That's right Luann, they will do anything to tip the trap. It's like they all know that if you tip it, then tip it again so it is upsidedown, the trap very often opens up.
I have found my trap on its side or upsidedown most of the time, grass all ripped up and bait gone, some raccoon hair in the wire mesh...successful escape by rocking the trap 'til it tips, or pulling the grass hard enough to get it to tip. They are VERY smart!
Anything they can reach through and grab, they will move it off the top of the trap.
That is why 5 or 10 gallon pails filled with water and/or rocks are good...cuz they can't get a grip on them.
Never used a dumb bell before, but from what I have observed in my own yard, that dumb bell
will be moved, and on the ground in the morning, if a raccoon gets trapped in there.
Cuz once they are trapped, they panic, and become superstrong with adrenaline and fear...and rage.
On the 3rd morning in a row of trapping raccoons successfully, I was grabbing the phone calling my pond forum friend who lives pretty close, to tell him I had yet another raccoon and needed his assistance
again.
I walked over to look out the kitchen window to check on the raccoon in the trap, when I noticed something(s) moving outside the trap. I stepped on a squeaky floorboard. Whatever it was, scurried away and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. So I walked around the kitchen island to get the phone again, starting dialing the number, looked back out the window...and saw something(s) moving again...so I tiptoed to the window, avoiding the squeaky old farmhouse floorboards....and finally saw exactly what it was!
It was 3 baby raccoons...and the mom was laying sideways on the bottom of the trap...pressing her belly against the trap side, nursing her little babies through the sides of the trap.
My heart nearly broke, all motherly instincts came rushing,
and I whispered into the phone (I had inadvertantly called my mother) what was going on.
My mom asked what was I going to do?
I did what any decent mom would do, I went out there, the babies ran into the shrubbery, and I had words with momma raccoon. I told her the deal.
It was, when I let her out, she must go very far away with her babies and never come back, even suggested to her a few places to go visit.
Weird part was, when I was talking to her, instead of her usual snarling, throwing herself against the cage at me and biting the cage, she rolled over onto her back and exposed her belly, and her nursing breasts to me. I don't know if it was the tone of my voice, or what, but she was using body language saying:
"here is my belly, my softest most vulnerable spot, I will do whatever you say, just let me back to my babies."I told her that I hoped she understood that she can never come back to my house...or they all would be relocated one by one. Deal or no deal.
I turned the trap so it was aimed at the shrubs where the babies ran into, and she still was being submissive. (usually any movement of the trap makes 'em go ferocious)
All I had for a weapon was a cane of bamboo, thin enough to go through the mesh of the trap, used for prodding opossums out because they often wont leave a trap when you open them.
I slowly opened the trap. She saw that it was open, looked back at me for a split second...and shot out of the trap like she was on fire. She ran right into the shrubs, and I heard them all scurrying deeper into the tall evergreens behind the shrubs.
I never saw them again.
Deal! 
