I've heard/read suggestions like putting bubble wrap or something sticky on the counter, so that it's an unpleasant enough experience to dissuade them from returning. Of course, if they get something greasy or sticky on their paws they'll spread it a ways after jumping down...

You could try a Scat Mat, for when you're out of the kitchen:

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Scat%20Mat&search-type=best&tag=coffeeresearch96177-20&index=garden&link%5Fcode=qs

she'll be preparing dinner, and the cats are lounging in their beds on the counters while she does

Ewww!

Knock on wood, mine haven't ventured there yet although I'm on the lookout with the new kitchen. One loves to sit on a bar stool and I know that raised bar is just a kitty step away, but so far so good.

Have a new piece of furniture in the keeping room that a TV will eventually sit on. Artie jumped up on it as soon as he saw it, so until we get a TV I'm keeping the top covered with sheets of aluminum foil. He hasn't ventured near it since I did that.

I have two Maine Coons. They are allowed to go everywhere but (1) counters and (2) dining room table. Cats have their places, and food prep and eating surfaces are *not* among them.

I've used a water pistol with some success. Get one with a long range. Say "no" or hiss at the same time you shoot him.

Best of luck.

Water pistol is a good idea. You could also try banging on the counter with a noisy spoon. You are definitely not being too strict -- they go in the litter box with those same paws!!! I''m with natal -- ewwww.

My cat doesn't care how wet you get her or how loud you bang or pssst at her. I guess being on the counters is worth those punishments. We found out by accident that she hates the smell/taste of citrus, so might try adding that to a spray bottle. I plan to do some research to find out if that could hurt her before I try it.

I suspect that most cats who stay off the counters really only stay down when people are looking-- would be interesting to have a camera set up to spy on them...

If I ever have another cat, I'm going to use a solution that works even when I'm not home, like the scat mat.

"I suspect that most cats who stay off the counters really only stay down when people are looking"

Me too. I have long since given up on this battle.

Surely you jest. Cats go wherever they want, whenever they want. The only time you'll keep them off the counters is when you are right there watching. And then you'll have to do it over and over again.

If my cats jump on the counter, I expect them to help. One of my cats always "helps" me

Just leave a suitcase out somewhere in your house. The cat(s) will assume you're packing to leave for a while and will ensconce themselves in it. Either that or place a laundry basket full of soft warm sheets, towels, or socks where it will distract them from the kitchen. Wait a minute, there's still that "litter box stuff on the feet" problem. Oh well, better use an old suitcase.

A friend's daughter recently got hamsters. They live in an aquarium in the family room. Their cat hasn't been on the counters since the hamsters arrived. He's spent most of his waking hours watching "the hamster channel". I hope that's the extent of his introduction to them critters.

I, too, thought I had "trained" my cats to stay off of the counters. Now that I have a shiny new induction cooktop, I can see their guilty little pawprints every single morning. I did get a scat mat to keep them off of my leather couch, but that idea backfired on me because the shock caused them to actually claw the sofa as they jumped down in a panic. Another example of who's training who around my house...

Beth

They don't like aluminium foil. There are also sprays (I don't know what's in them!) that are intended to keep cats off things such as couches.

Cats go wherever they want, whenever they want. The only time you'll keep them off the counters is when you are right there watching.

Not all cats are equally curious. Have one that has to explore everything, but the other is content with beds and chairs and that's about it. I've always found it to be the case that they leave "evidence" from visits. Not saying either has never stepped foot on the counters, but I've never seen proof like I have other places.

There are clean cat people and gross cat people. I was in the home of a woman who's kitchen was so covered in cat fur it was disgusting. Cat beds on the counters is just plain awful. I'm sorry. I am a cat person and this is nutty.

Tape sheets of flimsy cardboard along the edge of the counter. The cat will jump on the counter as usual, land on the cardboard, and fall to the floor (unharmed). After a few tries, he will probably give up. But you may have to keep the cardboard on for several days.

Or put a couple moustraps on the counter, under a sheet of newspaper so the cats don't get hurt. The noise of them snapping may keep them from jumping up more than once or twice. After a day or two you could probably remove the traps (the cats will think the traps are still there).

Do you know why the cats are getting on the counter? Are they licking plates that are left there or in the sink? Are they looking out a window? If you can eliminate the reason they want to get on the counter, they'll stop getting up there.

