How do I keep my cat from scratching my door? Cats are at heart wild animals, with a strong sense of territory. The idea of closing part of their territory does not make sense to them, and the more frustrated they get the more they try to gain access. In this instance negative training such as water pistols or scolding is most unlikely to work: the difficulty is in finding some kind of positive training that really works.
Of course, the easy solution is that if the door is that of your bedroom simply let the cat in to sleep with you. If the cat is trying to get into or out of the house you could try a cat flap, assuming that you allowed your cat out at all. Mostly life is not this easy.
How Do I Keep My Cat From Scratching My Door? It Could Be Much Worse!
Some people suggest putting some substance that smells foul to cats on the door, or even putting some rough fabric on the door that the cat can scratch against. That does not sound a likely solution to me–unless the cat is simply scratching the door to sharpen its claws, in which case buy a scratching post–but you could always experiment. The bedroom door syndrome is very common and you could try making up a lovely bed for your cat somewhere else in the house. Often however, your cat will want to sleep with you wherever you are so this will be futile.
According to the Feline Advisory Bureau:
… the cat holds as much ability to be trained as many other species since it learns utilizing the same principles of learning theory as other species.
The problem involves the positive reinforcement of behavior that is needed with cats. You not only need to provide a lovely alternative bed for your cat but also lots of encouragement to make it want to sleep there. You could play with it before bedtime to tire it out so it is more important to sleep than scratch. Sometimes you may need to simply put the cat in a room where you cannot hear it when you want to sleep. There is no perfect solution to how do I keep my cat from scratching my door. Have you found a good way to stop your cat doing this? Let us know and don’t forget to share this post.