the part of the couch they want to, they’ll find another part of the couch or a different piece of furniture to scratch.
In other words, by trying to drive your cat away, the destruction spreads.
A New Problem Is Created
Unfortunately, destructive scratching isn’t the only way double sided sticky tape can backfire on you. The stress and frustration can lead to:
- Your cat not using the litter box
- Aggressive behaviors
- Chewing on electrical cords or other items
- Tension between cats
The list could go on, but you get the idea I hope: there are a lot of ways frustrating your cat can go wrong besides them scratching the left side of your armchair instead of the right side of it.
What To Do Instead
What should you do instead of using double sided sticky tape, hard plastic, or something similar? It depends on the reason for the scratching. Perhaps your cat needs a scratching post that cats actually like or they need it placed in a better location. They may even need a little enticement to use the post to scratch.
If the reason isn’t lack of scratching options (keeping in mind you will need more than one scratching post and likely more than one in each room), the solution is straighforward-ish: address the underlying reason for the behavior. Reduce your cat’s stress, remove the source of frustration, address any illness/pain your cat has, and fix whatever your cat is upset by.
Better Products To Protect Your Furniture
If your cat still isn’t using the post exclusively even after intervention, there are some products you can use to help protect your furniture without the downsides discussed earlier. I actually use a few of them myself!
I recommend these in both cases where your cat needs a place to scratch and where they are frustrated. With the cat discussed at the beginning of this post, the reason I recommended a door mounted scratcher was to protect the door while allowing the cat to still scratch in that location so she didn’t go destroy the carpet instead.
Cover Them With A Scratcher
If your cat is scratching an arm of a chair or couch, you can get a scratching post that drapes over your furniture. There are a variety of options available that can be used over different parts of your furniture.
This protects the spot your cat is targeting while still allowing them to scratch there. Allowing them to scratch in that location is a good thing because if you don’t… Well, scroll up if you’ve already forgotten the why.
An alternative to one that drapes over your furniture is a corner protector. There are both freestanding corner protectors available and ones that adhere to your couch.
A Word About Aesthetics
If you’re worried how these will make your home look, good news: There are a lot of options out there in many different colors and styles. Best of all, they’re really easy to remove if you have guests over. Once they leave, you can simply put them back.
Use An Adhesive Scratcher
If your cats scratch at the back of a chair like both my goofuses do, an (single sided) adhesive carpet scratcher is the solution. Most of them can adhere to a huge number of surfaces so they can be placed in locations where a draped or freestanding scratcher won’t work.
Plus, whether you want something basic like gray or more exciting like green, there are a lot of different colors to pick from!
I was worried at first that when it came time to replace the carpet, it would damage my chair. Thankfully, the adhesive is strong enough that your cats can get a nice satisfying scratch in but it can still be carefully removed. Always test in an inconspicuous location, but I had no issues even after a few months of being on my chair.
Make It Art
To protect your walls, there are really decorative options. These scratchers are both functional and many look like catcentric versions of famous works of art.
Protecting Carpet
To protect carpet, you can get a flat sisal carpet that allows you to walk over it while keeping the carpet safe. Your cat can still scratch at it if they want to scratch in that location and if they’re just trying to relieve stress, the only damage that will occur will be to something easily replaceable.
A more sustainable alternative? Get some old carpet scraps or a rug you don’t care about. Let your cat shred it.
Alternatives To Double Sided Sticky Tapes To Stop Cat Scratching
Unfortunately, I can’t give you a conclusion to what happened with the cat from the story at the start of this post. After I offered my suggestion, the person I was working with let me know they (strongly) disagreed with my suggestion and never followed up with me.
I share this story not at all to shame the person, but as an acknowledgment that the logic behind “let your cat scratch at something on your furniture to stop them from scratching your furniture” is a counter intuitive one. I completely understand the strong reaction! It seems very odd to just let the cat do the behavior in the same location, but remember that this method keeps your furniture intact rather than just asking your cat to go scratch elsewhere.
I’ve since suggested it to numerous other clients (and my own cats) with excellent results for both frustration related scratching and normal cat scratching. It is better to work with your cat than against them. By using scratchers to protect your home from kitty claws rather than deterrents, you’ll end up with happier cats and happier humans!