I am with those people who say that cats will do what they want when you are not around. Depending on the cat, training may or may not "take". I think the spray bottle is effective, and also try leaving oranges on the counter, cause cats don't like the smell of citrus. However, be resigned to the fact that they are smart enough to wait until you remove the scat mat/aluminum foil/sticky paper/oranges, etc. to jump right back up there. One of mine never jumps up, but my other does when he thinks I am not around. I do not leave out food on the counters, so I think he does it because he enjoys jumping and, well, just because he can. Here I've caught him in the act, and he took off like a rocket, guilt-ridden, right after I took the pic.

{{gwi:1726563}}

Cats go wherever they want, whenever they want. The only time you'll keep them off the counters is when you are right there watching.

I had to laugh, this brought back the memory of my first morning as a work at home employee. At precisely the time that I usually left for work, my normally well behaved kitty sauntered into the kitchen and made himself at home on the counter with a smug look on his face. Sitting at the desk across the room, I gave a surprised gasp, and it was then that he realized his error and vacated post haste. Creatures of habit, cats are...

I had a Persian that in his 15 years never went on the counters. He was a very calm cat. My mother's Maine Coon never went on the counters. I have a Ragdoll now, and he is a brat. Ever since he discovered the counters it's been a battle. I jumps up there when he wants a drink of water - from the BATHROOM sink. We don't understand this, because we always turn on only the bathroom sink for him. But somewhere in his lime sized brain he thinks, "jump on kitchen counters, water in bathroom gets turned on". He doesn't go up there much that I see though. But last week I was leaving the house and when I got out to the garage I realized I forgotten my cell phone. I opened the door and saw him on the counters with the funniest look on his face, like "oh crap! She caught me!".

Now that we don't have any more cats our electric bill is lower. That's because cats run the kitchen appliances at night when you're sleeping.

Thanks for all your suggestions! And the laughs too. (Craig00 - I just KNEW it!). I think I'll try the citrus spray. Or become philosophical - what I don't see, I won't worry about. And it's hard to outsmart a cat.

The trick with cats is that you have to make them believe that God or some other invisible force will get them if they jump on that counter. That means rigging something invisible or hiding in a corner, spraying them with water or a can of forced air, and then ducking before they see you. I knew a professional dog trainer who trained her cats to stay out of the foyer (so they would be less likely to escape outside) that way.

Me, I just let mine go where they want. ;-)

One of my cats is always getting on the dining room table and it drives me bonkers. I keep a spray bottle nearby and he's been squirted numerous times but does that stop him, of course not. I honestly think he's looking for toys though, not food. I'm always doing stuff with paper or yarn and as soon as I drag out any of my many boxes that have "kitty fun stuff" in them, he's right there, pawing through the box, trying to find stuff to play with. He'll even get in the box if there's room. He just LOVES those pipe cleaner things. He'll play with one of those for hours. But now I've occassionally caught him on the island, too. We have two scat mats but they are on our air hockey table in the basement because our last cat peed (he had a UTI)on our old one and ruined it. I've heard putting those aluminum pie pans on stuff will scare them out of jumping up there. I need to try it.

And talk about gross, my mother even feeds her cats up on the counter. Ugh, it's nasty but what can you say to your 82 year old mother? She didn't do that when we were kids and we were never without at least 2 cats (plus dogs, hamsters, fish, snakes, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc.) in our zoo.

Oh well, I wipe down my counters several times a day and I never do food prep directly on them, there's always a cutting board or a plate down, even when I'm just making sandwiches.

after trying every single thing that has been suggested I can cheerfully report that my two (HUGE) maine coons no longer get on the counters --- when I am home. HOWEVER...when I come home at night via the back door and go past the kitchen window I often see one sleeping on a counter while the other snoozes in the sink (this is the same one who sits on the edge of the tub while the shower is on so she can get her paws and face wet)

By the time I get in the door, they are innocently waiting at the door , wagging their tales and meowing their welcome.

So just give it up --they are just like teenagers -- they'll tell you want to hear and do what they want when you are not around.

