Get Down! Keep Your Cat from Jumping

Cats are natural climbers and jumpers, and enjoy being in high places. But some of their favorite high places may include areas of your house where you don't want them: your kitchen counters, your dining room table, or your shelf with the precious porcelain figurines. And of course, these are your cat's very favorite places.

First, prevention is the best training. Never feed your cat on the kitchen counter; find some other place where the dog can't steal it. Don't let him jump up on the table while you're eating, and certainly never give in and feed him something from your plate while he's up there.

You can try to make the area uninteresting by removing any houseplants, food, or toys from reach when he's up there. Every time you see him jumping up, remove him, say "No!" and place him on the floor. This may discourage him, but probably won't totally stop the behavior. If after two days of this he's still jumping up, it's time for more drastic action.

You will need to make the high place not only uninteresting, but a bad place to be. There are several ways to do this. The easiest is by using a strong squirt gun filled with water. Hide from the cat---you don't want him to associate the soaking with you, but with his own act of getting up on the counter or table. As soon as he jumps up, discreetly squirt him. He'll probably leap down. This is far more effective if it happens before your cat has a lot of experience jumping up. It will take much longer if he is already at home on your counters.

The drawback of the squirt gun is that you need to be there for it to work. There are a couple of ways you can handle this. One is to cover the counter tops with aluminum foil. Cats don't like the feel of it when they walk on it.  A similar method is by use of a motion detector you've hooked up to something startling---perhaps a strobe light, or a loud blender, or the loud recording of a dog barking. The motion detector is activated when the cat jumps up, and in turn activates the startling lights or noise. But one warning: you don't want to startle the cat to the point he hurts himself in his panic to get off the killer counter!

None of these methods is effective for cats that get up on shelves that house breakable objects, as the cat is likely to knock the objects down in his haste. Be sure to remove the objects to a safer place before training the cat to stay off such shelves.

Finally, give your cat plenty of other places he can go that are just as interesting. Provide him with a cat tree or window perch. Feed birds and squirrels outside of windows that have acceptable perches so he has a good show all day. Feed him treats when he stays on the ground instead of jumping on the table. And remember, even if you don't mind your cat on the counters, they're not safe places for cats. Many cats have been severely injured by walking over stove burners, jumping on to open oven doors, or sticking a curious paw into a running garbage disposal. Keeping him down is not being mean; it's being safe.