The best solution for disciplining your cat is to use common sense. Early discipline is a positive action. Using different methods would be a negative action, as would punishing the cat for expressing a particular behavior done the way you have trained them.
When a cat starts to scratch furniture, you would have to follow the cat around your home 24 hours a day and discipline him every time the cat exercises his claws to upholstery. However, scratching is a reaction and can't be stopped really, causing this method to fail anyway.
By praising and stroking the cat when it uses the post, you are teaching minor corrections. By not punishing it when you have caught it in the act of scratching elsewhere, you will help it modify its behavior.
You can't think that every cat will be the same, as they will not behave the same, but every cat can be taught the same. Every individual cat is unique, which means every individual cat's behavior is unique.
Most likely, you will need to adapt some rules to fit with your own cat's personality and into the circumstances of your home.
You have the basic tools you need to teach your cat. Let's start looking at some other specific things that will help you in the next chapter.
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