My 2 kittens keep jumping onto the kitchen bench!

Question

They keep jumping onto the bench in the kitchen! We cannot close the door because its connected to the lounge so they can go in there whenever they want! They jump up and steal our bread, knock dishes off and l**k the dishes! They'll even do this when the kitchen is clean with no food on the benches etc! I tried spraying them with water but they STILL do it! My dad gets VERY angry and he hits them but they still don't learn! (i told my dad not to hit them but he said it doesn't hurt them). How can I stop them from doing this or train them not to jump onto the bench? Because we leave the house to go to school, work, out etc etc and they will be climbing it while we are out and I don't know what to do and my dad is sick of these kittens because of this! HELP!!!!!

Answer 1

Cats are not like dogs, and do not respond to discipline like dogs will.  And hitting them can turn them fearful.  By the time you pick them up, put them on the floor, and straighten up, they can be back on the table.  They will slowly outgrow this kitten behavior, but right now you want a solution.  There are several motion sensor alarms that should work.  I have posted a link to two such types that you can consider.

Water usually works, but kittens can be sneaky, and if they don't see you, you already know what happens..........

Answer 2

Cats can be trained, just not in the same way as a dog. A dog behaves because its told to, whereas a cat will behave if it feels like it.

We have an odd rule in my house- the cats are allowed on the kitchen table apart from when we're sitting at it/ eating at it. You may think it'd be hard to train a cat to understand that, but all three of my cats understand it, and abide by it.

Training a cat is more difficult than training a dog, but generally we clap our hands and use a low toned voice to say no, or we praise and give cat treats for good behaviour.

It doesn't take too long for them to learn- just think, if a cat can learn to come when called, it can learn anything. It's more to do with whether or not they're willing to learn.

Answer 3

Cats are great fun.  They're quite clever and sneaky and calculating.  That can make it interesting to train them, but it is possible.

Here's the thing with jumping-up behaviors:  If you use corrective actions (such as saying NO!, spraying with water, pushing them off of it, etc.), all they learn is that YOU don't WANT them up there.  BUT... when you're not actually THERE to say no...  they know they can get away with it!  I have known many a cat who is well-behaved around its owner, but gets right into mischief the moment the human turns their back!

So, the trick is to make them not want up there at all.  You can rip large pieces of aluminum foil, crumple them up, and straighten them out.  Use masking tape (since it doesn't leave gummy residue when you take it off), tape the foil to the surfaces you don't want your cats on.  Most cats don't like the feeling of the foil under their paws and will hop right down.

You can also try using a sticky surface.  I personally have used scotch and masking tape both, rolled so that a sticky side faces up, for training.  My husband's desk chair looks like c**p for all the clawing-up his cat has done to it.  My desk chair, though, is still in perfect shape because I took the trouble of taping it up when I first brought it into the house.

Either the foil or the tape can be very effective.  Just be persistent for a while.  It may take only a day or two.  Or it may take a week or more.  The whole point is that your kittens will soon associate those surfaces with unpleasant experiences and lose their interest in jumping up.

As to the hitting, I know you say it's your dad and not you, so don't think I'm griping at you.  But you need to stop that.  Do whatever you have to do to protect them.  The more they are hit, the more fearful and aggressive they can become.  And if they start feeling like they need to bite and claw to protect themselves, you'll have a much huger, more difficult problem to remedy on your hands.