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DIGGING!


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Gracie is 16 weeks old and a exert ditch digger! I would love to encourage her to find a new "job". if she is left alone for any time in the yard, she thinks it is time to dig up those pesky ROSES making her my wife's favorite dog :mad: .

what have you all done to combat this excavating tendencies

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With Tess, I distract her -- but I'm always there to do that.

 

Maybe you could make a spot just for her to dig in? like a box wading pool or something? Then if you have to leave her there unattended, you could hide a bunch of bones and toys in there and she would have more fun digging where you want her to dig (all those rewards for good behavior to be found!) rather than other places.

 

Allie & Tess

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Oh. Well, I don't have any advice for that. Dogs dig and chew. It's fun for them. :rolleyes: It's what dogs do. :D

 

Can you fence off the roses and/or sensitive parts of the yard/garden? If she can't get over there, she can't dig them up... she will probably just dig other things. I bet the dirt by the roses is very soft and dog-friendly. :D

 

Why are you leaving her in the yard? Can she be left in a crate in the house instead? She can't dig a hole in your yard if she's in a crate inside.

 

If you can't fence off, and she can't be left in a crate, and if this is some kind of all-day thing for being outside, you might look into a dog sitter or a doggie daycare. Without more information about the situation, it is hard to make appropriate suggestions. (:

 

Allie & Tess

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At 16 weeks she's a puppy and if left alone, they find things to entertain themsevles like chewing, digging, barking, etc.

Allie has made a great suggestion with crating the pup. Make sure you give her things to do in the crate like stuffed Kongs, raw bones, and such. If you can't crate I'd suggest an older dog to keep her entertained. Not a young dog that might take up digging with your dog, but a mature dog that can hang out in the yard with her.

Also, make sure you're working her mind and body each day so she isn't as bored when she's left alone during the day.

Hope some of this helps. There are ways to stop a dog from digging, but it's really more important (IMO) to fix the reason they are digging. If not, the dog will simply pick up another undesired behavior.

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we are trying to keep her mind and body busy with kongs, balls, squeeky toys, rope toys, bones, frozen clean rags, and stuffed animals. as well as a 3 year old german shepard/ blue healer mix (who is a excelnt dog, no bad habits). they play alot. we crate her all night and at times when she is over excited, and when we antisipate thAt it is close to time to go potty. we also feed her in her crate.

i think we will try fencing the roses off. any other ideas will be considered

thanks all

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Let me preface this with ?this works for most dogs?. There are some dogs that just like stinky stuff. That being said. When you fill in the holes that she has dug, or even make some new ones in the area that she is attracted to. Place fresh poop in the hole, then cover again with dirt. Don?t pack the dirt down just loosely cover to ground level. When she goes back there and starts digging she hits a very unpleasant surprise. The only problem that I have seen with this method is that some dogs are very motivated and will go find a new ?favorite? spot. But I have found that if you just keep this method up they do seem to give up.

 

Hope this helps!

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