Before I decided to give in to cats on the counter, I tried fly paper, aluminum foil, cans with coins and many other remedies. None of them worked for me. Of course all cats are different and techniques that work with one cat may not succeed with another. My cats learned very quickly how to navigate the fly paper. They would put one paw down on the paper, then use another paw to hold the paper down so they could lift the first paw. And of course they figured out how to simply push the sticky paper off of the counter.
Hi, just wanted to add that spray bottles are not generally advised. They teach your cat to be afraid of you but don't teach them not to do the behavior. It will also, as you've noted, only stop them from doing it when you're around.
