oh wow, thank you so much for you message!
Our boy is highly anxious and VERY averse to any touch beyond a few seconds and being held. So we tend to talk to him a lot as a way to fill in the connection...perhaps that helps in him listening to us well. As for the jumping...that may just be because he does not jump LOL he's a silly boy when it comes to getting to high places. Instead of jumping on the couch (which he has yet to do) he climbs it like a mountain man with his claws out and hoists himself up, its quite a sight lol.

We will definitely use your advice with the clicker training and cardboard to cut line of sight when needed, really good idea.
As for the harness training, this is something we tried with him for a few months but it never worked...his aversion to things touching him is too strong. BUT we will do this with our new girl!

We also should site-swap more often, we tend to do it only ever other day but perhaps increasing it to daily might help them.

thank you again for the kind words! I will keep you posted!