Hi everyone,

Ruby is her name and she is a being a wee scamp at the moment! She got, or I should probably say, we have allowed her to get into some bad habits lately. She is forever clawing the carpet - and before you say, she does have a scratch pole/mat thing - the clawing seems more for attention though, if she can't get into a room she will start clawing and pulling the carpet up.She claws the carpet outside your room in the morning to wake us up. Everytime she does it we tell her sternly no, and even tap on the bum if she's not stopping but she never learns. In fact when we tell her off for anything she never learns no, she is very disobiedent kitty! We obviously adore her but is there anyway to change her behaviour?

I think it is just a cat thing. They seem to hate closed doors

All the cats I have ever had throughout my life have done this. If a door is closed they scratch the carpet outside, and scratch up the door too.

I did try tough love once upon a time. I knew they were doing it to get my attention so I tried ignoring them when they scratched up the door. But they just became more and more insistent and after a few weeks I gave in. They now have free run of the whole house.

They have me wrapped round their paws.

I have never actually had a cat who doesn't do that! You may need to keep her in the kitchen at night rather than give her free run of the house. How old is she? In my experience a stern voice and No when naughty and a squeaky good girl voice tend to reinforce negative and positive behaviour eventually. I'm afraid being very houseproud and having cats is just not possible!

All cats want to claw at the carpet.. I did manage to train mine to do it on the rush mat by the front door by grabbing them whenever I caught them and showing them where I wanted them to do it BUT it was when they were very young, I doubt I could train them to do anything nowadays.

Both my cats do this too, I think like others have said it is just a case that cats don't seem to like closed doors!
I've found my 2 are okay sleeping in the kitchen / dining area over night & because they've been doing this for a while now they seem to not be too bothered about scratching.

But I know in my last house when I started getting them into this routine they used to scratch at the door making a racket !

Like another poster said, having a cat & being house proud isn't always the easiest of tasks!

I'm not sure how you would go about it, but I would suggest you nip it in the bud before it becomes a chronic habit. I was really lazy with one of mine and just let him scratch at the doors as a kitten thinking he couldn't do that much damage. One year later every single door and door frame in my flat (rented) is totally shredded with huge chunks gouged out and needs to be replaced when I move out.

All the doors (with the exception of the front one, obviously) are permanently open, so it's not an access issue, and my others always preferred a scratching post to anything else.
Last edited by ninjahandfriend : 11-01-2012 at 16:40

Just a thought.. Where they are scratching the carpet outside the door, could you put a scratching post there ? Obviously it'd be in the way, but just put it there overnight so they can't scratch the carpet & hopefully will scratch that instead?
Worth a try maybe!

I put an old book down at the point where they scratch so they couldn't reach the carpet after a while they both gave up. They have the run of the house most of the time and the only closed door is my daughters bedroom when she's working away from home they don't bother trying to get in there.

The way I did it was thus... every time I caught them, I would grab them, pcik them up take them to place where they could scratch, I'd them hold their paws and make the same clawing motion.
I know it sounds crazy but it worked, they don't scratch my stuff and only ever use the rush mat by the front door.... took about 6 weeks but as I say, they were very young kittens at the time.

Glad it worked! He's 16 months now so I've probably blown my chances there and need to get used to replacing doors and frames. The others just did everything instinctively.

Well, 'obedient cat' is a contradiction in terms. Cats think they are the boss, that humans are there for them and not the other way around. So educating your cat to scratch where you want her too, I see it as a futile exercise. Especially since carpets are ideal for them to scratch.

My cat has a scratch post and we have laminate flooring everywhere, but he still goes to the doormat to scratch or the runner in the hallway.

Also, nighttime to cats is like daytime to us. And they love exploring their own environment.

I would recommend clipping your cat's claws regularly and maybe using doorstops to keep your door slightly open.

You may want to put a bit of old carpet at the bottom of the door.

You can also try a bit of tape (the stuff you use when you move house) right by the door?

Wow thanks so much for all your replies guys! I thought it might be a futile task, I know its hard to "teach" cats anything let alone when its already an established habit. She's about 2 and half now and been doing it for months. She has free run of the house (except the lounge where she likes to attack my parents expensive leather suite) its just she's recently started doing it in the mornings to wake everyone up! Guess we'll just have to lump it! Lucky she is adorable!