My cats never "took" to the fountain. I have an older cat that doesn't drink enough water and he gets crystals in his urine, and the vet recommended the fountain but he didn't drink from it any more than he did from a bowl. We even tried a couple different ones but he ignored them.
Some cats are just like people and get very set in their ways. Good luck!! With my old boy we ended up switching him to wet food and adding extra water into it to keep him healthy.
For keeping cats off of counters, I lay a long strip of scotch tape down, sticky-side up. It works pretty well in teaching them that sometimes that countertop isn't very pleasant.