well alabare, in the event that the issue comes up again after being tabled. I would highly recommend that you NOT de-claw your cat. First things first, i believe you said your cat is a he in passing in one of your responses. In that case, is he neutered? and does he go outside? if he isn’t neutered then get him neutered if he’s old enough, neutering a male cat can often stop them from clawing and scratching things (he also won’t start spraying your furniture to mark his territory. If he goes outside at all, then definately DO NOT declaw him. Whereas a cat can defend itself merely with it’s hind claws, it will not be able to climb a tree per-say to escape a larger adversary than he can take with his back claws.
As for training the cat, well it’s not really as hard as everyone thinks, we do all the training for our cats with a children’s water gun. Whenever they do something they aren’t supposed to be doing, you shoot them with it. it doesn’t hurt them and they dont’ like it so the will usually stop after a few times (once they figure out if i do A then i get shot…hmmm). If water doesn’t work i’m told that vinegar in the water gun works well too. then it adds a smell to the deterrent, and is also not harmful to them to clean off (my brother does this with his kittens and it is quite effective, he’s a Zoo keeper and works with animals all the time, he also thinks that there is no need to declaw your cat as he is reading over my shoulder now lol).