If there are specific locations, e.g., edges, you could put some Sticky Paws (double-sided sticky tape) directly on them. They aren't as ugly and obvious as foil and they really work on furniture. Cats hate the feel way more than foil which never detered my cats at all. You can buy SP at Petco and online. Don't walk on it yourselves or you'll ruin the stickiness.

Maybe make her own scratch post more interesting by putting catnip on it. The other thing is that cats can be either horizontal or vertical scratchers. Our cats are horizontal scratchers. Is her scratch post vertical and is she scratching on a horizontal surface on the stairs?

Maybe getting her a new scratching surface with catnip on it. There are also corrugated cardboard scratching horizontal surfaces which happen to be the favourite of our cats.

Thank you both, this is exactly the advice I needed. I'll get sticky paws and try that. I'll bet she'll hate it -which is great! I'll get some catnip for the scratch post near the stairs. She is a vertical scratcher. Maybe she needs help forming an attachment to that particular scratch post as it's new. Thanks again!

I feel your pain. Molly has long been a rug scratcher, and she's doing it to the rug in the living room of our new home now, which is making me slightly bonkers. She's not scratching the carpet at all (which surprises me), but going after that rug - even though she has VERY cool scratchers with varied surfaces to choose from. The rug was in the living room of our old house, and she never touched it there. She will scratch the rug NEAR the scratchers instead of using them though. UGH. I think I will try the catnip on the horizontal scratcher to see if she'll become "hooked" that way.

I'll be watching this thread with you for more ideas.

We find the best method is to trim the cats nails. When she starts scratching a lot we know she needs a mani and pedi.

I had good success with compressed air like this.Ssst Cat Spray

We trim our cats nails. However, our cat used to scratch the carpet to get into our room at night. I just starting keeping the door ajar to let her in. Unfortunately, she has ruined the carpet at each of the doors to the bedrooms. We will have to replace the carpet before we eventually move. :( I say just lock the cat up at night in a shut room such as a laundry room or bathroom, where she cannot damage the carpet.

When my cats are kittens I use a water bottle to catch them in the act of badness. It usually only takes a couple times then they would get the idea not to do certain things. But I had an older rescue that scratched stuff a lot and since she was recovering I didn't have the heart to spray and scare her so I would just remove her from scratching.

One day we brought some firewood in for a fire, logs with bark on, and she was like a moth to a flame! After that I kept a clean log on the hearth laying down and that was her spot. Later I bought an old wooden crate for newspapers and she claimed that too. But that was it -no more furniture, rugs, nothing. And she had been pretty bad with the scratching.

My new cats, one year old boy kittens, have now found the crate and that it their preferred 'post' too. The crate has rough wood on it not smooth and finished.

Might be too late for jlj48, but I came across this product when I was searching for solutions to my cat-clawing issues. Ours aren't under-the-door scratchers when they're sequestered in "their room", but I have had cats before that were. This may be worth looking into, for anyone dealing with this issue.

http://www.amazon.com/KittySmart-LLC-CarPET-Scratch-Stopper/dp/B00D00MXZ2

I use clear packaging tape wherever they have started scratching, and it has always worked because they'll slide right down the tape. It has to be the heavier type, maybe 3M, not the cheap thin dollar store tape. I have also used a spray bottle of water, but didn't have as much luck as the tape.