Dogs enjoy digging. Turn over some soft dirt in your yard to begin a garden or plant a rosebush and the digging never seems to stop. It can be frustrating to deal with a dog that digs. He can can ruin your well-manicured yard and turn it into a sloppy mess. He can make a mess out of your well-tended garden. And even though he seems to be enjoying himself he can make your life difficult and miserable with his digging behavior.
Dogs dig naturally. In fact some breeds are actually bred to dig out prey and they are bred for it. This of course, makes it all the more challenging to control but in order to have the beautiful yard that you want you must do your best to contain the nasty behavior of digging.
Digging can be good for your dog. It is important for him to dig around and engage his curiosity, however, it is important for you to have a decent yard also. You must both be able to find a happy medium in regards to his digging. That may well mean that you want to stop the behavior completely and that is okay.
Dogs dig excessively for many reasons. Your dog may be bored and wanting some fun. He may be lonely and be having separation anxiety. He may want to make an escape route to get out of the yard! Or it may even be as minor as a temperature issue, as he is too hot and wants to cool off or even too cold and needs to warm up.
There are ways to stop your dog from digging. First off, make sure that you have plenty of interaction time and that your dog is getting enough playtime and exercise. This can prevent boredom. You can also make sure that he has plenty of stimulating dog toys to play with. If you give your dogs bones to gnaw on they will usually try to bury them so replace bones with chew toys or rawhide bones.
You can also try clicker training to prevent digging. Anytime you see your dog in the act of digging use the clicker and a command that tells him “no”. Reward him when he stops digging. You will need to be persistent but clicker training can work.
You can also try to fill up his holes with undesirable things. You can fill the hole that he has been playing in up with garden mulch, sticks, pine needles and so forth. When he comes back he will dig and find the undesirable things in his hole and he will stop digging. You can also bury a balloon that will pop in his face as he digs. This will not hurt him but it will scare him and he may stop the digging. Some trainers also recommend putting dog poop into the holes as the dog will no longer want to play after he finds his own poop!
You can try to designate a spot in your yard just for his digging. This will take the most time and patience but it may be the best answer if your dog is just a natural digger. You can reduce your dogs digging tendencies with some time and patience but be gentle because he is just being a dog.
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