Drake (dog) got into the kitchen trash yesterday. Never did it before. Why?

Any changes or extra stress in the household?

Was there something different in the trash that he thought was tasty?

Do you think there’s some other reason he could be upset with you?

Is he of advanced age?

Did you come home for just a short while and then leave again before this happened. I have noticed that if I do that, my dogs get excited to see me, then don’t have an outlet for that excitement if I have to leave shortly thereafter, so they end up tearing something up if I don’t give them some kind of chew treat (pigs ear is my weapon of choice) before leaving.

@dragon/poof-

No, I’ve no Idea, no, and no. He’s two years old, and usually well-behaved. He didn’t even act “guilty” when I came home…then I turned on the light and blammo. He had two treats earlier as well.

When I was a kid, we had a cat that would get high on cantaloupe. He would do anything for it—dig through the trash, go into the disposal. We had to make sure that it was TOTALLY gone, or he’d go crazy trying to find it. Perhaps it is something like that?

Is there any chance you have mice and he saw/heard one in the trash?

I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless it turns into a recurring behavior. Might have just been a one time, or very rare, thing because your dog came across a new smell or heard something or was just bored and felt like going to town on the trash.

@wild- I hope not. Some items were chewed… even the coffee filters, grounds everywhere. I’m having shudder flashbacks.
I hope it doesn’t happen again. I’ll take it as a reminder to put the trash out more often. :^)
But it was depressing.

Maybe you should re-name him Starbuck! ;)

If he didn’t feel guilty and he chewed stuff, my guess would be there was something in there that he wanted to get his teeth in to. Maybe some food or packaging of stuff he likes…

Did you skip a walk ? We have a two year old lab who is normally very good however if he misses a walk he can be destructive. He does always look guilty though and it is quite funny to see himhiding with his head down.

I really think that if you have a dog, your trash should not be accessible. They are opportunistic feeders. Sorry that happened. I haev leaned up my share of strewn garbage (the worst) until I finally decided to remove temptation.

My weimaraner does this too. We always crate her when there’s no one home, but the problem had worsened to the point where even if you went to take a shower guess what… trash everywhere.

Oh, and she also loves coffee filters/grounds.

I wound up buying a stainless steel foot-operated trash can with a flip-top lid like this
and that has eliminated the problem. She’s always very aware of everything that goes into the can, and sometimes I let the top linger open, almost invitingly. Then, once she approaches, I let the lid fall and you guessed it-she’s now afraid of the trash can. I bought it at Marshalls for $40.

@mcbealer Those worked for me too. Love the scare them with the lid idea. I gave your lurve.

@ Marina ~ thanks it’s funny because she could easily flip the lid open with her very powerful nose :0)

I’d like to thank all you guys for the suggestions and tips- and let you know that all of you were right in on way or other. except, no mice @wild. thank god

Turns out that it was an opportunistic feeding- apparently Drake was interested in the sheet of absorbent stuff that they put under a cut of meat (in the packaging, am I describing this correctly?) apparently it soaks up the blood from the meat. So know I know why “the dingo ate the baby,” because he threw that particular item up later…more fun to clean up.

The trash has been relocated, and all is well. Gave me a chance to put the Scooba through its paces…

Thanks, Collective! I knew you’d come through. Now… time to change my icon back.