Question
It's kind of ridiculous that when searching for dog proof trashcans 99% of the ones that come up have a foot pedal that opens them ... I don't know how stupid they think dogs are, but mine figured the pedal out in about a day so there's really nothing "dog proof" about them in the least.
The other option I saw was a touch sensitive ones, but again, not going to take long for the dogs to catch onto that, especially since they'll be poking their face around anyways.
I tried putting something under the pedal to keep it from depressing, and also put a weight on top of the lid so they can't nudge it open (they're pretty tall), but it's a hassle and sometimes I forget and come home to a mess every time ... They never try getting in when I'm at home, even if I'm in the other room, so there's really no way for me to train them.
Does anyone have any other simple tricks that don't require not having a lousy memory or know of any truly dog proof trashcans? Maybe there are some that lock automatically?
Answer
The best way to avoid dogs getting into the rubbish when you're not home or overnight (if they are indoors) is to empty the trash before you leave or go to bed. A good habit to generally adopt.
One foolproof way to prevent dogs from getting into the rubbish is to put it on a benchtop (providing the dogs are not tall enough to jump up to the bench and grab it off) or place trashcans inside the kitchen cupboards. It's not uncommon to have kitchen tidies inside a kitchen cupboard.
If the dogs learn how to open the kitchen cupboard you can put child locks on the inside of the cupboard and the dogs will not be able to open them. It only allows the cupboard to be open a little and nimble fingers to unlock it.
Another way would be to use child/baby gates to prevent the dogs from coming into the kitchen.
Many of the techniques one would use child proofing the kitchen can be applied to dog proofing the kitchen.
You can get bins specifically designed as dog proof, but as you've already mentioned it doesn't prevent them from knocking them over and attempting to get at the rubbish, so possible not as effective as actually preventing the dogs from accessing the bin itself.
Answered By - user6796