My first cat never got on the counters or table--or even the furniture. Being a first time cat owner, it never occurred to me that cats couldn't be trained, and she was so well trained that when friends would stop by and invite her to come up on the sofa next to them she wouldn't--as much as she clearly wanted to. If we put down a blanket for her to jump up on, or they indicated she could jump on their lap, then she would do so. I never once found her on a chair or sofa, much less the counters or tables. I also never found any paw prints on the counters or things on the floor that had been on the counter the night before. I even had people over for dinner and we would leave food on the counters in the kitchen while we adjourned to the dining room to eat and she still didn't get on the counters.

Fast forward to today ... we tried to train our cats in the same way, and nothing has worked. They stay off when we're in the same room, but I walk in on them from time to time and catch them on the counter or on the table (they always jump down immediately). Or I find their paw prints on the counter. The only method of training I haven't tried are things that make a lot of noise. I was always afraid that while one cat triggered the loud noise another would be in the litter box and that the cat in the litter box would inadvertently be trained to stay out of the litter box. Maybe a farfetched worry, but not one I was willing to chance.

Anyway, I cope today by just assuming that a cat has been on the counter before I start any food preparation. That is why I have often inquired about various counter top materials and being able to clean them with bleach water and/or vinegar/alcohol/water combinations. As someone else mentioned, I never prepare food directly on the counter either.

If you have cats AND a dog, how do you keep the dog out of the cats' food unless it's on a counter?

We planned for some of this on the remodel. We have 2 small cat-feeding counters in the pet-care area, where the cat and dog food are kept along with a cabinet that houses the litter box, but those counters don't get used for people-food prep. We also have small plexi-glass sheets for placemats, because they keep most of the crud off the counters and are easy to clean.

Our dog is not a jumper, so the kitties' meals are safe from her. But we still haven't figured out a way to keep Jaune-Tom, who thinks he's the baddest cat in town, from raiding timid little Chloe's dish.

I like the mouse trap idea - to a point. Hubby didn't want "Tuna" on his desk. He placed upside down mouse traps in inconspicuous places. Unknowingly she would hit one of them and go flying off the desk. Unfortunately, they worked on me too. We work together and I was often the victim of a 100mph heart attack. ACK!

I know lots of people who say their cats don't get on the counters. I don't believe it for a minute. Mine - two wonderful ragdolls -never get on them if they think we are home. Sometimes I catch them and I get the "deer caught in the headlights" look before they jump down and go hide. I do my best to keep them off, but that is part of owning a cat, I guess. As one long time cat owner told me - do the best you can to keep them off, but don't stress over it. You hold them, cuddle them to your face, they sleep in your bed, so the counter tops aren't that big of a deal. Just be sure to wipe them down before you start cooking or unloading groceries.

I'm not a cat person or animal person for that matter. I have my DD now moving back in after a miscarriage and she's trying desperately to find a home for her two manx cats. I'm hideously allergic and hate cat hair. She has a silky terrier dog that is about 6 months old. I am letting him stay here in the salon room, which is tiled. I'm actually the one now taking care of him. I'm treating him pretty much like a two year old little boy. He's pretty smart, too.

About the cats, far be it from me to suggest smacking one because I wouldn't want you to get clawed. But really, wouldn't having a fly swatter around and using it on the cat's rump do something? If I had a cat, it would wish it had wings if it were on my counters.

sherilynn, first off I'm sorry about your daughter's miscarriage, that's a terrible thing to have to go through.

But secondly, I suggest you find another home for that puppy if that's the way you're going to treat IT! It will grow up to be either a fearful, cowering, yappy little thing or a viscious little brat who tries to bite you. Little dogs can do a lot of damage with a bite. Especially to children.

I have one cat I am quite sure has never been on our counter or table in the 16 years we've had him. He was a stray and the only thing I can think is that he was punished mercilessly when he got on the counters in his prior home. He's the only cat I've had that hasn't tried to venture onto the counter at some point.

I now have two cats who don't get on the counter. This cat who never has and is now too old and frail. The other one is simply too fat to hoist herself up there. So for the most part, age and weight are the only things that really seem to stop them.

I have another one who like others, knows he isn't supposed to do that but gives it a try when you're not looking. He's been on prednisone for IBD for awhile and that has made him continuously hungry I think - and much more bold about getting on the counter. I HATE IT!! Never fails - he jumps up there when I have someone over for dinner - while we're at the dining table. Then I think - sure, the people think the cat was walking all over the counter before I prepared dinner. Needless to say I NEVER place any food directly on the counter - always a cutting board placed between anything edible and the counter.

