How to keep dogs out of the trash

Move the can behind a door, and if you cannot, buy a can whose lid locks mechanically to the body. Everything else is a variation on those two. A dog gets into a trash can by nosing the lid until it lifts or by knocking the can over so the lid falls off - so the fix is either removing the can from the room or making the lid a part the dog cannot separate from the body. Weighting the can, taping the lid and scolding the dog all fail, for reasons worth understanding.

The reason this is worth doing properly rather than improvising is that the stakes are higher than a mess on the floor. Cooked bones, corn cobs, grease, chocolate, onion skins, coffee grounds and discarded medication are all in a normal kitchen can, and several of them are genuine veterinary emergencies.

1. Step 01

   Put the can inside a cabinet

   This is the only fix that is not a contest between the dog and a mechanism. A can in a cabinet, under the sink or behind a pantry door is simply unavailable. If you have the cabinet, stop here - nothing below is as reliable.

2. Step 02

   Move it to a room the dog cannot enter

   A utility room, a garage or a pantry with the door shut. Second-best for the same reason: it removes the contest rather than winning it. The cost is that you will walk further with every scraping of a plate, and a can you resent using ends up back in the kitchen.

3. Step 03

   Fit a can with a mechanical lid lock

   Not a heavy lid - a lock. A slide catch or a lid that latches to the body cannot be nosed open regardless of how much the dog weighs. Expect to use it every single time; the first week you will forget, and the dog only needs one night.

4. Step 04

   Stop the can tipping over

   Half of all raids are the can going over, not the lid lifting. Put it in a corner, against a cabinet run, or on a non-skid mat. A can wedged on three sides cannot be dragged into open floor where a dog can work on it.

5. Step 05

   Change what goes in the can

   The raid is about smell, and the smell is specific. Meat trays, bones, grease-soaked paper towel and cheese wrappers are what bring the dog across the kitchen. Freeze them until collection day, or put them in an outdoor can - the kitchen can stops being interesting.

6. Step 06

   Empty it more often, especially at night

   Most raids happen when nobody is in the room, which in practice means overnight. An empty can at bedtime removes the opportunity entirely, and it is free.

7. Step 07

   Make the approach less rewarding, not scary

   Feed the dog before you cook, leave a filled chew out during meal prep, and keep the can away from where the dog settles. The goal is competition for the behaviour, not punishment for it - punishment arrives after the fact and teaches a dog to raid when you are out rather than not to raid.

Nothing in that list requires a new can until step three, and most households solve it at step one or step four. If you are at step three and shopping, the cans built for this is the ranked list.

The most common advice on this subject is to buy a heavier can, and it is wrong in a specific and useful way. A dog does not need to lift the can. It needs to lift the lid, which on almost every pedal can is a light panel on a loose hinge, and it has a nose and a jaw with far more force available than that panel resists.

• A stainless steel body does nothing about a lid that pivots freely. It just means the body is dented rather than knocked over.
• Bricks in the bottom stop the can tipping, which is useful - but a can that stays upright with the lid nosed open is still a raided can.
• A damped lid is not a locked lid. Soft-close resists speed, not force. It will settle gently while a dog holds it open.
• A lid lock is a different category of thing. It is a mechanical connection between lid and body, and it is the only feature on a kitchen can that reliably stops a determined dog.

The two mechanical locks worth owning: a premium plastic-bodied can with a slide lock, and the cheapest can whose lid genuinely latches to the base.

Best for pets

simplehuman 50L Semi-Round Step Can with Slide Lock

The same semi-round shape with a slide lock that physically holds the lid shut against a determined dog.

$49.98 · View on Amazon

$55.00 · 9% off · Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

Best cheap locking can

Hefty 12 Gallon Step Trash Can with Lockable Lid

A plastic 12-gallon step can whose lid actually locks to the body — the cheapest honest answer to a dog or a toddler in the trash.

$36.99 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 16, 2026.  #ad How we make money

A different problem with a different answer, because outdoors the can is unattended for far longer and the dog has company - raccoons, rats and neighbourhood dogs are all working on the same container.

The fixes that work outside are a cart with an attached, clamping lid, a strap or lock over the top, and keeping the cart in an enclosure until collection morning. We cover that properly in trash cans with locking lids, lid locks and straps and outdoor enclosures.

If the problem is specifically the dog's own waste rather than kitchen trash, that is its own container question: the best trash cans for dog poop.

We are not veterinarians and this is not veterinary advice. What we will say is that the useful thing to do before anything happens is practical: know what your can contains, and know your vet's out-of-hours number.

1. Work out what is missing. The bag contents tell you what the dog actually got, and that is the first question any vet will ask.
2. Call your vet or an emergency line rather than waiting to see. Cooked bones, corn cobs, grease, chocolate, grapes, onion and discarded medication are the items that turn a mess into an emergency.
3. Do not try to make the dog sick unless a vet tells you to. With sharp objects and some substances it makes the outcome worse.
4. Then fix the can, properly, today - a dog that has succeeded once will try again tonight.