Suggestions

[TAVS]

Mason has just recently started dumping the main trash can in the kitchen and making a mess....twice lately.

Anyone have suggestions? We want to keep the trash in the kitchen where it's convenient. The kitchen accesses the doggie door to the outside. So, during the day, we gate him in the kitchen so he can be inside, but also go outside to the yard.

Any ideas how we can keep him in the room with the trash but not have him knock it over for the contents? It's hard to train him cause he does it when we're away.

BTW, we don't let him have access to the whole house because he'd sit all day by the front door doing nothing but wait for us to return.

 

[DanL]

Move the trash out of his area when you are not home. You don't need the can placement to be convenient if you aren't there to use it right?

 

[dr2little]

Well, you're probably not going to like my answer, but you can't train him not to do something when you're not there. The best thing to do would be to remove the garbage when you're not there, and verbally redirect him away from it when you are there, although I suspect this behavior happens when you're away.
It's also become a self rewarding behavior to him as he's probably getting some sort of pleasure from the contents (very dangerous as I'm sure you know). Because you've said he's got some Separation Anxiety, the garbage may be dumped due to his state of mind when you're away as well. You're doing the right thing by minimizing his space while you're away.
Can you place the garbage out of the kitchen while you're gone (it's of no convenience to you when you're not there anyway), and verbally redirect him away from it when you are there? It's really the only way that's both safe for your pooch and will be 100% effective.
One more note, although you're probably not doing this anyway, but correcting him for a dumped garbage when you return home is not only ineffective but down right confusing...once it's done..it's done.

 

[Doberluv]

I agree with Dan and Dr2Little. Dogs do things over and over as long as they're getting reinforced for the behavior. And he IS getting reinforced everytime he gets some yummy morsel or a fun time of ripping through the garbage. So....of course, you have to remove any possibility of his getting reinforced for that behavior.

When you're home, you can try practicing something, but I still wouldn't trust him alone with the garbage. You can have something more tasty by far than what's in the garbage. While you're watching, if he starts to make a move toward the garbage, tell him "leave it" (if he knows this trick)....redirect him (as Dr.2little said) and reward him for leaving it with the yummy piece of steak or whatever. Do it again and again, and periodically. Teach him that it's better to leave it alone than to get into it. Since the behavior of getting into the garbage is soooooooo rewarding, it will probably not be very effective to train him this way....because when you're gone, he'll still go for the best treat available...the garbage.

Just keep it out of reach. That's what I do with mine. My dogs probably won't get into it because they've hardly ever been able to. I've been pretty careful. I leave a bag sitting by the door sometimes, sometimes for hours, ready to take out to the garage and they leave it alone even if I'm not right there in the room. However, I still wouldn't trust them 100% if I were gone all day.

 

[TAVS]

You're right. I guess it'll just be another thing we have to do every morning and ever evening for him. *small sigh*

And yea; I know from this board that you can't punish after the fact. Man that sucks.

 

[Herschel]

You're right. I guess it'll just be another thing we have to do every morning and ever evening for him. *small sigh*

And yea; I know from this board that you can't punish after the fact. Man that sucks.

Tell me about it. We have to use two gates--we were using one but our little guy would run down the stairs to the shoe rack, take all of the shoes off of the rack, and then bring at least 4 back upstairs. And he's only 9lbs!

He's also taken recently to taking paper/cardboard out of my recycling pile and shredding it. Maybe he's part hamster?

I just make sure he can't get to anything that will cause a mess (thus, the second gate to prevent him from going down stairs), but it gets so tedious after a while.

 

[TAVS]

I just make sure he can't get to anything that will cause a mess (thus, the second gate to prevent him from going down stairs), but it gets so tedious after a while.

When we bought our house there was a baby gate installed at the top of the stairs; mounted to the wall. It's very convenient and great to use. We close it at night when we're sleeping so he doesn't get into trouble. He sits by it all night keeping watch on the front door.

 

[mjb]

I don't know how large your dog is, but we managed to keep ours out of the trash by getting a trash can with a lid. Now, we tried more than one, and he could get in to some of them. We found an oak trash can with an oak swinging lid that sits on top. He couldn't get into it, and he couldn't knock it over.
We now have a silver aluminum or metal one with a lid that you step on a pedal and the lid raises up. He can't get this one open either, and I don't know if he's tried to knock it over. I don't think he can, though.

 

[LabBreeder]

Mason has just recently started dumping the main trash can in the kitchen and making a mess....twice lately.

Anyone have suggestions? We want to keep the trash in the kitchen where it's convenient. The kitchen accesses the doggie door to the outside. So, during the day, we gate him in the kitchen so he can be inside, but also go outside to the yard.

Any ideas how we can keep him in the room with the trash but not have him knock it over for the contents? It's hard to train him cause he does it when we're away.

BTW, we don't let him have access to the whole house because he'd sit all day by the front door doing nothing but wait for us to return.

Is there any way you can baby gate him in the kitchen away from the trash can? I mean, is there a section close to the door, away from the trash can that you can baby gate him away from so he's still in part of the kitchen with access to the outside? If not, I'd suggest moving the trash can and dealing with it. If you can't put him anywhere but the kitchen and the trash cans in the kitchen...and he keeps knocking it over...remove the trash can.