How to Keep Cats off Counters

 Whenever I am in the kitchen my kitties always want to be close to me so they will hop up onto the counters and lie down.  Know that I am not a fan of cats lying on my kitchen counters and know not to scold them and tell them that they are being bad because that would only frighten them and in their mind they just want to be close to me.  

Know that training the cats to stay off the counters is not easy but when you train with positive reinforcement your cat will learn to stay off the counters eventually.

 

The first thing you should do is make your kitchen counters unfriendly and uncomfortable.  Place double-sided sticky tape along the edge of the counters and where your cat likes to lie.  Cats really do not like the tape on their paws.

You can try to repel the cats from your counter by using scents that cats do not like.  Cats are very sensitive to citrus lemon lime and peppermint.  So spray your counters with the juice of a fresh lemon and lime, then spray peppermint on top of that.  These scents should repel cats from your kitchen counters. 

Another way to keep cats off your counters is to distract your cat by buying them a cat tree and spraying that tree with catnip. The tree will then be more desirable than the kitchen counter.  Set the tree up in an area where the cat can still see you in the kitchen.  This will satisfy their need to be close to you

 

Set up a cat room that is away from the kitchen.  In the room have a cat tree, toys, food water, a litter box, cozy beds, and a window.  When it's time for you to cook then it's time for your kitty to have a time out in the cat room.  When you are finished with kitchen duties you can let your cat out of the room.