How do I prevent my cat from peeing on the furniture?!?
Sunday, November 6th, 2011 at
8:20 pm
My cat has a litterbox that he uses, but he also occasionally urinates on the furniture and piles of clothes. When I catch him doing it, I rub his nose in it and yell and show him the litterbox, but he continues to do it. The apartment is beginning to smell. How do I make it stop?
It’s a male cat, and he IS fixed.
Filed under: Cat Furniture
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Cats do this as an act of revenge, like a dog taking a dump in your shoes. It’s obvious from the fact that the cat is doing it on piles of clothes and furniture – the cat knows these are things you use often, and knows it will annoy you.
Most often, what brings on this behavior is a lack of attention. The cat wants you to give it attention, and getting angry at it and giving it even that negative attention is what it wants.
Rubbing his nose it it only encourages your cat to do it again. It’s like you are telling him, "SEE THIS?! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!" because you are forcing him to get a really good whiff of the scent that makes him want to soil that area in the first place.
Instead spray water on him. (some people may disagree but it’ always worked with me and my cat) There is something about the couch that is attracting the cat to use it. He may be smelling something over there, possibly even on the carpet underneath the couch, from previous owner’s pets. The couch that he soiled on needs to be cleaned really, REALLY well. A special cleaner from the pet store should be used as they have chemicals to kill the "scent".
There is also another product that you spray on the cat litter to make the cat litter more attractive to use.
Also when you catch him using the kitty litter box, enforce that good behavior with petting and cat treats. It really does work. I’ve had this same problem with a cat and after a while the cat "got it" and uses the litter as much as he can. Giving him attention at the cat litter box can be very affective to an attention starved kitty or not.