How can we prevent our dog digging holes in the garden?

Teaandcoffee

Hi all,

Our dog has been digging holes in the garden. We are worried she maybe bored but don't think this is the case as we both work from home and are with her 24/7. She goes out for two walks a day.

Would be greatful for any tips please.

ISDW

What sort of dog is it? Some breeds have a higher tendency to do this, no matter how stimulated and well exercised they are:)

Teaandcoffee

Hi ISDW,

She is a Bishon X Breed. We rescued her as a pup and she dug holes from day one but it has actually gotten worse. We have nearly broken our necks a few times walking in the back garden!

Vince32

Use distraction, put it's favourite chewy toy out with it, and it will do chew that rather than dig.

OR

Put a sprinkler in the garden next to the hole, and turn it on every time it digs, this will be a negative to digging and it won't be as likely to find it fun.

Some people say bury a balloon and when the dog digs it, it will pop and startle the dog, I can't say I would do that though, if the dog decided it wanted to eat the rubber from the balloon it would spell trouble for both of you.

If you catch it in the act, just take it away from the site, keep doing this until it loses interest and understands that this is "your hole" and it's not allowed to go near it.

I'm sure other posters will have idea or two to offer.

ISDW

Maybe try to redirect her digging. Buy a sandpit and bury some of her favourite toys in there, she may decide to play in that, sand is easier to dig in.

Or maybe feed her using a kong or similar, so that it takes her a while to eat, and helps to wear her out.

Is she left outside on her own much, to give her the opportunity to dig?

Teaandcoffee

Thanks for the tips Vince32.

No she's not really out on her own much, just when she wants to go to the toilet. Sometimes she will trick us and pretend she needs to go for a pee but it will be an excuse to dig a hole!

When we catch her in the act we will go to pick her up but she is so fast most of the time we can't catch her. She thinks this is great fun.

DBB

Teaandcoffee wrote: »

Thanks for the tips Vince32.

No she's not really out on her own much, just when she wants to go to the toilet. Sometimes she will trick us and pretend she needs to go for a pee but it will be an excuse to dig a hole!

When we catch her in the act we will go to pick her up but she is so fast most of the time we can't catch her. She thinks this is great fun.

Oooh! I can see a problem here! She may very well have learned that digging = game of chasing! So, whilst she may have done a bit of digging in the early days, the games of chasing may well have reinforced it, making her do it more!
You could either interrupt her and distract her with a fab toy or a game, but with something like digging, you'd need to interrupt it every time she does it, for the next few weeks at least.
Or, ISDW's suggestion of providing her with an appropriate place to dig is a commonly used approach: you could perhaps buy her a little sandpit, and bury nyommy treats in it. You'll need to supervise for the first while to keep redirecting her to the "dig zone", til she learns that this place is much more rewarding than digging elsewhere.
It's great she has your company so much of the time!

LucyBliss

I have a digger named Meg! She's a terrier cross and she has big paws. They're just right for digging, to be honest, so I'm not surprised she does it. But at one point, there were so many holes in the garden that you'd think she was laying traps! I half expected to step into one and find myself in a pit or something. And she was very sneaky about it too, bless her cotton socks.

What we did to save our lawn, and to save the ankles of anyone who happened to walk into our garden, was to give her a patch to dig. We had a piece of clay at the end of a flower bed that had been left untouched and when we added a bit more to it, to make it palatable to her, she went straight for it. And do you know, after about a month, she stopped digging. Seriously. She goes for it every now and then, but it's not the continuous thing it used to be.
Actually now, she does all the hard work digging an actual hole, and then Jack comes over, shoves her out of the way, throws a bit of clay around with his paws and looks around as if to say "Damn but I work hard!" :rolleyes:

TG1

I want to second (or maybe fourth?!) the advice given about distraction.
My dog suddenly started digging holes at about 18 months old, even though he was being regularly walked and played with, and he was a demon! If you took your eye off him for more than a second he'd have a crater dug in the middle of the grass.
The only way we stopped him was to make sure he was fully supervised any time he was out in the garden, and if he started to dig someone would start throwing a tennis ball... he stopped digging after about two months, and hasn't dug a hole since. He's now nearly ten so I think its safe to say it worked.
This has resulted in no one being able to sit in our garden without getting a slobbery tennis ball in their lap for the last eight years, but it's better then someone breaking their neck in a crater!

Cedrus

My dachshund digs small holes and eats the earth, I'm lucky really because they have a reputation as tunnelers. I sprinkle a little pepper on the hole and he gives up on that hole, sometimes he starts a new one but more often he doesn't bother.

Cú Giobach

If a dog keeps going back to a particular hole bury a little dog poop in it, this works really well. If you do it a few times the dog will associate this nasty stuff with hole digging and tend to be less inclined to it.