If you have a cat, you've likely experienced them jumping on your furniture. While you may not care so much about your sofas and chairs, other items like tables, desks, bureaus and kitchen counters may be another issue. Not only can this behavior be annoying, but it can prove dangerous as well. Just consider a cat who jumps up on the counter only to land on a hot stove. For the safety of your cat, not to mention your sanity, there are things that you can do to prevent or correct this behavior.

If you're home and able to witness this behavior, there are a few approaches that you can take. Regardless of the approach, though, it's best that you follow it out in a way so that your cat does not know where the correction has come from. This will help to keep your cat from jumping when you're not around or from jumping just to get your attention, even your negative attention. The key is to get your cat to associate his jumping onto inappropriate things with something unpleasant. For instance, if your cat starts to jump on the counter, throw a can filled with coins toward, though not at, your cat in order to startle him.

More about dealing with jumping kitties.