Excavation in Progress

C_J · Master

Excavation in Progress

Dave · Enlightened One

our boy Rebel was a menace for digging, I say was cos he's stopped recently, not sure why, I think he took one look at the 12 x 12 and 8 foot deep hole dug in our garden to accomodate a new septic tank and realised he couldney do any better than that if he tried the rest of his life..

Seriously without resorting to such measures the best thing to try to do is make the garden as exciting as possible, put lots of hard wearing toys around and encourage him to play with them rather than digging holes, remember though digging is quite a natural thing in dogs..

Jade · Graduate

Somebody with terriers once told me that it can be useful to give your dog a place where he can be allowed to dig for example a sand pit box filled with earth which can have toys and or treats buried for them to find. You need to vary the treats or toys to keep it interesting. If you can teach him to dig in the one places it lets the dog fullfill a natural urge while preserving your garden. My dogs all love to play a digging running game where they dig furiously then gallop round the garden and or park looking very goofy!

Dawn · Guru

My little one loves to dig, unfortunately, its the bit that was normally covered in garden chips, which are now spread all over the place! This is where she goes to hide all the 'toys'......even if they dont belong to her!!

I tried to fill in the hole many a time, but everytime I checked, she had started digging it back up. Hell mend any of my other dogs who try and retrieve any of the 'toys' from it, (treasured bits of cardboard!!). So, I guess you can say I have given up now, and I just let her hide all the 'toys' away. At the end of the day, I have a happy wee girl, for the price of brushing the stones back in once every few days....cheap at the price!!

Dawn, Mac, Presley, Denzel and the little one x

emma · Guru

Tig sometimes 'digs' when I go to bed, it doesn't do too much damage to the carpet but I wonder why.It sure is noisey though, but once I have come down and said stop it he packs in for the night. I have come to the conclusion it is attention seeking behaviour, like Chad woofing, I never get a proper early night anymore. I don't know about outside though, I would be more upset because I take great pride in my garden! Hope it stops soon.

Em X

C_J · Master

Phew! He looks psychotic when he is digging and it's quite a relief to hear that its quite natural.

I like the idea of giving him a place in my garden where he's allowed to dig, when I start the landscaping next spring I think I will give him a wee area to dig and find things.

I have thought about making things a bit more mentally challenging for him as I think he probably does need more than he is getting at the moment. We play football in the field once a day but apart from that its just walks, sleeping, eating and cuddles.

We played "find it" yesterday with one of his toys and he really loved it. Has anyone else got any good games they could recommend? He loves playing football but once a day seems to be enough for him and he gets bored quickly of me throwing a tennis ball and always goes to digging after a few minutes. I don't think I can afford agilty equipment - what other things could I do?

Sorry for being such an amateur!

Missy · Master

There is one alterative to having your garden dug up ......

Concrete !!!!

but nodoubt the wee beggars would put paw prints in the cement !!!

JanW · Master

C_J wrote:

I don't think I can afford agilty equipment - what other things could I do?

We have Kong's for the dogs and put biscuits in them - keeps them busy for a bit - Ruby can get the biscuit's out no matter how hard they are jammed in - she even threw it down the stairs to get them out.

Also Ruby has about 6 toys which she hides around the house. She sometimes forgets where they are and is delighted to unexpectedly "find" them.

They also like to go for walks in different and new places, especially if it involves meeting lots of dogs as we don't meen many locally.