Stop Digging

[Prinsesse]

My pup is awsome when i'm home but while i'm at work she gets bored and likes to dig up the back yard. (small as it is) She has loads of toys / squeeky balls kongs filled with stuff cardboard boxes to rip up. nothing seems to do the trick. Any suggestions will be valued. cheers,

[:ange:]

crating while you're not at home would definately stop the digging..

you could also try making sure they are pooped before you leave for the day so they want to sleep while you are out.

Kongs to keep them entertained.Cut

Cute pup btw!

[Nekhbet]

crating stops the problem simply because you remove the dog from the garden, it teaches the dog nothing. You cant crate a dog day in day out simply due to that. What a life.

Take some nice fresh stinky poo and put it in the holes, not deep, refill most of the hole then a fine layer of soil on top. A few times of splatting into fresh poo will stop her.

Also get yourself a kids clamshell pool, a few dollars worth of washed sand and let her run riot in there. Bury treats etc and give her an outlet for all that Dally energy!

[Guest]

Prinsesse, I have just tried the poo thing with our lab where he was digging out my plants and I noticed that he didn't dig any more there,I usually wrap and bin the poo but I thought I would give that a try first.

Great advice Nekhbet.

[wuffles]

Ours dig like crazy no matter what else we have to entertain them, we have just accepted the fact that our yard will look like the Moon

[alpha bet]

Its just dogs being dogs. Certainly dont crate a dog when you are away for a long time at work.

Some dogs like to dig, some like to chew, some pull washing off the line - usually its a phase and they will grow out of it with maturity so the objective is to fill the time or avoid them getting into the bad habit until it works itself out.

I just dump a big pile of river sand in the middle of the back lawn - leave it piled up as the pup will probably love to roll around in it and play king of the castle, pup will dig and jump and run around the pile and gradually spread the sand around the lawn. It is great for the lawn and sand also cleans out the dogs coat. Once the sand pile is depleted if you need to, just get more sand.

To start him off with the digging in the pile you can bury some toys and dog treats.

Your backyard is going to be vulnerable when you have a puppy. Be very careful about putting down any fertiliser as this will encourage your dog to dig more - and remember garden beds are often softer and moist with is very inviting for a digger pup. Also move pot plants to the front yard where the dog doesnt have access, they can go back when dog is older. If you have any part of the garden that is precious you need to fence it off so the pup cannot destroy. Otherwise wait till pup matures and then you can replant.

Edited July 31, 2010 by alpha bet

[laneka]

Sometimes putting poop in their holes does not work. I have a 3 year old Rott and she will dig anything. She is not a dirty girl but her or others poop put in a hole does not stop her.

[k9angel]

crating stops the problem simply because you remove the dog from the garden, it teaches the dog nothing. You cant crate a dog day in day out simply due to that. What a life.

Take some nice fresh stinky poo and put it in the holes, not deep, refill most of the hole then a fine layer of soil on top. A few times of splatting into fresh poo will stop her.

Also get yourself a kids clamshell pool, a few dollars worth of washed sand and let her run riot in there. Bury treats etc and give her an outlet for all that Dally energy!

Yep the good old poop in the hole does the job (for me anyways) its been a while since my 2 youngest were pups but it used to work for them too. Now young Luki has hit the 8 mth old mark, he is a terror and was digging trenches in our once beautiful yard

I filled them in and put the dog cack on top and he hasnt dug since. Now I just have to wait for the grass to grow back. the joys of puppyhood

Oh and if that fails, try sprinkling pepper over the filled in holes and randomly over the grass - that works a treat also.

Good luck

[sas]

Give pup 3 toys per day (1 should be a fun thing to chew) and rotate these toys with different ones each day and that way pup will keep their interest. If you give pup heaps of toys it's like doing the same for a human child....they loose interest in them and ten to pick out a favourite.

I would not give cardboard either - you'll probably end up with a dog that will steal items like books and mail - it's a common mistake many puppy owners make.

Have you considered that puppy finds digging fun and not that the puppy is bored?

I would get a calm shell and fill it with sand or dirt and hide toys in there and actually teach puppy to dig in there.

Put dog poo in the holes that pup has dug and cover with dirt and that should prevent pup from going back to the same place to dig.

