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Cats live in a cubic world; they not only move
horizontally like people and dogs do, they see their
space in vertical terms. On average cats can jump about
seven times their height! Jumping is as important and
natural to a cat as walking is for us, so you are never
going to stop this behavior completely. The goal is to
direct the cat’s jumping to acceptable areas.
Adding some cat furniture to the house will provide the
cat with plenty of good, safe places to jump. You can
make these areas even more appealing to cats by
sprinkling them with catnip or spraying them with catnip
spray.
You should also select several other areas, such as
window ledges, dressers and bookcases, where it’s
acceptable for the cat to jump. Catnip can be used to
draw the cat to these areas. Another alternative is to
leave small reward treats on these areas. If a cat
associates these areas with tasty morsels, he’s more
likely to jump there than on a forbidden kitchen counter
or table.
Since punishment typically doesn’t work with cats, you
shouldn’t try to correct your pet when he jumps on
something that’s off-limits. It’s much better to use a
deterrent product that has been designed to control
unwanted cat behavior.
For example, you can put cat deterrent mats on your
counters and tables. These products emit a harmless
static pulse when a jumping cat lands on them; this
surprises and scares the cat. After a few encounters
with this mat, most cats will take a given counter or
table top off your list of cool places to jump on.
You can also try blocking access to a room, such as the
kitchen, to stop the cat from jumping on restricted
areas. Of course, care should be taken to make sure that
the barrier is high enough to prevent the cat from
jumping over it!
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