Excellent. Your dog has a job! I hope he keeps it up.

Our cat spoiled our new sofa. We put those claw tips on her for a while, and she stopped.

That's a smart dog! Definitely helping, he's your watch-dog.

I will look into those claw tips. I'm not really a cat person, even though we have two, and the other one doesn't touch the furniture. We made a cat scratcher out of rope but it seems the rope was doused in a chemical or something because the smell is so strong we can't keep it inside. I will have to get some carpet, I guess and make something. I have to make covers for four chairs now.

I think you're right. My dog likes to 'chew out' our cat for certain activities also.

My cat loves cardboard. She loves her cardboard cat scratchers and cat tree.

Pretty cool your dog is helping out! You might check out a product called Sticky Paws. It's double sided sticky plastic strips you can put where the cat scratches. Because it won't like the sticky feel, it won't scratch. Eventually you can remove the plastic. It worked great for me, and didn't leave a residue on my furniture or woodwork. (One cat scratched the door casing.)

Cookie, good for you for understanding that your indoor cat must have alternate horizontal and vertical scratching areas.

Get that thing declawed.

The cardboard scratchers are not too expensive. If you have Trader Joes, they have them reasonably.

When I yell at the cat for some infraction, the dog comes running to see what the excitement is and to chase her if possible.

Smart dog you have. When we had cats we had to wrap the table legs in tinfoil to keep them from using the table legs as scratching posts. We had plenty of cat scratching posts around, but they preferred the table legs. Our table wrapped in silver foil sure looked strange, but solved the problem.

Cardboard scratchers work well for my cats. I've also used sticky paws on a sofa they like to claw. The three cats I now have are pretty good about not doing furniture, but I've had some doozies.

pete_powell - no, don't get a cat declawed. It is cruel and causes other destructive behaviors. If you provide scratching posts for a cat to appropriately scratch on, they leave the furniture alone. I've had cats all my life and have never had one claw the furniture. I also have a couple of climbing apparatus for them to scratch on. They need to scratch on something, and if you don't provide them with something, they use the furniture.

We try to keep the kittie's nails trimmed as well as provide scratching posts. The nail trimming has really helped a lot.

The thing our cats loved the most to scratch was a piece of drift wood I picked up at the beach. I don't know if it smelled good or the weather worn texture was easy to claw. I bought all kinds of expensive cat scratching post but they ignored those. Very good dog!

Some cats like horizontal scratching instead of vertical. I have an indoor/outdoor rug in the kitchen and my cat loves to scratch on it. It doesn't hurt it at all. Maybe you could try a welcome mat in a similar material and see what you cat thinks.

Please do NOT have your cat declawed! It is a form of cruelty and torture for them and is not an animal lover's solution. How would anyone who suggests that like having their fingernails torn out?

Don't worry, it isn't even an option for me. She is lucky that I managed to get 7 meters of material for $35 though! I pass a carpet outlet twice a week to bring my kids to extracurricular events and they usually have remnants they are getting rid of. I will pick some up to make scratchers - and put something on my couch, like the sticky tape, because I hate that it is getting ruined. Yes, Chloe is a very smart, disciplined dog. It's funny as it seems very natural to her to be this way. My first experience with a dog like this.

What a smart dog and a cool story!

Dogs like to have a job that contributes to their "pack", especially breeds like retrievers, herders and so on. Their goal is to make you happy too so let him know how happy it makes you with lots of praise.

Could be your dog has taken up the cause as his "job". Some dogs live to have a job.

Yes, she is a Border Collie (mostly) so I really shouldn't be surprised. I wish I could post a picture of her, confession time, she isn't always smart as every time I go to take a picture she gets distracted looking for a flash. She gets very distracted by flash, shadows and reflections. Other than that, super smart.

You've probably made her day giving her a job. Lots of praise to her!

Our dog, Biscuit, has made a game of chasing Calico when ever her food bowl is down & Calico walks by it. Pets are so much fun!

Oh yes, they are smart, I bet that distraction is kind of built in to their DNA due to their herding insticts, they're always on the look out for movement. They have to protect from preditors and keep one of their charges from straying. Amazing when you think about it.

My former bichon used to blink/close his eyes when he saw the camera pointed at him. Yes, I took that many photos of him!

Our dog Spot would do this, but he wasn't very good at it. We would hear the cat starting to scratch on something, and say "Spot, get the cat" and he would take off running and barking, but sometimes in his exuberance to do what he was normally prohibited from doing, he'd run in the wrong direction. For instance if the cat was scratching on the rug in the dining room, and we would say "Spot, get the cat" , Spot would just as likely run into the kitchen or even the bedroom, barking like crazy.

I wish your dog would visit my porch. The cats have taken over all the cushions! I've just been sweeping them, trying to scrape off cat hair. Maybe I should yell at the cats more often, so my dog will get the message. ;)

Bob, that's hilarious! Mama, yes, yell more!

Our husky used to break up cat fights among our girls. He'd just back his well-furred butt into the fight :-) It was hilarious to watch! If someone didn't simmer down, he would sit on them (softly, of course, no harm befell the kitties).

Our husky used to break up cat fights among our girls. He'd just back his well-furred butt into the fight :-) It was hilarious to watch! If someone didn't simmer down, he would sit on them (softly, of course, no harm befell the kitties).

*****

Too funny-our beardie used to let his butt do the talking. We'd call it, "giving him/her the butt".

My cat's job is to slay bugs. Why not let them be who they are ;) You're not choosing the dog over the cat if the dog is doing what you were already doing. If it was doing something you wouldn't do, that would be too much.

Our Eskie used to supervise our cat. Although I suspect that we were really working for him as opposed to him working for us.