Trash dumping - how to stop it?

[Newly Newfed]

Hi all!

Can anyone suggest how we can stop Sierra from dumping over the trash can?  She only does this when we are not there.  Jeff is fed up with it and honestly I do not want him teaching Sierra "his way".  His way doesn't work anyway because Magic still dumps the trash over and he goes a step further and pees on it.  Jeff is not receptive to the idea of moving it out of her sight or putting something in front of it.  He said she "should know not to do it".  How can she possibly know when she only does it when we are not there to correct her?

Any ideas?

[Mojo1269]

The hard way is to train her through constant reinforcement and vigilance or the easy path is to move the trash to an area she does not have freee acess to.  In the past when I had cats I had to do this with the liter boxes as any time I slipped and did not provide imediate and constant feedback or left a door open the dogs were trolling the litter box for "kitty almond roca"   In the end I put the box in a place the cats could get to but the dogs could not and the situation never arose again.

[Edwpang]

Talking of "setting up", I did this with Butter about table surfing. I used 2 pop can loaded with some coins and tied them with a long sting. I put this on the 2 corners of a table and a peice of yummy treat a little closer to the center, but still not easy to access from any other side... I did this twice with Butter. The pop cans fell to the kitchen floor with 2 loud bangs, then it caught him with the string, and off he ran dragging the pop cans... I didn't keep this up , so...

I think probably you think of similar way to set her up...

[Nicole]

hahaha, like everyone else said, don't waste your energy trying to teach her not to do it. Just put it where she can't get into it. We're the smarter ones, right? Why frustrate ourselves trying to teach our dogs when the more intelligent thing to do is remove the temptation?

[Newly Newfed]

hahaha, like everyone else said, don't waste your energy trying to teach her not to do it. Just put it where she can't get into it. We're the smarter ones, right? Why frustrate ourselves trying to teach our dogs when the more intelligent thing to do is remove the temptation?

I totally agree with you!  Jeff doesn't see why we should go to the trouble when she should learn to stay out of it.

I know this is a common issue with dogs, but honestly, I don't ever rember any of our Huskies or Saints doing this when I was still living with my mom.  Hmmm...  If I still spoke to my mom I'd ask her how she did it.  Oh well.  Guess I'll never know. 

Hee..hee..  even though my dogs never dumped the trash, we did have one Husky eat an entire couch.  At least Cece isn't destructive... I'd much rather pick up trash every day!  LOL!

[bigdogs@5501]

Oh Jeff.... remember you are dealing with a dog. Dogs do not think like humans (which is probably a very good thing)
Dogs like stink and smells and the stinkier the smell the better, and what usually goes into the trash? stinky smelly stuff. Again they are dogs.
We dont even try to reason with the dogs here- for one they out number us, but really its like reasoning with a two year old.
So put the can up and away. With everything else we have going on in our lives who has time to worry about the trash can being knocked over. Also the strong arm approach doesnt work. Dogs are smarter than we give them credit and she will just find a way to get to it if it is left out unattended... she knows that it is wrong thats why she doesnt do it when you are looking.
If he still insists, try the scat mat...

[GoldenPyrs]

Oh Jeff.... remember you are dealing with a dog. Dogs do not think like humans (which is probably a very good thing)
Dogs like stink and smells and the stinkier the smell the better, and what usually goes into the trash? stinky smelly stuff. Again they are dogs.
We dont even try to reason with the dogs here- for one they out number us, but really its like reasoning with a two year old.
So put the can up and away. With everything else we have going on in our lives who has time to worry about the trash can being knocked over. Also the strong arm approach doesnt work. Dogs are smarter than we give them credit and she will just find a way to get to it if it is left out unattended... she knows that it is wrong thats why she doesnt do it when you are looking.
If he still insists, try the scat mat...

This is exactly how I see it, too.  I didn't leave knick knacks down when my kids were babies (and they're still up high, due to bouncy pups & wagging tails    ).  Likewise, I just assume that if there is something extra tasty in the trash that it's likely to be marauded by my 4-legged kiddos at some point during the night, so outside it goes.  I know parents that insisted on leaving their knicks knacks down to teach the toddlers to leave them alone.  I just figured that it wasn't worth the risk to the kids or to the stuff to leave it to temptation.  I take the same tact with the pups.   

[shine]

Our garbage can is in the cupboard of our island counter.  It's a bit of a pain....it's a small cupboard so we have to use a small can that fills up fast and we are forever emptying it....but it's the best solution for us.  Zildjian and Bodhi can't resist the siren song of the garbage! 

They do have those big metal garbage cans with the foot pedal....bulle t cans, I think they are called....but they cost about $149.  I can't bring myself to pay $149 for a garbage can!

[mynameislola]

Not giving the dogs access to the trash is the place to start, IMO.  Setting the trash up as a training opportunity comes next along with restricting access until after training is complete.  We have metal trash cans with the lids bungee corded on until after the newest dog is trained.

Some dogs will never be trustable with trash.  Our Vizsla was stray and eating trash to survive from her 12th to 16th weeks.  

Tying things to strings is a great training method because few dogs ever figure out the relationship between the string and the human holding it.  I once trained a huge Great Dane away from guarding the bed from his owner.  She had already been bitten twice for trying to sleep there.

After tying a clothesline to the dog's harness, we waited for the dog to go to sleep on her bed.  Then we pulled the rope from outside the room causing the dog to land on a pile of pillows on the floor while we practiced our innocent looks.  After about a week of that, the dog wouldn't even go into her bedroom.

I was hoping this was a thread on how to stop people from dumping trash on vacant lots.  A pile of used tires recently appeared down the street.

[Icerotti]

I have to say scats mats work amazing. I just bought one a few weeks ago to keep them all away from jumping at the front window---they kept pulling the curtain out of the wall.


 We also have trash trollers. Farley the vizsla being the worst. The best fix was buying a big stainless steel can with a pedal you have to step on to open it.

WE use to set a mousetrap--you can buy them at petsmart they have an adaptation on them that looks like a red paddle so it can't hurt them when it snaps--it still makes a loud noise.. If I have something I don't want Farley to get into I just set it on top (it doesn't even have to be set up now...lol) and he will leave it alone.

Good Luck---I hate coming home to a trash strewn house