How To Stop Dogs Digging

When looking at ways to stop dogs digging, it is useful to try and establish why he may be doing it in the first place.

Dogs will dig for a whole range of reasons.

They may be digging to satisfy a deep instinctive urge to bury food which they can then save for another time. They may be doing it as a way of regulating their temperature. Dogs often dig away the warm topsoil so that they can lie in the cooler earth underneath when they are feeling hot. They may be digging for food, such as rodents or dead birds. It could be that they are trying to dig their way out the garden to explore what is on the other side of the boundary fence.

Or, they may just be doing it for the sheer fun of it!

Either way, it can be a very annoying, destructive and expensive habit, and can also have safety implications if a poorly socialised dog manages to escape by digging his way out under the garden fence.

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The good news is that there are many ways to stop dogs digging – we just need to establish the dogs’ motivation to dig in the first place.

If you dog is motivated to carry out this destructive behaviour out of boredom, it is a good idea to make sure that he gets plenty of exercise, combined with regular obedience training tasks throughout the day. The idea here is to provide more acceptable alternative forms of mental and physical activity as a way to stop your dogs digging habit. Some vigorous activity such as repetitive ‘fetching and returning’ of a ball in the park can be a great way of using up his excess energy, which may otherwise have been channelled into digging in the garden. The more energy you can get your dog to expend on his daily walks, the more calm and placid he will be when back at home, and the better your chances of managing to stop your dogs digging habit ruining your garden.

Another good way to stop dogs digging behaviour is to give him a ”Kong” chew toy which has been filled with dry dog food. This will keep your dogs mind occupied for long periods as he tries to work out how to get at the food inside. A good trick is to plug the hole with cheese after you have filled it to make it harder to access the dry food.

Rawhide bones and chew toys can be a good means of keeping your dogs attention away from digging the lawn up, but they can also trigger your dogs instinct to bury food. For this reason, if you do choose to give your dog a food chew, make sure that there are no remains left at the end so that he is not tempted to dig a hole to hide them in.

For more useful tips on how to stop dog digging with aversion methods, see
How to stop dogs from digging using aversion techniques (page 2).

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