How do you teach a kitten (5 months) not to jump up on counters and tables?

Put aluminum foil up on the countertops. Cats hate the texture and sound of aluminum foil.

We sprayed Duncan with water every time he did it. Now he only does it occasionally to be a jerk…

I’ve always adopted older cats, but I was able to break them of that by having puddles of water around the edges of the counters (they hated jumping onto that!) and aluminum foil on the tables. I only had to do the water thing for a day or two before they learned.

www.scatmat.com

You can use aversion training by booby trapping the surface with items that are unstable enough (and unbreakable) that a cat brushing against them will cause them to fall (light weight pots and pans, for example), and clatter, and scare the cat (don’t have anything breakable nearby, in case the cat freaks and starts ping-ponging around). Make sure that they are small enough and light enough that they won’t injure the cat if they land on it. It’s tricky to set up, but you can place mouse traps upside down so that they fly into the air, clattering. Never leave them trap side up, however. One good scare is usually adequate. (Low tech scat mat)

clap your hands at them when you see them on a surface, the noise stops our dog from doing things it shouldn’t it may work with cats?
@Facade love the name Duncan for a cat :)

I really do think the spray bottle method works for everything. It has not failed me yet. Barry recently got into the habit, again, of sleeping on my face in the middle of the night. I couldn’t take it any more so I grabbed the spray bottle, boom, 2 nights later ,no more face sleeping!

Spray bottle is probably the easiest way, but it does depend on the cat. I have one cat that HATES being sprayed, then I have another that actually likes it and wants to drink out of the spray bottle instead of running away. So, you may want to try many different methods as already suggested and see what works best.

The only problem I’ve run into with the spray bottle is that some cats are smart enough to know that it only functions when the human is around (or even, when the human has the bottle in their hand).

tape contact paper sticky side up on all surfaces that will allow. Doesn’t take long to learn it’s not fun to step on. Bonus points that you can see a little fur on it when you get home to know when exactly they are done training.

A spray bottle works well. However, you have to be there to catch them in the act.

In my cat owning experience: @Taciturnu Has the best answer as it involves little human involvement and works on most surfaces

Contact paper, double stick carpet tape or duct tape loops will do the BEST job of keeping cats off from objects you don’t want them on. If you put tape sticky side out on furniture corners & tops (couches/chairs/etc) your cat WILL NOT scratch on them.

As @syz said, a booby trap/scat mat will work. My only problem with this method is we have had “smart” cats figure out precisely where the stuff they don’t like is and then have found a new place to leap to. The sticky paper is SO undesirable they stay away.

If you do this and offer a good scratch toy, a good play toy, and one acceptable place for them to leap to you should have little problem with them exploring your counters, scratching up your furniture, or taking your stuff to play with.

For our cats contentment we offer:
one windowsill bed, several scratching disk toys with balls/mice in them (under a footed sofa), occasional catnip and treats, one scratching post(in an unused corner), a few purr pads on furniture we are okay with sharing and on floor space (under/behind furniture), and a few soft balls & mice (which usually need to be found by us——sometimes the cats even “ask” us to get them out from under furniture)...

We currently have four cats. One of them is a year old from the wild. She was quite an explorer and was tamed fairly quickly. We do use the “water bottle method” when she gets to riled.

Tinfoil on the table worked.

Hell yeah.

@erichw1504 I second the spray bottle. Whenever they did it I would bring them back to the seen of the crime if I didn’t catch them right in the act, and a blast or two between the eyes got their attention. Now if they are doing something they shouldn’t all I have to do is branish the bottle and they stop right there. Also double-sided tape or masking taped doubled over on or around areas I didn’t want them to go, they didn’t like the tape sticking to their paws.

When I had a kitten many years ago, I taught it to stay off our dining room table by placing aluminum pans on the table top. When she jumped on the table, the light aluminum pans made loud noises, some got knocked down, startling the little kitty out of its wits! After a few experiences with the loud, noisy pans, she never tried again.