Last weekend the predisone fortified cat took a new leap - onto the dining table where the guests were seated. Fortunately they were serious animal lovers but still.....how horrifying.....

My cat is trained not to go on the counters. It takes some real patience on your part, though. A real "cat person" loaned me a book called "how to make your cat do what you want" when I got my cat, since I had never had one before. I learned a few critical things from that book:

1. Cats do not respond well to negative reinforcement from you. If you yell or chastise them when they do something, they will do it because it gets your attention, and sometimes out of anger or spite or just to demonstrate that you are NOT the boss of THEM.
2.Positive reinforcement SHOULD come from you so the cat associates you with the positive rather than the negative.
3. Negative reinforcement should NOT be associated with you and should happen both when you are there and when you are not.
4. If you punish a cat every time they do something, they only learn not to do it when you are around.

Several methods were suggested, but what worked for me was the marbles. Cats hate loud noises. You put a handful of marbles in cleaned out tin cans and line the counter with them. Leave them there all the time that you are not working at the counter. Space them so the cat can not jump up onto the counter between them without knocking them over. If the cat jumps on the counter he/she will knock over the can of marbles onto the floor which will cause a loud noise as the marbles fall and startle the cat. The scat mats would also work, but you would need to cover the counters with them and that would be rather expensive. I would not want to spray stuff on my counters that is not food worthy, so check out what is in those sprays and how they smell and make sure they will not be absorbed into the stone or damage the resin or discolor the stone.

I lived with those cans of marbles for about 6 months, but my cat is now 9 yrs old and never goes on the counters. I confess to having knocked them over more than she did. I found the easiest way to live with them is to just push the cans to the back of the counter while you are working in the kitchen so you are less likely to knock them over yourself, and then just slide them forward again when you are done.

When she did jump up on the kitchen table a few times after I stopped using the cans, I would laugh, pick her up off the table and put her on the floor, and tell her "that's not for kitties". If she jumped up again, I laughed, held her up so I was looking at her on "eye level" and said the same thing, then kissed her on the head and placed her back on the floor. If I had to I would have put the cans back rather than yell at her, a good decision as I learned later with my couch. She doesn't go on the table now 9 years later, either.

However, I wasn't so smart with the couch and yelled at her and shooed her away from it. To this day, if I am ignoring her and she wants to get my attention, she will go over to the couch and start to run her claws over it!

I am not sure if it is out of print now or not, but even if it is, if you can get a used copy off eBay or somewhere, it is worth the price. It is esp useful if you are starting with a kitten, because the learned behaviors will be with that cat (and YOU) for many years. It might take longer for cats that are older and were used to getting up there, but a new kitchen and a new countertop are a great time to alter the behavior. The cat is aware that things have changed and this is new stuff. He/She might as well learn that the new counters just aren't as friendly as the old ones. :)

Sue

Several people mentioned using water spray bottles, and I wanted to share our experience with the water spray bottle. We used it with limited success in training our cats when they were young. We tried not to let them see us using the water spray bottle so that they wouldn't connect the spray of water with us. However, they figured it out soon enough. The smaller of the kittens saw the water bottle on the floor next to my chair one day, where I kept it handy in case one of the kittens tried to get on the kitchen table. She slowly crept up to the bottle, hit it with her paw as hard as she could, and then immediately ran off as fast as she could go---I guess she thought she was getting even with it.

I do think it depends on the cat - and if you have a cat who loves jumping on counters, you can't stop them from it when you're not home. When I was growing up, we had a cat that practically lived on the counter, if just to get away from the dog and other cats - she was not a sociable cat. I never thought twice about it growing up but it grossed me out after I grew up. When I was on my own, my own cat only jumped on the counter a handful of times in her 18 years - twice because there was chicken on the counter and she was nuts for chicken, and a couple of experimental tries when she was younger and wanted to try getting on top of the fridge. In her case, she was always a small cat and I don't think it was a jump she could easily make or feel comfortable with.

Maybe the solution is an old or small cat, LOL. If you find anything else that works, I'd love to hear it - cats are very, very stubborn and the more they know they're not supposed to do something, the more attractive it is.

The tin cans and the mats are effective even when you aren't home. Maybe part of the success with my cat is that she also never was given "human" food. So now, I will hold out a piece of fresh chicken and she will smell it and walk away. She only wants her cat food now. So leaving food on the counters does not tempt her much. Now looking out the window is another thing.

