Shortcuts: A Special Purchase to Curb Behavior Could, Just as Easily, Terrify a Pet

We thought we had solved the problem by installing a new door that opens by radio frequency emitted from the tags on our cats’ collars. The only problem was that the cats hated the noise the door made and refused to use it.

We hoped they’d get used to it.

But six months later, Archie and Lily still view it with the same petrified stare as they did in the beginning.

That made me wonder about other pet problems and the products that owners buy to solve them.

There’s a caveat. What works for one pet may prove disastrous for another: different pets, different temperaments and different owners. Nonetheless, it can be useful to hear what some animal behavior experts and longtime pet owners suggest — or don’t — and why.

After all, Americans spent $53.3 billion on pet products last year, more than $12 billion of that for supplies and over-the-counter medicine, according to the American Pet Products Association.

First, what about sprays that are supposed to stop your cat from scratching your furniture? I’ve bought several bottles of different brands and spritzed them on the arms of the living room chairs. The cats walk up, sniff and then proceed to shred the chair as usual.

“I haven’t had much luck with sprays,” said Stephen L. Zawistowski, a science adviser to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He suggested putting double-sided tape, aluminum foil or Bubble Wrap on the places the cats like to scratch, while offering them a scratching post nearby.

That strategy has worked for me. I put catnip on a flat, corrugated cardboard box, and the cats claw away. It is the Trader Joe’s Double Wide Cat Scratcher and costs about $7.

Other sprays that promise to get rid of urine smells rarely do. Almost everyone I spoke to, including a friend who is down to five cats from eight, said none of them seemed to truly work.

The idea behind all these products, such as the most common, Nature’s Miracle, is not only to dispel the unpleasant odor for humans, but to discourage the pets from urinating in the same spot again.

“I no longer buy any of them,” my friend said. “I mix together half vinegar and half water with three to four drops of Dawn liquid dishwashing detergent and use it.” It seems to work, she said, even though it sometimes makes her house smell like salad dressing.

Automatic litter boxes don’t seem to have a lot of fans. They work this way: Sometime after the cat has done its business, a rake runs through the litter and deposits the excrement into a bag.

Besides being expensive — $100 and up — Mr. Zawistowski said that if the automatic cleaner started while the cats were in the box, it could frighten them so much they would avoid it altogether. If you own multiple cats, one can jump in after the first and “you have to make sure it doesn’t operate while the second cat is in the box,” he said.

A cat behavior that most of us find rather distasteful is the inclination to drink from toilets. One solution is to lower the toilet seat, but with two teenage boys in the house, it might be easier to train the cats to shut the lid.

Some suggest buying drinking fountains, but Megan Lynch, a cat owner, reported, “Our cat was terrified of the sound it made and didn’t want to go near it. We kept it for a month or so to see if he’d warm up to it, but he continued to regard it as an alien being that we had inexplicably brought into our home.”

Cats may drink from toilet bowls because the water can be fresher and cooler than water that’s been sitting in a bowl all day, Mr. Zawistowski said. That’s why he suggested refilling the bowl several times a day, wiping it out each time with a paper towel and then giving it a good scrubbing every few days.

Now on to dogs. One common product — retractable leashes — provoked the ire of several experts.