Garbage digging...a new found love

Brutus has unfortunatley acquired a taste for the trash in the house and the large trash cans outside. We have tried cayenne pepper, bitter apple and neither has worked. This is so disgusting. How can I break my garbage digging dog from doing this? I only thought stray dogs dug in the trash.
Oh, and it's not because he is hungry, he gets three meals a day, plus his cookies, and has bones to chew on.
I'm afraid hubby is going to lose his patience soon if it doesn't stop. HELP PLEASE

Filas are expert foragers . . . it's a survival skill where they are from, but it doesn't translate well, does it?

Cayenne? HA! I put habaneros in there and they ATE them!

I have switched the back of their legs once each when I caught them in the act. That seemed to be the only thing that really helped. Now I ask them if I need to cut a switch . . .

They still have a grab every now and again, but it's greatly reduced, and at least they're tall enough now to get out what they want without knocking the can over

I heard Shiva in the trash the other night, so I raised my voice from the other room and asked her what she had. I got into the kitchen just in time to see her stuff the bag from the Brussels sprouts under her hind legs and sit down on it

Renee that is too funny... Ours are small as you know but if the kids leave a garbage "bag" hanging from the kitchen drawer both Cocoa Anne and Chewey somehow manage to find their way literally inside the bag... So of course, we try to remember to put all garbage in the laundry room or up on the counter and out of their reach.

Boris used to do that, so we bought one of those garbage cans with a pedal for the kitchen and we haven't got a problem since (plus the pedal is broken now so he can't even open it that way). For the little garbage cans in the computer room, we put them on the desk so he can't reach them.

On a side note, last week we had four garbage bags on the floor in the kitchen (just papers and stuff though), we left the house for 2 hours and they didn't even touch them. I was proud of my boys

So my advice is just to make sure that the garbage is out of reach... Sorry not much help.

Renee, that is so funny. I will try your suggestion.