Stop Your Dog’s Digging Problem

I am going to share a tip I learned about how to prevent your dog’s digging up the yard. I went with my neighbor to run some errands the other day. When we got back, we were unable to drive through the front gate. That’s because his pack of dogs had dug an enormous hole over 5 feet wide and a couple feet down. Because we are living at the beach the digging is pretty easy for the dogs.  This was not the first time my pal’s dogs have done something like this. It was clear time to teach these old dogs new tricks, and stop their digging.

There are various reason that may be causing the dog’s digging behavior.  Perhaps your dog is digging because he wants to escape, or maybe just for something to do, or just trying to dig down to some cooler soil below . I’ve got some good tips on how to prevent dogs from digging up their yard or the garden. In my neighbor’s case the dogs dug right in front of the gate, so it was an obvious attempt to escape.  His dogs are not picky where they dig their holes-probably just randomly digging out of boredom. At other times, his dogs would dig up any areas that were wet from watering to escape the heat of the sand. The need to prevent these dogs from digging up the whole place at my friend’s house was long overdue.

We used a tip from my favorite dog training book to build his dogs a separate play area, where they could hang out and dig to their heart’s content, without messing up the rest of the yard. My friend’s yard is all sand, so it was only necessary to enclose the desired area with fencing to make the acceptable digging area. It’s a good idea to make sure there is some shade above the enclosed area for protection form the summer sun. My friend also treated his dogs to a small wading pool to refresh themselves in as well as some chew toys and some fresh water. He really loves his dogs. Since the dogs only dug up the yard when he was away he has now learned how to prevent the dogs from digging up his yard using a win-win type of solution.

Even if you don’t live at the beach, you can make the same kind of area in your own yard to prevent your dog from digging. Once you’ve picked a suitable area for the enclosure, you can put a sandbox filled with a loose soil and sand mix inside it for your dog’s digging pleasure. Pick an area to enclose that has some shade  (or add some shade cloth) and in addition to putting in a sandbox for digging purposes, be sure to put in his water bowl and some chew toys to keep him busy.

Not only have you stopped your dog from digging up your yard in your absence, you now have given him a fun place to be while you are away. Some dogs will stop digging up the yard once they get used to just digging in their play area, and you might be able to once again let him out in your absence. This probably won’t hold true for the dogs that dig for escape purposes. Once you’ve provided the special area, you’ve prevented your dog from any further digging in your yard.

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