Yes, my cat definitely seeks the highest place. He prefers to sit on the top of the sofa rather than on my lap, when I'm watching TV... he'll literally get up after 30 seconds, climb up me / jump, and take his spot up there. He's also been on top of the speakers and the TV set, and also on the window sills in my bed room. Fortunately he can't get up onto the higher stuff.
He's also managed to open doors. The little bastard. I've watched him freak out when he wanted out of my bedroom -- he jumped up, grabbed the doorknob, and swung back and forth until he got it open, then ran out of the room. I was like "WTH?????" He's only done it once, but he simultaneously pisses me off as well as amazes me with his intelligence and craftiness.
Get a spray bottle and fill it with water. Or use a water gun, but a spray bottle will leak less and make less of a mess overall. Cats HATE water. If you spray them with a water every time they do something you don't want them to do, they will stop. And after the first couple of squirts, it's even usually enough to just shake the bottle (the sound alone starts deterring them).
Well, that's bullshit (no offense meant, I'm actually laughing).
I tried that.
You know what happened?
The cat is totally afraid of the water bottle, and he will run if I spray him, maybe even just point it at him.
So he just waits until I don't have the bottle or I'm out of the room, and then immediately he's on the counter. In fact, I've been at the counter, and if he sees I am without the bottle, he consistently will even hop on the counter and walk toward me as if he belongs there. Of course, all I have to do is raise my voice at him ("VOICE OF COMMAND") and he immediately gets the hell out of Dodge. So he knows he's not supposed to be up there.
Damn him!
most cats can be trained to stay off, especially since they're only 6 months old. Some good suggestions here, but most important is that every single time they do it, they're immediately removed. Not 50% or 90% or 99% but every time.
Yeah. Well, considering he will do it when I'm not in the room, he's getting in lots of time on the counters to blow that consistency out the window. I got him at ten weeks old, he was never an indoor cat for anyone else, and he's now at least 20-24 weeks old, and he's just a little bastard.
(In fact, that is what I call him. His "real" name is Pascal, but I just say, "See ya, little bastard" when I leave and "Hey, little bastard" when I come home and "I love you, you little bastard" when I hug/strangle him. Damn cat.)
I especially like the double-sided tape idea. Loose sheets of tin foil is another method for when you're not home.
Great ideas, but I'm tired of having to have to put on and take off all that crap every time I leave or enter the room.