Our young daughter had adopted a stray cat. To my distress, he began to use our new sofa as a scratching post.
"Don't worry," my husband reassured me. "I'll have him trained in no time." I watched for several days as my husband patiently "trained" our new pet. Whenever the cat scratched, my husband deposited him outdoors to teach him a lesson.
The cat learned quickly.
For the next 16 years, whenever he wanted to go outside, he scratched the sofa!!