How To Stop Cat From Jumping On Table?

Most likely, your cat jumps on the table out of curiosity, hunting instinct, or to steal your food. Either way, such behavior should be discouraged.

Unfortunately, not every owner knows how to discipline a cat for jumping on the table without forcing the furry friend to resent them.

Cats may be adamant, but they aren’t dumb. Be dedicated and patient, and your pet will eventually learn to stay away from the table.

Choose The Right Reaction

Punishing a cat for discouraged behavior is intuitive. Unfortunately, cats rarely respond to punishment as owners would like them to. One can train a cat, but most people pick the wrong strategy.

Never use harsh punishment to discipline a cat because it only leads to resentment and fear. Your cat will try to avoid you and may even begin to bite you or piss on the floor, but it won’t stop jumping on the table.

Pick a reaction that won’t harm the kitty but won’t be pleasant. You may use a spray bottle to discipline a cat because it’s harmless yet effective, but don’t let your kitty see who’s spraying it.

One of the best ways to train a cat is to ignore it after it does something wrong. Suppose you’re having dinner, and your cat jumps on the table.

Take it off the table instantly and ignore it until it decides to jump on the table again. Avoid eye contact and don’t say anything. Continue to ignore your cat for some time after dinner.

However, many cats respond to rewards better than to any punishment. Assuming your cat jumps on the table because it’s high, you may give it a treat every time it jumps on a cat tree instead.

Or, if the cat is interested in your food, take it off the table and bring it to its bowl, then give it a treat. You can combine a mild punishment for discouraged actions with a reward for approved actions to teach the cat quicker.

Maintain The Reaction Consistent

Regardless of your chosen disciplining strategy, maintain the reaction consistent. You can react differently to different actions but stick with the same punishment or reward for specific habits.

Suppose your cat jumps on the table during dinner. Sometimes, you give it a piece of your food; in other cases, you throw it a ball to distract it or spray it with water.

The cat won’t be able to draw a connection between jumping on the table and your reaction because you mix rewards (food, play) with punishment (spray bottle).

Now, suppose you never reward the cat for jumping on the table but don’t have a definite punishment strategy.

You either spray the cat, ignore it, or yell at it (which is a bad reaction either way). Your pet will likely start to avoid you but still won’t link the punishment with jumping on the table.

Start Teaching Early

Children learn better, and this relates not solely to human children. Disciplining a kitten is significantly easier than a senior cat, so start training your pet early.

Unfortunately, it isn’t always possible. Some people take senior cats from shelters; others save stray cats and bring them home.

You may wonder – is it too late to train an adult cat? Not at all. Although adult cats have already formed specific habits, and training may take more time, there’s still hope if the owner is dedicated enough.

A common mistake of people who’ve recently brought a new cat home is postponing the training, thinking it would stress the cat. Changing homes can indeed be unnerving for the little creature, but discipline won’t harm it unless you use harsh punishment.

Assume you’ve just brought a cat home. At first, you let it go on the table, give it human food, and let it sleep on your pillow to help it fight stress.

It will help the cat feel better, but the cat will get confused when you begin disciplining it for previously encouraged actions.

Don’t Leave Food on The Table

Never leaving food out is an obvious answer to how to keep a cat off the table. Yet, many owners neglect this rule or forget about it. One may think that a cat won’t eat cookies, cake, fruit, peanuts, or chips.

However, you’d be surprised to find out how odd eating habits cats can have. Even if your cat never eats anything but dry food, food odors will tempt it to jump on the table.

You may leave food on the table in a lidded, air-tight container, but don’t leave it under a plastic wrap. The cat may decide to play with the wrap and chew it.

In the best-case scenario, your pet will break the wrap and get to the food; in the worst-case scenario, your cat may eat the wrap and have digestion issues.

Always clean up all breadcrumbs, spills, and any other evidence of food after eating. A tiny piece of cheese on the table may not bother you, but the cat’s powerful sense of smell won’t let it miss it.

Spray The Table

Not all cats are equally responsive to training. If your pet is stubborn, you can spritz the table with a cat deterrent spray. Pet stores and online marketplaces have various products to keep cats off the table.

Unfortunately, finding a deterrent spray that works is tricky, and professional products are too expensive for a trial-and-error method. The good news is that DIY cat deterrent sprays are much cheaper and more effective.

Mix vinegar, water, and a bit of liquid hand soap in a spray bottle. Then, apply the mixture to your table – the odor should deter your cat from the surface.

If this recipe doesn’t work, mix crushed garlic, lemon juice, and black pepper in water and try again. Some owners also recommend using essential oils to keep cats off counters, including lemon, eucalyptus, lavender, and peppermint.

However, some cats actually find these fragrances pleasant. Citronella oil diluted in water is more helpful, and the scent is more bearable for people than garlic or vinegar.

Use Aluminum Foil or Sticky Tape

Cats tend to be stubborn. You may train your pet for months, but it will only learn to conceal its crimes. So, how to keep a cat from jumping on the table at night?

Cats hate the feeling of sticky tape and crinkled aluminum foil. Assuming deterrent sprays are of no help, apply sticky tape or aluminum foil to the edge of your table.

A cat can’t jump on a table without touching the edge, so a few tries should be sufficient for your cat to lose interest in your kitchen or office furniture.

However, this method has drawbacks. Sticky tape or foil may disrupt you from using the table, and the method is questionable interior design-wise. Hanging tea towels on the table’s edge is a valid alternative.

When the cat jumps on the table, it will slip off with the towels. However, the method only works on bare tables, so you may have to take off your tablecloth.

Get Indoor Cat Furniture

Suppose your cat jumps on a table but isn’t interested in the food. Perhaps, your four-legged friend simply looks for an elevated place to better see the surroundings. After all, cats are natural predators.

Consider whether your cat has legal jumping targets, such as a cat tree or a bookshelf you don’t use. Reward your cat every time it jumps on the cat tree to encourage it to use human-approved elevations.

Ensure that a cat tree is appealing to your furry friend. It should have a condo, multiple platforms, a scratch post, and, perhaps, a hanging toy to entertain the little one.

Watch The Cat’s Diet

Cats don’t jump on the table out of spite. Their actions are instinctive, and hunger is one of the most powerful instincts. The answer to “why does my cat want human food?” may lie in the cat’s diet.

Ensure that your cat’s diet is well-balanced and contains all the necessary nutrients. If a cat has strange food cravings, it may not be getting enough of a specific nutrient and try to find it in human foods.

For example, a cat trying to steal cheese off the kitchen table may lack calcium, or a cat craving whipped cream may not get enough fats. However, there’s always a chance that a cat simply likes the taste of specific foods.

Try to make your cat’s diet richer and tastier. Occasionally, you can give your cat treats, moist food, raw meat, boiled chicken breast, tuna, or salmon. However, don’t overfeed your pet.

Sometimes, cats also seek human food when their sense of smell weakens, and dry food becomes unappealing. Loss of sense of smell in cats is usually related to congestion or age. In this case, you can heat the cat’s food to make the odor stronger.

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