Digging Advice

[zd262]

Tug LOVES to dig. Not to escape near fences, just for fun. Or in particular to get to roots and he then plays tug o war with himself and the embedded root system. Any advice for how to curb this? He's rarely outside unsupervised for very long, but he starts to dig so quickly and quietly I probably wouldn't be successful in never letting it happen unless I only took him out on leash.

[smartrock]

Henry is a digger and he's teaching Joey the fine sport of unearthing tree roots as well. Fortunately there are about 3 places in the yard to which he confines his digging that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Our backyard is not going to be a featured garden in any fancy magazines. Our first lab, Chase, was also a digger but he tended to only dig in a sandbox that had been left behind by the previous owners that we removed after he died. It was just a wooden frame on top of the ground filled with sand. It might have been dug slightly below grade originally. I don't know what attracted him to that spot, but we let him go to it in there. All of them seem to want to dig so that they have a cool spot to wallow in, Henry is a big wallower as was Chasey. I've read that giving them one acceptable digging spot might focus their energies on only one location and teach them to dig there by burying toys or treats for them to dig up initially. Chase liked the sand box, Henry mostly digs in the shady bare spots under some yew bushes. Do you have one spot that could be Tugger's digging spot? https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...make-them-stop

[barry581]

Since I tore my achilles tendon back in the spring by stepping in a hole dug by my son's Vizla, I've become much less tolerant of the digging. Brooks never really was a digger, but he'd pull up large chunks of turf which did not please me at all. Rose would dig in holes already started by the Vizla, and when she left, Rose stopped digging. Sophie was a digger as a puppy. I tried the bitter apple spray which Sophie thought made the dirt taste even better.

I stopped Brooks' shenanigans with a stern "leave it" and either vibration or a nick with the e-collar. Or maybe he just outgrew it. I think like most things, a correction and redirecting is probably the best place to start.

[zd262]

Thank you smartrock and barry!

smartrock - It's true that Tug has a particular place he prefers to dig, which is underneath our raised screen porch. It probably wouldn't be much harm done if we just let him do it but he digs really deep and it does annoy me for some reason.

barry - We have actually tried e-collar nicks and vibrations, even consistently for probably a week+ where we nicked him everytime he dug. It had no lasting impact and he would still try to dig everytime we turned away. Tug is very smart and eager to please while training, but has not really responded to disciplinary attempts (he also counter surfs). His "leave it" isn't quite there yet for calling him off things he loves, but that may be the path to success for him.

[Snowshoe]

Poop in the hole has worked for me. Their own poop. They just find another place to dig and when they get to a place I don't mind I let them go to it. Eddy has a friend who digs and I've re-thought an invitation to her to play in our yard. Eddy has already copied her digging down the trail and I don't want her to dig my yard or teach him to.