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If you have a cat, you've likely experienced them jumping on your furniture. While you may not care so much about your sofas and chairs, other items like tables, desks, bureaus and kitchen counters may be another issue. Not only can this behavior be annoying, but it can prove dangerous as well. Just consider a cat who jumps up on the counter only to land on a hot stove. For the safety of your cat, not to mention your sanity, there are things that you can do to prevent or correct this behavior.
If you're home and able to witness this behavior, there are a few approaches that you can take. Regardless of the approach, though, it's best that you follow it out in a way so that your cat does not know where the correction has come from. This will help to keep your cat from jumping when you're not around or from jumping just to get your attention, even your negative attention. The key is to get your cat to associate his jumping onto inappropriate things with something unpleasant. For instance, if your cat starts to jump on the counter, throw a can filled with coins toward, though not at, your cat in order to startle him.
If you're not at home and unable to witness your cat's jumping behavior, you'll need to try a few other approaches. One approach is to take things that your cat already associates as bad, things that he knows by sight, and place them on the counter or other piece of furniture. If he already dislikes spray bottles by sight, for instance, put a few on top of the counter. Balloons can make for a great deterrent. If you pop a balloon in front of your cat, he'll likely find the noise unpleasant and soon associate the unpleasant noise with the balloon itself. Thus you can blow up a few balloons and place them wherever you don't want your cat to jump. For kitchen counter tops, a good trick is to line them with cookie sheets filled with water.
ne of the very best approaches, however, is to determine if there is anything enticing your cat to jump. For example, is there food on the countertops, pens on the desk, a great view out a window, a plastic bag, piece of paper or any other item that your cat might think is fun? Put these items away, making these places as unappealing to your cat as possible, and increase the appeal at his level by adding a new toy now and then.
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