[Whippetsmum]

I've got the same problem here.

Ours is 6 months old, and is very busy and gets into everything. I had to fence off the garden a while ago because she was chewing things and making herself sick, she has just started on the lawn this week. Poop in the holes only sends her somewhere else, so we have more holes rather than one big one. I agree it may not be boredom, she has loads of playthings including a 4 year old dog- everything but her own Nintendo! Ours seems motivated by rocks and pebbles, she seems to dig until she finds one she likes and then carries it around, I wish she could find her perfect rock and then keep just that one!

I'm considering unfencing the garden because holes in a garden are safer than in the middle of the lawn where she can catch her foot in when she's running around. I'm off to KMart tomorrow to find a clam shell for mine to dig in, all my pot plants are already in the front yard.

[whiskedaway]

crating stops the problem simply because you remove the dog from the garden, it teaches the dog nothing. You cant crate a dog day in day out simply due to that. What a life.

Take some nice fresh stinky poo and put it in the holes, not deep, refill most of the hole then a fine layer of soil on top. A few times of splatting into fresh poo will stop her.

Also get yourself a kids clamshell pool, a few dollars worth of washed sand and let her run riot in there. Bury treats etc and give her an outlet for all that Dally energy!

We did both of these things. There's sand all the way through our house now, but it's so much easier to clean up than mud. We found that if you bury something stinky in the sand pit, it works the best - we buy pigs ears and cut them into fours (we had to use a grinder to do it, and be careful because they STINK!) and bury a couple of pieces. Akira makes a beeline for the sandpit whenever there's food in there, and even sometimes when there's not. They seem to leave their smell on the sand.

[Dogsthree]

My 10 month old puppy is digging lots of holes too. I have tried the poo in the hole but he just goes elsewhere and digs another. I sprinkle the area with hot pepper but have to admit that I don't do it daily and then it rains and gets washed away. Maybe I will try the pile of sand trick. Someone suggested to me recently that I should bury a tin can in the holes as dogs don't like the feel of the tin.

Maggie

[Dogsthree]

Oops I mean't to send this one.

[koalathebear]

Poop in the hole works for our dog, too - Elbie is very much deterred by his own poop.

We have a section of the yard where Elbie is allowed to dig so he tends to concentrate his efforts there. If they get too deep, my husband fills them up again. I was reading on another thread about how environmentally bad it was that dog owners like us kept plastic bagging our dog poop and throwing it in the bin instead of burying it and told my husband about it. Today, it was his turn for Poo Pickin' and there was a LOT of it given that we hadn't done it in a few days because of the heavy rains in Canberra. He ended up with half a bag and was heading towards the front when he saw a very deep hole Elbie had dug in "Elbie's Corner" - given that Elbie had already done half of the hard work, he tipped the poop in there and covered it up again.

[sandgrubber]

You can also train 'good hole' / 'bad hole' without a clamshell. In some places I've lived there has been a cool shady moist place that really suits the dogs on a summer day, and I've encouraged them to use it as a dig place. For the most part they stick to the chosen spot. One reason dogs dig is to stay cool in summer. Hard to fault a dog for doing that.

[raineth]

If a dog has the urge to dig, I think its generally quite strong.

I think the best thing to do is set aside a space for them to dig. Maybe sand, or mulch. Encourage him to dig there (dig in it yourself and make it fun, they usually get the idea straight away. Then you can also bury things there for them to find, which is a great game and keeps them occupied.

Think of it like housetraining. We don't expect a dog to not eliminate at all - we just teach them that there is a right place to eliminate, so they don't eliminate in the wrong place.

I have done this, and it worked exceptionally well. Also it enabled me to attach a command to it ('Dig') which then meant I could tell him to dig a hole for me to plant plants in

[Whippetsmum]

I just wanted to say, I've been using a citronella based deterrant and sprinkling it on the lawn to encourage digging elsewhere, it seems to be helping along with the other suggestions, eg: the poo in the holes, and the allocated digging area. The deterrant I'm using is "Skedaddle" I got mine from Bunnings. If I find a hole in the lawn, I sprinkle the stuff around the hole. The poo alone wasn't always effective, as a hole sometimes was dug close by. I try and sprinkle the general area too, so that a new hole is less likley.