Owner's Hack to Keep Cats Off Counter Hilariously Backfires

A pet owner's attempt to stop her cats from jumping onto the counter has hilariously backfired.

Amanda, who lives in Toronto with two-year-old cats, Guccie and Lindo, was trying to find a way to keep her cats' paws firmly on the floor. She got the tip to cover the counter surface with aluminum foil.

"I got the aluminum foil tip after posting a video where I lined up some water bottles on the counter to see if it will intimidate my cat and get him to stop jumping on it however as it didn't work a lot of people in the comments suggested to try the aluminum foil hack," Amanda told Newsweek.

But when she tried it out, Guccie and Lindo had other ideas. In fact, after just a few moments the cats were happily playing with the foil on top of the counter.

Cat behavior expert Zoe Willingham told Newsweek: "The foil trick is a bit of an old wives' tale. The idea behind it was to use foil because it's slippy, noisy, and reflective which was meant to be aversive to the cat."

From the outset, Amanda was pretty sure that her cats weren't going to be deterred by the foil. She recalled: "As I was setting up the foil Guccie was so curious and kept jumping on the counter so I had to take him to a different room to be able to finish setting it up—at this point I kind of knew it was not going to work but still wanted to see it through and get his full reaction."

In the video, Guccie appears to be having a wonderful time with his new foil-covered counter. Ripping up the material and even laying down to have a sleep in the corner.

How Can You Keep Cats Off the Counter?

So what is the best way to keep paws off the kitchen counters? Willingham had a few tips.

"Using fear to train a cat doesn't work, and why would you want to make your cat fearful and scared in its own home?" she said. Instead, she suggested making areas that aren't the worktop more inviting.

"Make sure there is nothing on the worktop to reinforce the cat keep jumping up there. For example if you leave food up there and the cat jumps up and eats it, that's reinforcing the cat jumping up as they are rewarding themselves," she said.

"Make sure there are more fun things to do away from the worktop. Give your cat plenty to do on the floor—toys and tunnels are just a few ideas."

Despite the foil trick not working for her cats, Amanda was pleased that others could get a laugh out of her failed attempt at the hack.

"It was to show that every cat is different and what might work with some cats might not work with all cats and could be even unsafe," she said. "In my case it was not safe to leave it on the counter as he ripped it to pieces and tried to chew on them."

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