Sue

I am a veterinarian and have heard this question more times than I can count. It really depends on the personality of your furry kid. The suggestions of water sprays (citrus spray might burn their eyes--mildly painful but wouldn't blind them, but still), foil, scat mats, etc all have worked for some and not for others. One idea that I recommend that hasn't been mentioned are those clear plastic carpet runners/protectors. You turn them upside down and they have hard plastic nubbies on them that most cats don't like to step on. It's a pretty cheap, reusable "training aid". I say try the ones that seem reasonable to you and see if you get lucky. I've got 4 cats at home and one will get on the counters and another will lounge on the dining room table. The one that gets on the tables is so rotten that I actually have to pick her up and move her. Yelling, spraying, loud noises (and cringe, the sporadic light swat on the butt) when I catch her in the act have no effect--she glares, pulls her ears back, and makes a very grumpy meow but won't move. She's 15 now so I've pretty much resigned myself that she won't change. My DH was easier to train. With this type of kid, you work around it. We wipe off the table right before we set the table. When we have dinner parties the tablecloth is put on 30 minutes before guests arrive and my 6 year-old son guards it or tracks her down and locks her in the basement until the party's over. My big boy cat who gets on the counters (usually if butter has been left out by my husband again) isn't quite so bad, he only does it when I'm not looking/not there. I just sanitize before I start prepping and use a cutting board. Fortunately, all of our friends are pet people and are not freaked out if they find the occasional pet hair on their food. That's what happens when you pet animals at the dinner table. They think I'm mean for making the dog's stay on their beds while dinner is going on and keep calling them over. They are worse than the grandparents spoiling our DS's. I'm trying to "train" my boys (10 and 6) not to touch their clothes while eating. If you're rolling around on the floor when you have 6 pets in the house there is hair transfer. You would think after getting hair in their mouths so many times they would understand the words "Your shirt is not a napkin!" I don't know why I bother to have them wash their hands--sigh. I really like the theory that exposure to lots of germs during childhood strengthens immunity.

I think the kind of cat you have makes a difference. Some are incredibly curious and want to go everywhere. Others are aloof and don't do that. I think Persian cats tend to be less curious than, say, Siamese or Burmese. But then, Persians shed so much that it's a full time job keeping them combed and unknotted and dusting their behind with talc and combing it out, because they tend to soil themselves and don't bother to clean themselves very well there.

I think the only way to deal with the countertop problem is to shoo them away when they jump on it, and wash the counters, and then go on with what you were doing. Just wash the counters everytime you want to use them. Assume a cat has jumped on it while you weren't looking. That's the only way to be sure that you're not exposing yourself to any dirt from the cat's pores.

We love cats and have had as many as 4. But now we have none and miss them. The problem is we just spent a lot of money on fine oriental carpets and would be very upset to see them damaged. Aside from the clawing and shredding of upholstry, etc. cats also vomit on occasion, and, unless you are there to clean it up right away, you'll have a stain you can't get rid of.

If we tire of our carpets and decide to sell them and stay with bare wooden floors, maybe we'll adopt a couple of cats. Otherwise, NO WAY.

HA!

My husband (who loves our cat as much as I do!) suggests barbed wire on the countertop and, if that doesn't work?

A claymore mine.

Really, I think I will try that citrus spray idea. We kept losing our clematis ~ time after time, they would grow beautifully and then, just after they had blossomed ~boom. They would wither and die. Finally, we realized that the blossoms attracted the cat, who was spraying the plant itself or using the area around the roots as a litter area. The next time we planted clematis, we seeded the area with citrus peels and that was the end of that ~ until the citrus scent lessened.

Then?

We lost those clematis, too.

So we surrounded them with large rocks.

So far, so good.

Because of those experiences, I am thinking that citrus spray idea might work ~ or, a big bowl of citrus on the counter.

Barbara

I bought some little devices called "Tattle Tale". I put them on furniture that I don't want the cat to get up on. It seems to be working. It takes a 9 volt battery and when the cat jumps on the surface it gives off a high pitched sound. You could try it on the counter, but since there is no vibration like on furniture, you would just have to hope the cat hits the box and the alarm will go off. Anyway, you can buy it on the internet or at "PetSmart". Good luck.